April 30, 2009
Indiana to stadium board: Drop dead
What if they built a stadium and nobody maintained it? The Indiana general assembly failed to agree on a bailout plan for the Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board yesterday, leaving the board that runs the Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium and the Pacers' Conseco Fieldhouse with a $47 million a year budget hole and no way to fill it.
The CIB has called an emergency board meeting for tomorrow, at which it will consider ... well, no one seems to have much in the way of ideas. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard "said they must do something," according to WISH-TV, adding that the city could turn the stadium board over to the state, but he doesn't like that idea; it's hard to see where the state would like it either, since they already said they don't want to be stuck with the board's debts. Then there's the suggestion, also from Ballard's office, that Colts owner Jim Irsay might want to make a donation to the arts in lieu of paying rent; three guesses what Irsay's reaction will be to that one.
The underlying problem remains the teams' leases, which grant them pretty much all revenues from their buildings and ask them to pay next to nothing in rent ($250,000 a year for the Colts, $1 a year for the Pacers); it's hard to find money to pay maintenance and operations when you don't have any income. Nobody really thinks that the CIB will go ahead with its threat to close the buildings if it doesn't get a cash infusion, it's hard to imagine what they'll do to get out of this one.
Yanks ticket price cut totals: 116 seats, $6.7m
Shawn Hoffman of Baseball Prospectus has used data obtained by the Associated Press to provide a nifty spreadsheet showing the changes in pricing of New York Yankees premium seats following Tuesday's price-cut announcement. The upshot: A grand total of 48 seats have had their prices cut from $2500 to $1250 per game, while another 68 seats have gone from $1000 to $650. So that'd be a lot fewer than even the "about 600" seats reported previously.
That said, at those prices even discounting 116 seats can add up fast: Hoffman calculates the total loss of "earning potential" at $6.7 million — meaning that the Yankees would make $6.7 million less selling those seats at the new prices than they would have at the old ones. (Not that anyone was buying them at the old prices, which was precisely the problem.)
Meanwhile, in other somewhat Yankees-related news, New York City finance commissioner Martha Stark, who conducted the controversial land assessment that allowed the Yanks to use tax-free bonds to finance their new stadium, has gotten the axe over multiple conflicts of interest — including hiring multiple relatives and dating the former assistant commissioner who ordered a re-appraisal of the Yanks land after the initial one didn't come in high enough. Not that this proves anything — people can be both corrupt and good at their jobs — but just sayin'.
April 28, 2009
Yanks field-level seats now a mere $1250!
CNBC's Darren Rovell reports that the New York Yankees have cut prices on some of their highest-priced seats in an attempt to fill those embarassing empty sections at their new stadium:
The $2,500 per game seats, that weren't selling as the Yanks had hoped, will now cost $1,250 per game.
The $1,000 per game seats will now cost $650 per game.
Fans who already purchased these seats on a season basis at their old value can either get a credit on the difference or a refund.
Rovell says "about 600" seats are affected, so it's safe to assume that most of the muckety-mucks in the "Legends Suites" won't be looking at refunds, only those who until now had bare plastic for neighbors. (The official press release seems to confirm this, but I'm not gonna be the one to sit with a seating chart and decode it.) It remains to be seen whether the blizzard of press attention this is sure to get helps the Yanks look less greedy, or merely feeds the fire of the public's schadenfreude.
Meanwhile, New Stadium Insider, which posted the press release above, also analyzed the available Yankees seats listed on FanSnap.com and came up with this:
Doing math based on the rounded numbers of tickets available according to the site (which does not include all ticket brokers, or Craigs List), an average of 16,900 Yankee tickets are available on the secondary market for each game. In other words, 35% of the per-game inventory sold by the Yankees is now back on the market, presumably with the intent of making a profit.
Whether the buyers will be able to make their money back is as yet unclear; NSI notes that some tickets are selling at above face value, but also that plenty of other people are dumping tickets for next to nothing. Too bad there's no way to see "Completed Sales" on StubHub.
