November 30, 2003
White Sox adding columns to upper deck
More news on the $41 million renovation the Chicago White Sox are undertaking at U.S. Cellular Field (aka New Comiskey Park), and it's a doozy: In addition to stripping off the top eight rows of the much-derided upper deck (losing 6,600 seats in the process), the Sox are adding a roof supported by steel columns - which will give about 300 of the remaining upper-deck seats obstructed views of the field.
Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin, in an excellent analysis of the changes, notes that while the reduced upper deck and enclosing roof should give the stadium a more intimate feel, "None of this will change the fundamental shape (and thus, the fundamental problem) of U.S. Cellular - a seating bowl that steps outward as it rises, placing upper-deck fans far from the action." A stepped seating bowl that was made necessary, ironically enough, by the Sox' owners original insistence that the stadium be free of view-obstructing columns.
November 29, 2003
Announcement of Jets announcement rumors still rumored
The New York Times is reporting that the New York Jets are moving closer to announcing a "nonbinding agreement" with the city and state of New York to build a football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, with the Jets paying $800 million, and the public paying $300-400 million. (A "nonbinding agreement," it appears, means that if the damn thing ever gets built, this is how the costs will be divided - unless it isn't.)
Still left uncertain in the announcement of the rumored announcement: Who would pay for any cost overruns, who would pay for modifications to ready the stadium for the 2012 Summer Olympics (which could include temporarily extending the stadium over a highway), who would get revenue from non-football events at the stadium (if it's used as extra exhibition space for the state-run Javits Convention Center as planned, would the state have to pay rent to the Jets?), whether the Knicks and Rangers would relocate there from Madison Square Garden (as proposed in this illustration showing the world's largest basketball court), and - oh, yeah - where the city will find another $4 billion to fund the rest of the Hudson Yards development project, including a $1.6 billion (or so) subway extension to get people to the stadium.
"This is an incredibly complicated jigsaw puzzle," Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff told the Times. "We want to make sure that we have all the right pieces in all the right places." Hint: If you find a piece with $4 billion in it, use it to plug that hole in your budget.
November 26, 2003
So much for the ceasefire in the San Diego Chargers stadium talks: the team has filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court to get out of their lease on Qualcomm Stadium, saying they've met a "trigger clause" in the lease that allows the team to leave if its payroll is high enough. Getting out of the lease (which was extended until 2020 in exchange for $78 million in taxpayer renovations to Qualcomm in 1995) would allow the team to relocate, perhaps to Los Angeles, or to use the threat of moving to extract a new stadium out of their current home.
For those of you who were being kept up nights by the anticipation, be advised: the Oakland A's are not actually negotiating with retail developers Catellus to build a new stadium in the East Bay city of Fremont. A message sent to new A's stadium guru Lewis Wolff seeking a meeting was due to a "misplaced call by an administrative assistant," insisted Catellus VP Dan Marcus. Fremont mayor Gus Morrison sounded equally unenthused about the notion of hosting the A's, noting that the rumored site is accessible from only a single exit off I-880: "Gee whiz, if you're going to have a full house [in a ballpark], you'll have 25,000 cars dumping out onto one freeway access."
November 25, 2003
As the Milwaukee Brewers prepare to trade their few remaining stars to bail out their ailing finances, OnMilwaukee.com's Steve Czaban writes that Miller Park is to Milwaukee as the monorail was to Springfield. And if you're a Simpsons fan, you know who that makes Bud Selig.
November 24, 2003
Marlins finances probed, sort of
The Miami Herald, in a report characterized by Doug Pappas as "somewhat credulous," has used the Florida Marlins' own figures to determine that the team lost somewhat less than the $20 million they claim, and a new stadium would help, but not all that much. The Herald was hindered by the fact that the Marlins refuse to open their books, a stance defended by team president David Samson, who insisted: "Many private companies ask for public help - in tax abatements, incentives to move firms to new areas and other kinds of government help. And you don't see those companies releasing their figures." And we know how well that's worked out.
Brewers: We're stupid, not deceitful
Amid revelations that the Milwaukee Brewers' honeymoon period at taxpayer-built Miller Park lasted all of one season, and allegations that fans were defrauded out of their tax money by hollow promises of a winning team, team CFO Robert Quinn defended the team's actions this weekend: "When I hear the comments that fans feel they were lied to and betrayed, there's a difference between lying, and trying and not working. The plan just didn't work." Well, okay - so long as it was an honest mistake.
Convention center board opposes Manhattan stadium
Annoyed that their long-planned expansion is being delayed as Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff searches for $5 billion under his sofa cushions, the board of New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center voted last week to oppose an environmental impact statement for the city's Hudson Yards stadium-plus-development scheme. While it hardly puts the kibosh on Doctoroff's dreams of a stadium for the New York Jets and the 2012 Olympics, it certainly doesn't help - and raises questions as to how much support the plan has from Gov. Pataki, who controls the Javits board.
November 19, 2003
Cards say financing due by Dec 18
After missing their previously announced October 15 groundbreaking date, St. Louis Cardinals execs now say they'll have their $235 million in private financing in place by December 18, with construction to begin by the end of the year. We're not saying anything.
Stadium critics kept off MN stadium committee
"This isn't should we or shouldn't we?" said Minnesota Finance Commissioner Dan McElroy, in announcing the formation of an 18-member Stadium Screening Committee with 18 members in favor of building stadiums. "The question is: If we do, what would it look like? . . . There will be lots of legislative hearings in which people will have the option to say, 'We shouldn't do this.'" At least three critics of public stadium funds were among the 186 applicants, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune; all were rejected.
