March 31, 2007
Veni, vidi, dominari
And I'm back from D.C., none the worse for wear. Thanks to several breaks for committee members to go and vote and do other Congressy stuff, the U.S. House subcommittee hearings on stadium funding turned into a daylong affair, with community activists Joyce Hogi of New York and Frank Rashid of Detroit, Seattle city council president Nick Licata, economists Brad Humphreys, Dennis Zimmerman, and Heywood Sanders, and others all testifying on the value (or not) of spending public money on sports facilities. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, my "skeptical views dominated the hearing," and who am I to argue with that?
Video of the entire hearing is archived on C-SPAN's website for the next week or so. If you want a collector's item - or, like me, can never get Real Player to work right on your computer - for 30 bucks you can order a DVD copy from C-SPAN.
Finally, panel members' spoken remarks were limited to five minutes, so I'll be collecting full written remarks wherever possible on this page. First up: my testimony and Frank Rashid's.
March 28, 2007
Weekday update: New SF stadium push, and other stories
I'm about to hop on a train to D.C. to testify along with all these people (scroll down), but first, the news in very brief:
- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed a plan for a new 49ers stadium in the Hunters Point section of the city, one that he claims can be pulled off without public money - though the city would still have to provide free land. Team officials said they're still concerned about environmental cleanup and traffic issues; the city replied that, uh, they're working on it.
- The NFL approved lifting the debt ceiling for the New York Jets and Giants to borrow $1.3 billion for their proposed $1.6 billion stadium in New Jersey, ending worries that it might be an obstacle for the stadium plan. Newsday reports that "neither [Giants owner John] Mara nor Jets owner Woody Johnson has said whether they will ask fans to buy personal seat licenses to help offset costs."
- Neither Mara nor Jets owner Woody Johnson has said whether they will ask fans to buy personal seat licenses to help offset costs. Debates in the Florida state legislature over cutting property taxes have put the Orlando Magic's arena proposal, which is linked to renovation of the Citrus Bowl, which would be funded in part by property taxes. (Follow that?) As things stand, says Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas, any action could be delayed until May or even longer if the legislature goes into special session.
- Aberdeen, Maryland officials are trying to find a buyer for Ripken Stadium, home of the minor-league Aberdeen IronBirds; the team is owned by local legend Cal Ripken, Jr., but the stadium was built and is owned by the city, which is losing money hand over fist on it. Ripken himself is considering buying it, but only if he gets tax breaks and a state agency takes on stadium losses, which hardly seems to help.
- I have a guide to the new New York Mets and Yankees stadiums in this week's Village Voice (though online readers miss out on the illustration that goes with it), including news of the design flaw that could create havoc in the Yankees stadium's new bleachers. Happy reading, and see you on Friday.
March 23, 2007
49ers ask to tap utility fund for stadium
It's official: The San Francisco 49ers are asking to tap a $242 million reserve fund for Santa Clara's electrical utilities to help pay for construction of their proposed $800 million stadium. A 49ers official told the San Jose Mercury News that "from what we've seen, it wouldn't impact [electrical] rates"; Santa Clara assistant city manager countered that without the reserve fund, the utility would have to borrow money to fund new electrical infrastructure, leading to less favorable bond ratings, and thence, increased rates.
If you're wondering how this will go over with the California public, consider that the subhead on the Merc News story is "Electricity Rates Could Rise If Reserve Fund Tapped For 49ers Stadium." And if you're still wondering, well, consider this.
March 21, 2007
Testify!
Next Thursday, March 29, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy - now there's a name that trips off the tongue - will be holding hearings on urban economic development, and I've been invited to testify as part of a panel that's expected to include both advocates and critics of public stadium funding. If you're in the D.C. area and would like to check out the scene, the stadium hearing begins at 10 am in Room 2247 of the Rayburn House Office Building; if you live elsewhere, it'll probably be broadcast on C-SPAN Kids or something.