Colts: We won't help with stadium losses
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has made clear that he's not willing to pay more rent or ticket taxes to help bail out the city's stadium board, despite dire warnings that it might have to close his new stadium if it can't fill its $47-million-a-year budget gap. Said Irsay:
"I'm not going to renegotiate. That's the bottom line. All we did was negotiate in good faith. We've done everything we can to have a great organization. We've lived up to our part. We've exceeded our part."
Irsay's part, you'll recall, was to kick in all of $100 million toward a nearly $700 million stadium project — $48 million of which he got back via a "lease termination fee" from the city. Meanwhile, Irsay is getting $6 million a year in naming-rights money from Lucas Oil, while paying all of $250,000 a year in rent. I wouldn't want to renegotiate either.
In case you missed it, the Washington state legislature adjourned for the season on Sunday night without passing bills to allocate money for renovating either KeyArena (former home of the Seattle Sonics) or Husky Stadium, home of the University of Washington football team. Proponents of the KeyArena bill, which would provide $75 million in state sales-tax revenues toward a $300 million renovation of the arena, which was just renovated in 1994 (another $75 million would come from the city, and $150 million from a new NBA team owner, presumably Microsoft exec Steve Ballmer), say they could try to bring the bill up again this summer during a special legislative session.
The problem, UW athletic director Scott Woodward told the Seattle Times yesterday, was the "psychological disconnect" of funding sports facilities during an economic collapse. "How do you lay off teachers and cut back on programs and then build a stadium?" Seems to me someone's asked that question before.
Miami Marine Stadium gets "endangered" tag
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has included the Miami Marine Stadium on its list of endangered historic places for 2009. If you've never heard of Miami Marine Stadium, it's probably because you're not a fan of the now pretty much extinct spectator sport of powerboat racing, which the stadium was built for in 1963 before being condemned in 1992 following Hurricane Andrew. Since then it's sat there, rusting, though it does sport some pretty excellent graffiti.
Past sports facilities to make the endangered list include Detroit's Tiger Stadium (1991 and 1992) and Santa Anita Racetrack (2000), and one is now three-quarters demolished and the other is caught up in the same bankruptcy as Pimlico and set to get a giant development project as a neighbor. On the bright side, Cape Cod is still standing.
April 26, 2009
New Yankee Stadium reviews: Day 792
The New York Yankees weren't even home this weekend, but still no one can stop talking about their new stadium, and all the people who aren't buying tickets there:
- New York Times columnist Harvey Araton favorably compares the Boston Red Sox' renovation of Fenway Park to the Yanks' new "monument to excess": "It is always a mob scene at ancient Fenway, just as it usually was in recent years at old Yankee Stadium. So why was there such a dire need for a new one that required the mutilation of centralized parkland and the eventual demolition of a landmark? Oh, right, it was all for the fans, as the Steinbrenners have made a habit of assuring us."
- A recent California transplant writes on Athletics Nation that the new stadium is "cold and uninviting and simply lacking any charm. The real Yankee fans are largely banished to the top edges of the place, and if there was little chance that a kid growing up in the same Bronx neighborhood that houses the stadium would ever be able to afford a ticket inside the old place, well, there is zero chance of that happening in the new one."
- Rick Malwitz makes a similar observation on MyCentralJersey: "People who actually live within walking distance apparently don't go to the games. I hate to make judgments on entire villages, but in the housing surrounding Yankee Stadium, I suspect there are not many families of four who can afford the average ticket price of $73, not to mention a round of $10.20 Rocket Doubles. ... So here's my idea about how to fill those seats that investment bankers and hedge fund operators can no longer afford: If there are empty seats up front, let kids in the neighborhood fill them, and give them two pears for free."
- San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler has more suggestions for filling those empty field-level seats, including tarps and weasel masks.
Paulson: All bets are off if stadium site is changed
The Portland Timbers deal keeps moving backwards: The latest came on Friday, when team owner Merritt Paulson declared that if the city moves the associated minor-league baseball stadium for his Beavers franchise to Lents Park as is being considered, then the whole deal would need to be renegotiated from scratch:
"The only way Lents is on the table as an official option is if we can reach a financial deal with the city first," Paulson said. "And it's going to be a very different financial deal than we have at Memorial Coliseum. We're starting from scratch." ... "I can't see doing anything like that anywhere else other than the coliseum site. That's such an unusually good site that we really extended ourselves in terms of personal protections."