November 18, 2003
Cardinals get another $45M in tax money
The St. Louis County Council is preparing to authorize a $45 million bond issue for the St. Louis Cardinals to help fund their new stadium plans. (Though described as a "loan," the bonds will be repaid by county hotel/motel tax money, and so is really a grant.) Still no word on when the Cardinals will line up their $235 million in private investors, though Missouri Development Finance Board director Robert Miserez said, "The Cardinals have given us pretty strong assurances that they are almost complete, just little nicks and picks on the private side of the deal."
November 17, 2003
Baseball stadium drought looms
Unless things change in a hurry, once the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies open their new stadiums next April, it will mark the first time in 18 years that no new MLB ballparks will be under construction. It could be a momentary lull, or it could be a sign that the slumping economy and a wised-up public are bringing the stadium boom to an end, says an oddly familiar byline over at BaseballProspectus.com.
November 15, 2003
Mills to SF: No mall, no stadium
In one of the more creative threats in recent memory, the Mills Corporation is saying it will pull the plug on a planned stadium project for the San Francisco 49ers - first proposed way back in 1997, and essentially comatose in recent years - unless the city lets it retain exclusive negotiating rights for a separate waterfront mall development. "It's pretty clear that if this goes down the way it seems like it's going down, I'm sure Mills will reconsider its position on the Candlestick project," said a company spokesman. "It's hard to imagine that after spending 3 years and $10 million on this project, they'd want to go forward on another." The camel's nose was not available for comment.
The four football teams pitching new stadiums - the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, and San Diego Chargers - could be fighting for a a dwindling pool of NFL funding, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The league's "G-3" program, adopted in 1999 to help prevent the hemorrhage of clubs to smaller markets (and to help G-3 creator Robert Kraft get stadium money for his New England Patriots), lets teams keep luxury box revenues normally shared with visiting teams and use them to pay off stadium construction costs. However, reports the Star Trib, recent changes to the G-3 program have left it with only $150 million remaining, a figure that either the Jets or Cowboys could easily drain on their own. This could get very interesting...
November 14, 2003
The Oakland A's have hired real-estate developer Lewis Wolff to act as their VP for venue development, offering Wolff an ownership share in the team if he can jump-start the club's long-dormant stadium demands. Preumably Wolff will prove more media-savvy than current co-owner Steve Schott, who made this curious argument to the Oakland Tribune: "It's very frustrating to have to go through this every year and not have a realistic chance of signing guys like [Jason] Giambi and [Miguel] Tejada. I don't think I have to make my case anymore. It's pretty clear why I can't. I look at other teams rolling back their payrolls and they have new stadiums."
One negotiating disadvantage for Wolff, as it has been for Schott, is that the A's have virtually no other options for relocation in Northern California that would be willing to cough up money for a new stadium. Still, we're sure they're going to keep on looking.
Business Week announces Jets to announce plan to announce new stadium
Business Week is reporting that the New York Jets are "expected to announce in the next two months" a plan to move to a $1 billion stadium on the West Side on Manhattan, with taxpayers picking up "a still-undetermined bill for infrastructure, including transportation upgrades." This seems like old news to us - and we thought the bill had been pretty well determined at $5 billion - which, by the way, NYC Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff appears no closer to working out a financing plan for - but hey, who are we to get in the way of a good headline?
Marlins dangle Lowell as stadium bait
The Florida Marlins are reportedly offering star third baseman Mike Lowell an unusual contract under which Lowell would be bound to the team for four years if a new stadium is built, but become a free agent after one year if the stadium deal falls through. "It's a wonderful PR move," one unnamed baseball insider told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "The Marlins would be saying, 'Here's Mike Lowell. We're giving him a four-year deal, but only if we get a stadium. If you want Mike Lowell, you've got to give us a stadium. We're the good guys.'"
November 12, 2003
St. Louis stadium still seeking simoleons
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has finally got around to noticing that the Cardinals' October 15 groundbreaking date came and went with no ground being broken for their planned new stadium. The team is still short $230 million in private financing for the project ($52 million in investments and $183 million in loans), and isn't saying where it'll come from. "We're in a very technical part of the financing. There's really not a lot that can be discussed publicly," team prez Mark Lamping explained, if you can call that explaining.
Lamping did say that financing must be finalized by March 31 to keep to the stadium's projected April 2006 opening day. Missouri legislators, mark your March calendars...
November 04, 2003
Developer Bruce Ratner's proposed Brooklyn arena for the New Jersey Nets could cost taxpayers as much as $1 billion, according to... well, me.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty held a press conference today to announce... well, we're not exactly sure why he held it, except to say that he sure thinks new stadiums for the Twins and Vikings would be mighty keen, so long as the state doesn't have to pay for them. And that he'd like the good people of Minnesota to tell him how to manage this feat. By January 15. (FoS News has been unable to confirm reports that Pawlenty also asked the state legislature for a pony.)
Miami county approves stadium subsidy
The Miami-Dade County Commission voted today to approve using $73 million in tourist tax money toward a new stadium for the Florida Marlins, so long as the project is finalized by March 15. Now all the Marlins need to do is find $115 million, get the city of Miami to donate the land, find someone to build a retractable-roofed stadium for $325 million, yadda yadda.
