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February 03, 2007
NFL stadium fund is out of funds
Talk about burying the lede: The San Francisco Chronicle reports that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell revealed in his "state of the league" address that the league's "G-3" stadium loan fund has run dry, and there's no immediate solution for replenishing it. You have to read all the way down to the last sentence to get to the punchline:
That means the 49ers, the Cowboys and the Vikings, three teams in the process of planning stadium proposals, might have their projects delayed until a new funding program is in place, unless they find another way to come up with a billion dollars.
Now, the crisis is a bit less dire than it sounds: G-3 loans are "repaid" by siphoning off club-seat revenue that normally goes to visiting teams, and that source of money is still available - what's needed is a new pool of capital to actually loan out the cash. Goodell insisted, "We have always had a league-wide stadium funding mechanism. I anticipate we will. But this has to be considered within the context of our labor agreement and revenue sharing with the Players Association."
And that, says Chronicle columnist Ray Ratto, could be the catch:
Revenue sharing is an inter-owner fight which has been going on for years, with the small-market teams wanting more of the money the big-market teams currently make on luxury boxes and local media income. The labor situation, though, is likely to drag out until 2010, when the current contract expires, although the players union is considering voiding the agreement after 2008 in a fight over the salary cap.
In short: The 49ers, Cowboys, Vikings, Redskins, and any other NFL teams thinking about new digs just had a $150 million hole blown in their budgets. (Three hundred million, if you believe the talk about the Niners and Oakland Raiders pooling their resources on a shared stadium.) Needless to say, it will be very interesting to see how those teams respond to this news - and whether they now attempt to pass more of their costs off on the public.
The Cowboys' new stadium is under construction, I
believe. Will this loans issue stop construction
for a while? Some people want the Washington team
to move back to the District (on the current site
of RFK Stadium), but they have a lease through the
2026 season at Fedex Field. Of course, leases have been broken before. Yet, as Fedex Field now
seats over 90,000 people, it is not very easy to
see that team leaving this venue any time soon.
I spent a little bit of time trying to research where the Cowboys' stadium funding stands, but couldn't find anything definitive.
As for the Redskins, as was reported here recently, they've at least had talks with D.C. about a new stadium on the RFK site. And the team itself owns FedEx Field, so they wouldn't have any trouble breaking their lease there.
Posted by Neil deMause on February 4, 2007 06:08 PM
I thought the Cowboys were only getting $76 million or so in G-3 cash... would that really delay the project even if all $76 million disappears? Doesn't seem likely on a $1 billion project.
I always thought the original intention of the G-3 was to prevent teams like the Oilers, Rams or Cleveland Browns from relocating from their original markets by closing a small "funding" gap. Although now it seems like the sharks smelt the blood and now all 32 owners want some of that pie.
Posted by Jonathan on February 5, 2007 02:24 PM
What will happen to FedEx Field if the Redskins get a new stadium built at RFK site? Would FedEx Field be used for Redskins exhibition games only? And/or will it sit empty for years?
Posted by Daniel F. on February 5, 2007 05:46 PM
Because the Redskins own the stadium and the land, Fed-Ex field would probably be turned into another mall.... because this land mass doesn't need any more malls......
Posted by Bertell Ollman on February 5, 2007 06:11 PM