That's not quite "Rose Quarter or the highway," but it certainly looks like Paulson is trying to dissuade city officials from seriously considering Lents. If so, the fate of the deal could all depend on what city commissioner Dan Saltzman considers due diligence in finding alternatives to knocking down Memorial Coliseum to make way for a baseball stadium: If he's just trying to cover his butt to please preservationists, he can now use Paulson's statement to say there are no alternatives; if he's really out to avoid demolition, though, Paulson could be painting himself into a corner.
And, let's not forget, there's still the matter of the missing $15 million, which has mostly dropped from discussion during the siting debate. There's a lot to be resolved between now and Paulson's September deadline.
April 24, 2009
Seatgate: Our long national nightmare continues
The controversy over those empty seats at New York Mets and Yankees games has reached MLB commissioner Bud Selig, though he was typically uncritical of the teams in his response:
"Hal Steinbrenner did say a couple of weeks ago that he thought that they may have overpriced tickets, and they ought to look at it. Well, good for him," Selig said at MLB's New York headquarters in a meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors. "And I know the Wilpons are very sensitive about all of this, and I'm sure both clubs are doing that. And I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't be doing that. Because they should."
Which is all well and good, except that it was reported the day before that Yankees president Randy Levine revealed the team intends to raise premium ticket prices 4% next year. Guess Selig doesn't read the Times.
As for Levine, he's said he considers the issue closed: "We're done talking about seats," he told reporters on Wednesday. "We're not talking about seats." You may not be, Randy, but everybody else still is.
Timbers stadium gets vote delay, September deadline
Those concerns over saving Memorial Coliseum have led to another delay in the Portland Timbers stadium vote: Portland mayor Sam Adams and team owner Merritt Paulson agreed yesterday to indefinitely delay the city council vote until a site has been worked out for a new minor-league baseball stadium that won't require razing the coliseum. The city tried to see if it could squeeze in a stadium just north of the coliseum ("It won't fit," said the mayor); it's now revisiting the idea of building it in Lents Park in residential Southeast Portland, something that was floated earlier and rejected in favor of a downtown location.
The delay is apparently an attempt to placate city commissioner Dan Saltzman — if you're wondering why members of the Portland city council are called "commissioners," yeah, me too — who is the swing vote required to approve the $88.8 million deal. Unlike some other swing votes, though, Saltzman isn't asking for cash, and isn't even dead opposed to knocking down the coliseum if it comes to that: "If I'm going to make a decision to demolish the coliseum, I'd like to do that knowing there's been some process to look at the options," he told The Oregonian.
Meanwhile, Paulson levied the most direct threat yet if the stadium deal doesn't get done, saying, "If we come to September and we don't have a deal in place, then we're not going to have Major League Soccer in Portland." We'll see if he's any more serious about that than some other sports team owners.
April 23, 2009
I'm very pleased to report that fieldofschemes.com is now indexed by category, at least back through the start of 2009. To see all the recent news about, say, D.C. United, just click on the link at the bottom of the entry.
If anyone notices any bugs, please drop me a line. In the meantime, I'll be adding category tags for 2008...
Seattle arena bill really most sincerely dead
I've given short shrift here to the slowly simmering campaign to allocate tax money to a renovation of Seattle's KeyArena, and this is why:
A bill to help pay for an expansion of KeyArena was declared "dead" by its chief sponsor Wednesday, but a top aide to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels vowed to keep trying to revive the proposal in the waning days of the legislative session.
The proposal, Substitute Senate Bill 6116, passed the Senate Ways & Means committee over the weekend and had appeared poised for a vote of the full Senate Wednesday evening.
But when majority Democrats talked about the bill in caucus, too many objections surfaced, according to Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the bill's prime sponsor.
"The bill is dead for the session. Really dead," Murray said.
