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January 13, 2006
Spanning the globe
A squillion little news items today, so let's make it a Bullet-Point Friday:
- Washington, D.C. is considering hiring an outside consultant to renegotiate its Nationals stadium deal from scratch. Also under consideration: Letting MLB take control of stadium construction, if that will help put a lid on the city's costs. Councilmember Jack Evans has backed off from his apocalyptic statements of two days ago, and now says if the city's costs are capped the stadium lease might pass the council, but his colleague Phil Mendelson says that won't be easy: "Our negotiators have to do some heavy lifting to have someone else cover the cost overruns."
- The Jackson County legislature has scheduled two public hearings on plans for a 0.375% sales-tax hike to fund renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals stadiums. The first will be at 11 am next Tuesday in the second floor chambers at the Jackson County Courthouse; the second on Jan. 23 in the county's Independence courthouse. Meanwhile, two Missouri legislators have introduced a bill to block Gov. Matt Blunt from giving $50 million in tax credits to the two teams without legislative approval.
- Amid the finger-pointing over the apparent collapse of the San Diego Chargers land-for-stadium swap, here's one new theory of where to put the blame: the sagging condo market. Chargers exec Mark Fabiani told Voice of San Diego writer Scott Lewis that one group of prospective development partners said, "This project is interesting but you're assuming that the housing market is going to remain really strong and we don't necessarily share your view of the housing market in San Diego." Adds Lewis: "If stadiums, by themselves, were a profitable thing to do - rather than just a benefit to the culture of the community - we wouldn't even need discussions like this. People would just build them using their own capital. The Chargers thought they could get some land from the city and then the magic of the Southern California housing boom would do the rest. At least some of their potential development partners said that was a faulty assumption."
- Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is going ahead with groundbreaking for a new Toronto soccer stadium, despite the fact that the federal government hasn't given final approval of $27 million in public funding. "We are somewhat at risk right now because we are proceeding without final approval -- we believe in this project so much," said MLSE exec Bob Hunter. "The contract has been awarded to build the stadium, there is a design team on site and they will start excavation next week." So trusting, those Canadians.
- Charlotte Observer headline: "Will baseball stadium be magnet for growth?" You can pre-order my answer here.
For your information, the Toronto soccer stadium is being built for an amateur competition, the World Under 20 2007 Soccer Championships. In Canada, the government gives monies for amateur facilities all the time to help promote physical activity, sports and recreation to create a healthier Canadian youth. What is happening here is that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment along with the city is putting into this project millions more to ensure that the stadium can be used afterwards for an MLS team and help generate funds for the city to recoup what they are putting into it. If this didn't happen, we would have a stadium that wouldn't be able to generate enough funds to recoup any money the federal and provincial governments are putting into it for the amateur championships and thus it would likely become a true white elephant. To me, the extra funds the city government and MLSE is putting into this is money well spent.
So sorry people, no field of schemes as you are suggesting here in Toronto on this one.
So defensive, those Canadians.
Posted by Neil on January 17, 2006 03:33 PM
Yes, we can be but this really isn't a Canadian vs American thing, this discussion about this stadium has gone on here, among Canadians, for a while. I will add there are other Canadians who see the soccer stadium as a field of schemes like this site, but, in my opinion, their logic is flawed as I believe this site is as well.
Posted by Mike F on January 18, 2006 08:20 AM
My apologies to Canada - maybe it's just soccer fans who are defensive. In any case, I've actually been cautiously optimistic about the Toronto soccer stadium working out as a good deal for the public (see: http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2005/10/shiver_me_timbe.html), at least compared to other stadiums, so I'm not sure what "flawed logic" you're talking about.
Posted by Neil on January 18, 2006 11:28 AM
Toronto had Exhibition Stadium eight years ago and chose to demolish it a year later and now they are building a soccer stadium at the same site. Doesn't make any sense to me.
Posted by Daniel on January 18, 2006 06:32 PM
I believe the city of Toronto made a big mistake tearing down Exhibition Stadium but I guess they thought that the Skydome, now Rogers Centre, was going to be all things to all people and this has turned out not to be the case. It is a concrete bowl that has little atmosphere and the sighlines are horrible, better for football though than baseball, a terrible baseball stadium. I don't think the Blue Jays will be able to last in that stadium, I actually fell asleep at a Blue Jays game many years ago, I thought I was in a tomb.
Posted by Mike F on January 19, 2006 08:24 AM
It will actually be interesting to see what happens with those federal funds if the election on Monday doesn't return a lot of Toronto MPs to the new government.
Posted by Tyler on January 19, 2006 12:46 PM
From what I've heard as below in the Globe, the Conservatives, if elected, will honour the Liberals agreement for the funds for this stadium as this would be unfair to the Canadian Soccer Association and the U-20 World Youth Soccer Championships for 2007. It would be a bad mark agains't Canada if this were to fall through for these amateur championships.
From the Globe and Mail, January 12:
"Conservative finance critic Monte Solberg told The Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau yesterday that if his party forms the next government, it will honour all federal infrastructure program commitments, which would include the Toronto stadium."
Posted by Mike F on January 19, 2006 04:35 PM
From the Globe & Mail, Jan. 12:
"Conservative finance critic Monte Solberg told The Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau yesterday that if his party forms the next government, it will honour all federal infrastructure program commitments, which would include the Toronto stadium."
Posted by Mike F on January 19, 2006 04:40 PM
Oh, OK, thanks for the info.
Posted by Tyler on January 19, 2006 07:11 PM
No prob. Sorry for posting twice, didn't think the first post got posted, didn't wait long enough.
Posted by Mike F on January 20, 2006 11:57 AM