Also, just a reminder that I'll be at the Columbia University Barnes & Noble tomorrow night and the Yogi Berra Museum in Little Falls, N.J. on Saturday, along with the rest of the Baseball Prospectus crew. Management requests that if you must throw tomatoes, please make them organic.
March 20, 2007
49ers to ask for $200m from Santa Clara
San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross report that the 49ers are planning to ask the city of Santa Clara for as much as $200 million towards the team's planned $800 million stadium, with a ballot issue to go before voters in November. Given California residents' legendary antipathy toward stadium funding, you can pretty much mark this one dead in the water right now.
March 19, 2007
Jets/Giants stadium hits $1.6B
This just in from this week's Sports Business Journal (subscription required): The cost of the planned New Jersey stadium for the New York Jets and Giants has soared by another $200 million to an incredible $1.6 billion, leaving the two teams looking to borrow about $650 million each to finance their shares of the project.
That figure is raising some eyebrows around the NFL, according to SBJ, which reports that "some within the sport are said by one team source to be 'gagging' at the size of the request." NFL teams are typically required to limit team debt to $150 million, though that debt ceiling can be waived for a period of 15 years. It would likely take twice that long for the Jets and Giants to pay off their stadium debt, however, making next week's league vote on the stadium debt plan potentially very, very interesting.
Tiger Stadium back in limbo
Score another one for Detroit's unchallenged title as vacant lot supplier to America: Nine months after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick announced plans to raze most of the stadium and build condos in its place comes word that not a single developer has come up with a "viable" plan to do so. The city still plans to go ahead and demolish the home of the Tigers from 1912 to 1999 - Detroit wouldn't let a little thing like a lack of a use for the land stand in the way of a good building-wreckin' - but without money from a developer, it's unclear where it will raise the cash to do so.
Detroit News blogger Richard Burr suggests another alternative:
Let's cut through the baloney and try something Detroit businessman Steve Thomas, who owns a sporting apparel and memorabilia store near the old stadium, proposed five months ago: Sell Tiger Stadium and its land to the highest bidder (see the proposal here). That group or individual could then closely assess the stadium's condition and decide how best to use the land.
It's an interesting idea, but it'll happen when Jose Mesa flies for one reason: Someone might try to buy Tiger Stadium to use as a baseball stadium, and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch would not be happy. And we can't have that.
March 16, 2007
Marlins bill moves ahead
Stop me if you've heard this before: The Florida Marlins stadium bill is projected to have a better chance of legislative approval this year, after the Florida state senate finance and tax committee and the state house committee on economic development both voted in favor of giving the team $30 million worth of sales tax breaks. The state house was the holdup the last time a Marlins bill came to the floor, but new house speaker Marco Rubio, who is from West Miami, supports the stadium bill, notwithstanding that the state is already short a billion dollars in tax revenue that it was expecting.
Of course, even if they get their stadium, the Marlins still need a place to build it. The Orange Bowl site is still considered the front-runner, though some legislators from Broward and Palm Beach Counties are now griping that that would make for too long a drive for fans living north of Miami.
As for why the state should be handing over a $2 million a year tax break to the Marlins when they already got one once, Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess warned the legislative committees that "if the Marlins don't have anything to move to by 2011 ... they won't be in the state." (LATE NOTE: They apparently won't be in San Antonio either, though.) Miami officials, meanwhile, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that they estimate a new stadium "could generate up to $9 million a year in new sales tax revenue for the state" - a figure that, FoS reader Jonathan Judd points out, at a 6% state sales tax rate would imply $150 million a year in new spending in the state. That's an awful lot of people flying into Miami just to see Reggie Abercrombie.
March 15, 2007
Tallying the Penguins' boodle
Now that the dust has begun to settle on the Pittsburgh Penguins' $290 million arena deal - if you think I'm going to come up with a penguin-related pun for "dust settling," well, I tried - it's becoming somewhat clearer what team owner Mario Lemieux and his pals got for their three months of move threats.