The bill would have extended the sales-tax surcharge that is paying for the Mariners' Safeco Field and the Seahawks' Qwest Field and used the proceeds for renovation of both the KeyArena and the University of Washington's Husky Stadium, as well as arts and affordable housing projects. Clay Bennett, owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly the Seattle Supersonics), would have to pay Seattle $30 million if the state legislature allocated renovation money and no new NBA team arrived within five years — but given that the state would likely have to put up at least $150 million toward the renovation, you can see where some legislators might not consider that a good ROI.
Also of note: The tattered remnants of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer covered this turn of events by running a five-sentence AP story. That whole web-only journalism thing is really going just swimmingly, huh?
April 22, 2009
White elephant watch: Arenas that time forgot
When Memphis' Pyramid arena was set to open in 1991, sports promoter Sidney Shlenker promised: "It''s going to be a monument like the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower, a signature for the city. The difference is this will have something to do inside it."
Mmm, not so much. While the Pyramid was initially home to the University of Memphis basketball team, and hosted concerts and like, all those activities fled to the new FedExForum once it was built by the city to lure the Grizzlies in 2004. Shlenker, who promised to repay the city's construction bonds on the Pyramid from proceeds of events there, instead soon declared bankruptcy, leaving Memphis saddled with the bulk of the $62 million debt. Now Shelby County is debating whether to sell its share in the empty arena to the city, which would only reshuffle the taxpayer deck chairs, while officials hold out hope that a Bass Pro Shops superstore could fill the building. Of course, that idea has only been kicking around since 2005, and city negotiator Robert Lipscomb didn't exactly sound optimistic it would get moving anytime soon, saying only of the impending county sale: "Well, it's always easier when you have to deal with one entity as opposed to two."
Of course, at least Memphis got 13 years of use out of its arena, which is more than Bradenton, Florida can say. The Gulf Coast town's arena, originally intended for the Gulf Coast Swords minor-league hockey team, never got any further than being partly built before financing fell through in 2005, and construction halted. Now the site is being put up for auction, and the partly built arena will likely be razed, in part because it no longer meets state building codes for hurricane resistance — ironic given that one reason given for building the arena in the first place was as a hurricane shelter.
April 21, 2009
Timbers deal features fuzzy finances, dubious demolition
The Portland Timbers soccer stadium mess is turning into, well, a bigger mess, with questions about both the financing plan and the site for the new minor-league baseball stadium that would be built as part of the deal.
Starting with the financing: The Oregonian yesterday ran a wordy analysis of the economics of the twin-stadium deal, noting that while Timbers owner Merritt Paulson has promised to guarantee $31 million in rent payments and ticket taxes that are supposed to help fund the $88.8 million project even if the team (or MLS) doesn't last another 30 years, much of those will go to pay existing debt on renovation of the team's current stadium. That means, writes the paper, that "the city will have to rely on revenue from Portland Trail Blazers ticket taxes and parking proceeds — or, if those fail, the general fund — to cover about $20 million in baseball and soccer bonds."
It's of particular concern, say reporters Helen Jung and Ted Sickinger, because the city's economic impact study of projected tax revenues from the project is "peppered with basic math errors" and "assumptions that change from page to page," though they didn't supply details. (Consultant Brian Harris explained — I swear, you cannot make this stuff up &mdash that this was because he was keyboarding figures into a spreadsheet during an airplane flight, and while he was sick.) Paulson's projections — which the economic impact study was supposed to verify — include a 50% jump in attendance for his minor-league Portland Beavers franchise in their new home, as well as the Timbers clearing an operating profit in their first year, "despite the fact that 10 out of 13 Major League Soccer teams recorded operating losses in 2007," notes The Oregonian.
On the city's end, meanwhile, that suddenly unguaranteed stadium borrowing turns out not to be your garden-variety municipal bonds:
For a majority of the new borrowings, the city plans to issue the municipal equivalent of a subprime interest-only loan. For years, it would make no payments on the debt while interest accumulates at an estimated 9 percent. Then it would retire the loan with a series of increasing balloon payments in later years through 2035.
