Field of Schemes
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July 09, 2004

Making use of old stadiums

One of the lesser-appreciated problems of the stadium game is what to do with your old one once the new one opens its doors. In Detroit, where the Tigers got a new taxpayer-subsidized home in 2000 after more than a decade of bitter public battles, the Detroit Free Press reports that the city is paying the team $500,000 a year to maintain the privately owned stadium. "Sooner or later, we'll have to make a decision," city development director Henry Hagood told the Detroit Free Press. "We are doing everything we can to try to attract something credible to that site." Critics note that the city might be doing better if it considered such proposals as locating a minor-league baseball team in Tiger Stadium, not to mention stopped paying Tigers owner Mike Ilitch for such items as extra telephone lines and unused elevators.

In Houston, meanwhile, the Rockets' old Summit (it had a corporate name at one point, but who cares anymore?), replaced last year by a publicly funded $235 million arena, has been leased by the county for $12.3 million over 30 years to Lakewood Church, which will reopen it next spring as the nation's largest house of worship. (The L.A. Lakers' former home, the Forum, is also now serving duty as the Faithful Central Bible Church.) "You have to change with the times," Lakewood pastor Joel Osteen told the L.A. Times. "If Jesus were here he'd change with the times. He couldn't ride around on a donkey. He'd drive a car." Yeah, but what kind of car?

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