- Instead of paying $8.5 million up front towards the arena, the Penguins owners will get $10 million in cash.
- The team will now put in $4.2 million a year, up $100,000 from last year's plan, but can use naming-rights fees to pay up to $2 million a year of that. (The original plan didn't specify who would get naming-rights money.)
- The team and state will split the first $20 million in cost overruns, something that sports industry experts say is near certain to happen. Overruns beyond that amount will be covered by the team.
- The Penguins owners get development rights to the site of their current Mellon Arena, though they relinquish them if they don't develop the land over the next ten years. (Hill District neighbors of the arena aren't exactly thrilled about this, with Preservation Pittsburgh executive director Steven Paul complaining to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "There's all this rhetoric that 'we'll absolutely work with all the stakeholders of the community to come up with the best plan, but we're going to demolish it first.'")
All told, it comes to ... okay, I'm not enough of a development expert to say how much the concessions the Penguins got from the state of Pennsylvania are worth in monetary terms, but it's more than nothin'. Score another one for leverage.
Out in Kansas City, meanwhile, the spurned arena management company AEG is trying to put a happy face on its failure to bribe the Pens into moving west, with company VP Mark Faber insisting that they were "still having active conversations with the NHL for the 2007-08 season," while simultaneously asserting, "Let's remember the initial reason for Sprint Center was we were looking as a city and an organization to bring the Big 12 championships back to Kansas City, which we have secured for 2008." They sure don't make 800-pound gorillas like they used to.
March 13, 2007
Penguins land their arena
It took seven days instead of four this time, but it's official: Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell announced this morning that state and local officials had agreed on a deal to build a $290 million arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The deal, which will be formally announced later today, should put an end to threats of moving the Penguins to Kansas City, Las Vegas, or points unknown.
So just what was accomplished by the last three months of negotiations and move threats? According to press reports, the state and casino operator Majestic Star will each put in about $7.5 million a year to pay off arena construction costs, while the Penguins will kick in $4.2 million, part of which will go to fund future capital improvements. The team will get all arena revenues, and pay all operating costs.
Since that's almost exactly what the governor's Plan B arena deal arranged for last year, before this whole hoohah started, it's still a bit of a mystery as to why it took this long to get an agreement - especially since, with the team only putting in a bit more than one-fifth of the costs, it still looks pretty sweet for Mario Lemieux and company. Maybe we'll find out more this afternoon.
March 07, 2007
Marlins Orange Bowl swap?
How to fit a 37,000-seat retractable-roofed stadium on a nine-acre site may not be an issue for the Florida Marlins much longer: The Miami-Dade County commission voted 11-1 yesterday to pursue a baseball stadium on a site to be determined, with a large contingent of commissioners reportedly backing a plan to build a new stadium on the site of the Orange Bowl, and move the University of Miami's football games to the Marlins' current home of Dolphin Stadium.
The county has been planning to renovate the 71-year-old Orange Bowl, and voters approved $50 million in bonds for that purpose in 2004. But with UM reportedly preferring to move to Dolphin Stadium anyway, some commissioners say the Orange Bowl site would be better used for a baseball stadium, leaving the previously considered downtown Miami site to be used for the children's courthouse that was slated to go there until the Marlins got interested.
The other interesting twist: Assistant County Attorney Gerry Heffernan told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the $50 million in Orange Bowl renovation money could potentially be redirected to a Marlins ballpark, if the county commission holds public hearings. That could be enough to close the $30 million budget hole that's faced the Marlins project since before anyone alive can remember - though if some money is needed to demolish the Orange Bowl, that could increase costs as well.
Marlins president David Samson, meanwhile, has apparently decided to stop issuing deadlines and just think happy thoughts about a stadium: "I'm out of the deadline business," Samson told the AP yesterday. "I'm back in the prediction business. ... We're hopeful sooner rather than later. But the way things go these past 13 years with the Marlins, you never know. ... We're just hopeful it's as soon as possible, because we really need it." That's certainly covering all the bases.