The structure is so unusual that the city's debt manager isn't sure anyone would be willing to buy the bonds. That's where the Paulsons have stepped in again.
Paulson and his father, Henry Paulson, a former investment banking chieftain and U.S. treasury secretary, have pledged to help find a buyer.
With all this going on, the Portland city council has delayed by a week a vote originally scheduled for tomorrow to finalize Paulson's development agreement — but not because of concerns about the financing. Rather, the council wants to consider concerns of preservationists who want to save the Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum, former home of the Trail Blazers, is currently home to the minor-league hockey Portland Winter Hawks and lacrosse Portland LumberJax, who may have trouble booking dates at the Blazers' new Rose Garden — and who have lease clauses guaranteeing them a year's notice before they're evicted, clauses that the city may have to buy out if it intends to demolish the 49-year-old arena.
And meanwhile, the $15 million funding hole remains. See why I'm always warning that stadium deals are never over until they're over?
April 20, 2009
New NY stadiums roomier, in both good and bad ways
Some more reactions of late to the new New York Mets and Yankees stadiums:
The New York Times' Bats blog worries that "Let's Go Mets!" chants sound weaker in the new, smaller-capacity but physically larger Citi Field. Which will come as some surprise to the Huffington Post's Michael Shapiro, who insists that Citi is intimate like Ebbets Field. (The HuffPost's Thomas B. Edsall gives a more measured overview of the new Yankees facility and its funding controversies, including a quote from yours truly.)
NJ.com blogger Mike says he was "both impressed and disappointed" by his first visit to the new Yankee Stadium, digging the open concourses and abundant food options, but missing the close-in upper deck and history of the old stadium: "Overall, the new place lacks the character of the old, but much of that character was rooted in the fact that the old place was old. ... The new place in comparison, while more comfortable in many ways, also felt sterile in many areas."
The Bongo Frenzy blog notes the irony of Citi Field honoring Citi Field while dedicating much of its space to exclusive clubs: "In the elite Delta Club, fans are segregated into Delta Club and Delta Club Silver fans. I wonder if there are signs above the water fountains in the Delta Club that read, 'Silver's Only.'"
After the Yankees and Cleveland Indians combined to hit 20 homeruns in the first four games at the new Yankees park, there's growing speculation as to whether the team has inadvertantly created a homer haven. Greg Rybarczyk of Hit Tracker notes that contrary to team claims that the new park's dimensions are the same as the old, the Yankees actually moved the right-field fences in at the new place, while making them shorter as well; however, Rybarczyk notes that homeruns are flying out of parks all over baseball at increased rates, and speculates that a juiced ball is the likeliest explanation.
Finally, the Bronx Beat, a site run by Columbia Journalism School students, has turned my Yankees stadium cost spreadsheet into a nifty infographic, suitable for framing, if your wall can hold Flash applications.
Sports bubble watch, mid-April edition
I have a short op-ed in today's Metro NY about the deflating sports bubble, prompted by my visit last week to the New York Mets' Citi Field last week at which a large chunk of the expensive seats went unfilled. Other recent signs that $110 ticket prices and 8.5% unemployment rates don't mix:
- The New York Yankees failed to sell out their second home game of the season, breaking a streak of 39 straight sellouts, and the empty seats continued into the weekend. After Sunday's game, New York TImes columnist George Vescey wrote: "Yankees management claimed an attendance of 43,068 on Sunday, but you could not prove that by the gaping sections of expensive seats from dugout to dugout. Either the Yankees have not actually sold those seats, or the bankers and brokers with the corporate seats are taking weekend jobs to make ends meet in this rotten economy they helped create."
- MLB teams have already officially abandoned their "baseball is recession-proof" line, and teams are responding by rolling back ticket prices: The Milwaukee Brewers are offering some seats for $1, the Minnesota Twins are selling tickets pegged to the Dow, and there's a long list of other discount plans. (Reports that the Houston Astros and/or Toronto Blue Jays were offering season tickets for $76 total look to have been erroneous, or at least I couldn't confirm them.)
