November 19, 2006

Weekend update: Vikes plot to play off cities, and other stories

For some reason last week was a busy one in the stadium and arena world - trying to beat the Thanksgiving rush? Some of the items that evaded the FoS purse seine news net:

• Minneapolis' Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission has hired a consultant to explore building a retractable-roofed stadium for the Vikings on the site of the Metrodome. While Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is so far noncommittal, the St. Paul Pioneer Press notes that "the team is happy to let Minneapolis and Anoka County compete" to build him a new $800 million stadium. Of course they are.
• NBA commissioner David Stern has announced he's taking over the campaign for a new Sacramento Kings arena. "Although I have a full-time job, it dawned on me that there's really nothing more important than this," Stern told the Sacramento Bee. So far, the commissioner has phoned California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and booked flights to Sacramento in December "for a series of as-yet unscheduled meetings," according to the Bee. Next up: Stern flips through Christmas catalogs from arena construction companies!
• Sports Illustrated columnist Jonah Freedman lauds the owners of the New York Yankees, New York Mets, and Oakland A's for planning stadiums plans to build new stadiums for the Yankees, Mets and A's, respectively, and these new projects that will be "financed with a majority of funding from private sources" - ignoring the fact that the Mets and Yanks will be getting so much in hidden public subsidies that they could end up paying less for their "privately financed" stadiums than taxpayers, and that A's owner Lew Wolff has hinted that he'll seek major tax breaks as well. Sports owners have no better friends than journalists who don't read the fine print.
• Though they've lined up a prospective owner for an NHL franchise (William "Boots" Del Biaggio III, who had previously sought to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins), officials of Anschutz Entertainment Group now say it's "highly unlikely" that they'll have an anchor tenant lined up for Kansas City's Sprint Center by the time it opens next fall. Told you so!
• There was much activity on the Brooklyn Nets arena front, with the final environmental impact statement being issued and rumors flying about whether state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, who killed the Manhattan Jets stadium, will delay or force changes to the Nets plan as well. For more details than anyone could possibly need, including plans for a lawsuit challenging the results of the FEIS, see Norman Oder's comprehensive Atlantic Yards Report blog.