March of the Penguins
From the If At First You Don't Succeed Dept.: Pittsburgh Penguins officials are set to meet with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman today, two days after declaring an "impasse" in arena talks with Pittsburgh and saying they'd "aggressively" explore relocation. The Pens owners pulled this same stunt with Kansas City back in January, you'll recall, a move that succeeded in getting public officials to start renegotiating their arena proposal; Mario Lemieux and Co. must figure, why mess with success?
Meanwhile, on the other side of the negotiating table, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has said he'll appeal to the NHL to block any relocation of the Penguins; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has previously said he won't allow franchises to move unless they can't reach an arena deal in their hometowns, though he's also said he'd let the Penguins move if their arena prospects in Pittsburgh are "uncertain." Leading Kremlinologists decipher this as "We don't want to look like we're stealing anybody's team out from under them, but of course I'm not going to stand in the way of one of my franchises' blackmail attempts" - so the governor probably shouldn't get his hopes up about the cavalry skating to the rescue.
It's still unclear, meanwhile, what the sticking point is in negotiations, as the Penguins and public officials have reportedly agreed on most of the key terms. Asked what the holdup was, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Numbers are numbers, and they present numbers perhaps in a different way than we present numbers." The Kremlinologists are still working on that one.
March 06, 2007
Pens owners take puck, go home
After two months of talks on a new publically funded hockey arena, Pittsburgh Penguins owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle declared an "impasse" in negotiations yesterday, and declared that they would "aggressively explore relocation" to another city - presumably Kansas City, which needs a tenant for its newly build Sprint Center, thought Houston and Las Vegas remain options as well.
So, are they serious, or is it a negotiating ploy?
- "I don't think there's any question you're trying to get more when you declare an impasse," state senator Wayne Fontana told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I don't know how much more the government can do."
- "It sounds like they're frustrated, but they didn't close it all down," said Allegheny County chief executive Dan Onorato. "We'll keep moving to get this done. My goal is to get this done. I thought it was close."
- "I just can't see them leaving Pittsburgh," an anonymous source told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I think they're still negotiating, and this is a way to get the governor's office serious about completing the final details."
There you have it, sports fans: Even anonymous sources agree that talks aren't really dead. Maybe this latest breakdown in talks will be over in four days, like the last one.
March 02, 2007
Live! Uncensored!
For those of you who don't already get enough of me on this site and in my writing elsewhere, I'm going to be doing a live online chat this Monday, starting at 2 pm Eastern time. If you can't make it then, or just can't wait to send me your questions - baseball-related only, please - you can presubmit them here and then check back later to see if you stumped the band.
Also, for those of you in the New York metro area, I'll be appearing at a couple of events to mark the release of the new Baseball Prospectus annual, which is not only bigger and better than ever, it has me in it for the first time. I'll be joining the BP crew at the Columbia University Barnes & Noble at 2920 Broadway on Thursday, March 22, at 6 pm, and then at the second annual BP mega-event at the Yogi Berra Museum at Montclair State University on Saturday, March 24, at 2 pm. Come on out and say hi, get some books signed, and speculate on when David Samson will issue his next drop-dead deadline.
March 01, 2007
Mariners, Seahawks back at the trough?
My corporate brethren at the Seattle Weekly report that the Sonics arena funding bill proposed by state senator Margarita Prentice would not only give $300 million to the NBA team, but would also hand over $30 million apiece to the Mariners and Seahawks for upkeep of their current stadiums - currently something that is the teams' responsibility.
To my knowledge, there's been no public explanation from Prentice why she feels the need to cut Seattle's two other major sports franchises in on the boodle, but Washington state Public Facilities District director Kevin Callan told the Weekly: "That future maintenance money is important. The Mariners do a good job maintaining Safeco. But down the road, it will need replacement parts as it ages. Our main concern here is to see that the field doesn't become another Kingdome."
Ouch. That's a nasty thing to say about your eight-year-old wunderkind.