- Fans who've bought pricey seats figuring they could sell off those they didn't want to use are finding few buyers on sites like StubHub and Craigslist. Reports Bloomberg News: "Sion Nuseiri, an accountant from Brooklyn, said he bought two season tickets with the idea of selling off enough to wind up with a profit. Instead, the offers he gets are below the $15- $35 face value for his tickets. ... 'I actually thought I would make some money,' Nuseiri, 23, said in an interview. 'Every time I put something on Craigslist, people are trying to lowball me.'"
- Speaking of StubHub, if you want to go to tonight's first-ever night game at the new Yankee Stadium, you can get upper deck seats ($22 face value) for as little as $6, and seats in the $55 second-deck "main level" for as little as $10.
So far, no signs of the Mets and Yanks rolling back prices to reflect the new economic realities, but if the empty seats continue — and, more important, if fans start eschewing the team ticket windows when they realize StubHub is so much cheaper — things could get mighty interesting.
April 16, 2009
The Mets win! The Me-e-e-e-e-ets win!
I visited the New York Mets' Citi Field for the first time last night, to see what my tax dollars had wrought in Queens. My verdict, as delivered this morning at Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered: It's far from perfect, but still kicks the new Yankee Stadium's butt:
Citi Field is a typicalHOKPopulous modern stadium, with all that goes with that: Field-level seats close to the action, a wall of luxury/club seating in the middle, an upper deck that's higher than you'd expect at old-time ballparks, overly quirky outfield dimensions, more places to buy overpriced food than some (present company included) might think necessary. The Mets owners have been fond of comparing their new taxpayer-aided home to Ebbets Field; the comparison doesn't hold much better here than it did for Miller Park, which made the same claim.
That said, it's immediately clear that the Mets got most of the details right here, especially compared to their rivals across the East River. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda may be a bit of a ham-fisted nod to history (it didn't help that last night was Jackie Robinson Night, with a pregame ceremony featuring people wearing jerseys with words like "COMMITMENT" and "INTEGRITY" on their backs), but it's nicely human-scaled and functional compared to the Yanks' gratuitous Great Hall. Thanks to a relatively teensy 42,000 capacity, the upper deck isn't quite so distant as in the Bronx, about the equivalent of the back of the old Shea mezzanine — Mr. Met could almost even reach it last night with his T-shirt cannon — though the lessened seating has helped contribute to hikes in ticket prices.
And most of all, unlike the Yanks' new home, Citi Field reeks of baseball. There's plenty of attractive brick and steel, the scoreboards are useful but not overly imposing, and even the non-game attractions let you know that you're at a baseball game, not a mall: free batting cages and a Wiffle ball diamond out beyond centerfield for the younger set. (This was such an insanely huge hit last night, with my son among others, that I wonder if the Yankees are at risk of losing an entire generation of New York baseball fans here.) It may not seem like using brick-colored cinderblocks instead of grey ones should make a big difference, but it does.
I'm not sure it's $600 million nicer than Shea Stadium, but at the very least, Met fans can say they got a decent place to see a ballgame for their tax money. Unlike some other people I could name.
April 15, 2009
Maryland moves to seize Pimlico
The future of historic Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes, is in doubt as a messy legal battle over the property is brewing.
Yesterday, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed emergency legislation, passed on the last day of legislative session, that authorizes the state to buy or seize the facility by eminent domain. But there are legal questions surrounding the measure, which was rushed through in reaction to threats by Carl Verstandig, a Baltimore developer, to raze the track and build a shopping center in its place.
When asked by the Baltimore Sun in early April about the city losing the Preakness, Verstandig said, "There are plenty of locations they could use. They could run it in Timonium or any other location. I don't think it has to be specific to Pimlico racetrack." But it's questionable whether the Timonium fairgrounds, located north of the city in Baltimore County, could host a Triple Crown race. The Preakness is run at a mile and 3/16ths, the shortest race of the Triple Crown series. Timonium's oval is 5/8ths of a mile, hardly suitable for any major stakes race, let alone a classic like the Preakness. Also, Timonium's stadium holds about 2,000 fans. Preakness attendance often exceeds 100,000, including over 30,000 in the grandstand.
The Pimlico controversy began on March 5, when track owner Magna Entertainment filed for bankruptcy just seven years after grand visions of a renovated, Las Vegas-like facility. Though a loan was secured to keep racing going at Magna's most profitable tracks, like Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, and Santa Anita Race Track in Acadia, California, no financial arrangement was made for Pimlico, which recently cut its live racing days from 31 to 20. The 140-acre facility makes money one day a year, on Preakness day.
Now, as opening day nears on Saturday and politicians struggle in Annapolis to save the racetrack, there is no resolution in sight, and a murky legal road ahead. Verstandig, who now says he doesn't want to raze the track, only to develop land around it, warned the Times in reaction to the emergency bill: "I think they're leaving themselves open for some major, major litigation."
April 13, 2009
Calgary, Edmonton arenas declared "dated"
If you're wondering how old you have to be to be considered "antiquated," the Canwest News Service has an answer for you:
It has born three different names in its 26-year history and has even been compared by U.S. media to a potato chip, but Calgary's iconic Saddledome is earning yet another tag: old.
The home of the Calgary Flames is "nearing the end of its life cycle," according to the Canwest report, and the Edmonton Oilers' Rexall Place, born the same year as Alanis Morissette, is "even more dated." While neither team is currently in serious talks for new arenas, the rest of the article is dedicated to investigating who will pay for what's deemed the inevitable, with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on hand to declare, "For their future well-being and for the comfort of their fans, both teams need new arenas." Actual fans seem less certain.
Nats opening day marked by vacant lots
The Washington Nationals held their home opener today, and while most of the attention was directed to the sudden death of Harry Kalas, it was also the start of the second season for Nationals Park, the $611 million stadium that was built mostly with public money. Last year saw disappointing attendance, and things aren't starting off that much better this year, as the Washington Post notes:
Baseball stadium backers promised a lively entertainment district when the D.C. government poured nearly $700 million into building Nationals Park: a hub of bustling shops, restaurants, hotels, condos and office towers to draw patrons year-round.
But as the Nationals take the field for their second season at the ballpark, there won't be much entertainment outside. ... Fans approaching the ballpark along Half Street will pass an empty office building and a 35-foot-deep hole in the ground owned by Monument Realty, which has put plans on hold for shops, residences and a hotel. One block north, another office building, built by Nationals owner Theodore N. Lerner, sits vacant in search of a tenant.
The Post blames the lousy economy; the Washington City Paper counters that the "stadium district" was doomed from the start. Either way, it has D.C. being made fun of by other cities with failed ballpark villages.
And speaking of being made fun of, the libertarian magazine Reason has a long analysis of the stadium's overblown economic impact claims, highlighted by this from Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher on last year's opening day:
Twelve-year-old Brennan Jones, a Little League catcher from Falls Church, served up this strike from Econ 101: "The District's going to make so much money. We're paying for this place every time we come." Brennan expects to come very often; during Nats batting practice last night, he got pitcher Luis Ayala to sign his Nationals rally monkey. The kid is set, probably for life.
Responds Reason's Nick Gillespie:
Only a real Ty Cobb-type sonuvabitch would put a price tag on a kid getting his rally monkey signed. Hell, the stadium practically paid for itself in that one act. Especially when the kid channels Warren Buffet and declares the stadium a no-lose proposition. Who can argue with that?
April 12, 2009
What K.C. got for its Royals reno money
The Kansas City Royals opened their newly renovated (with public sales tax money) Kauffman Stadium on Friday, and it turns out fans are less impressed by all the new bars than by more mundane matters: "It's great you can walk all the way around the stadium." "We stood in line forever." "The restrooms are great for women, but they're horrible for men." "I had to pay $3.50 for Starburst." While it's hard to say for sure from 1,000 miles away, it sounds like much of this (okay, not the candy prices) is typical opening-day confusion — if nothing else, it should get worked out once the Royals are no longer drawing 40,000 fans a game, which should happen as soon as the Yankees leave town this afternoon.
Meanwhile, the fight between the city and Jackson County over who'll pay for the ongoing operation of Kauffman Stadium continues, with Mayor Mark Funkhouser pushing forward with his plan to cut or eliminate the city's $2 million a year contribution. Kansas City Star editorial board member Yael T. Abouhalkah says the city should cough up the dough because hot dog vendors pay taxes — which is the sort of argument that I've come to expect from the Kansas City Star.
More Yankees news: Soggy fries and mob ties
The reviews of the new New York Yankees stadium are finally starting to die down: In the latest, Steve Lombardi of WasWatching says he was looking forward to the new stadium but is "willing to suggest that the Yankees screwed this one up," while Ben Kabak of River Avenue Blues says with its newly distant upper deck and off-limits premium areas, "New Yankee Stadium is all about exclusion," and the garlic fries are expensive and soggy.
In other Yankees news, Mohegan Sun says don't blame them for the centerfield sports bar bearing their name that blocks bleacher views, saying they weren't consulted about the design, they only paid to slap their name on it — which in hindsight doesn't seem to have been the savviest marketing move. ("If I'm the Mohegan Sun, I'm not happy," sponsorshop consultant Jim Andrews told the New York Times.) Meanwhile, the Times also reported that both electrical and concrete work at the new Yankees stadium and the demolition of the Mets' Shea Stadium were handled by companies that the city normally avoids because of alleged ties to organized crime and reports of bribery. Something worth watching as the demolition of Yankee Stadium — which, Karen Argenti of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality has noted, wasn't subject to public bidding — gets underway, any day now.
April 10, 2009
Garber threatens D.C. United move
MLS commissioner Don Garber upped the ante on the "look at other jurisdictions" talk for D.C. United yesterday, indicating that the team could move out of the D.C. area entirely unless it gets a new stadium deal. Garber told Washington Post soccer writer Steven Goff:
"Why we don't seem to be able to get a deal done is incredibly frustrating and it could be that, if something can't be resolved, we will move the team. ... We are getting close to the point where we can't continue to go on operating the team at RFK, a facility that didn't work for Major League Baseball, does not work for D.C. United. We have to develop a plan to get United in a partnership with a public entity in the region sometime soon or we will have to very seriously think about alternative locations."
This is, of course, one of the roles of sports league commissioners: levying move threats so that team owners don't have to. (D.C. United execs, you'll note, pointedly wouldn't comment on Garber's remarks.) So is it serious, or is it Bettmanesque? D.C. United would certainly lose a lot by relocating: Even in a "substandard" stadium (Garber's term), they ranked third in the league in attendance last year, and are the league's sixth-most-valuable franchise, according to Forbes estimates. That'd be tough to match in another market, especially as MLS has aggressively placed expansion teams in most other soccer hotbeds the last few years.
For now, then, probably best to consider this an intended bulletin-board quote for the locker room of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Jerry Reinsdorf would no doubt approve.
April 08, 2009
P.G. County kills United talks
That didn't last long: Less than two months after D.C. United announced plans to build a 24,000-seat, $190 million soccer stadium in suburban Prince George's County, Maryland, the county council shot down that idea, voting unanimously to oppose a state feasibility study of the stadium plan. The team's demand for county money looks to have been the sticking point: "We're not interested under the terms that they came to us with," said councilmember Eric Olson. "If they were to pay all of it or a substantial amount, we could have another discussion, but it was clear that this was not what we could find acceptable."
A D.C. United spokesperson responded to the news by saying, "We will continue conversations with other jurisdictions regarding a future home for D.C. United." Where that might be is anyone's guess; the Washington Business Journal speculates that Fairfax and Loudoun Counties in Virginia might be interested, or possibly Montgomery County, where the Washington Freedom of Women's Professional Soccer play, if the league hasn't folded yet.
Diamond Bar drops stadium opposition
The proposed NFL stadium in the Los Angeles-area City of Industry cleared one hurdle yesterday, when the neighboring city of Diamond Bar agreed to drop its opposition to the project in exchange for a $20 million payoff to help mitigate traffic concerns. Diamond Bar councilmember Carol Herrera enthused: "Any way you look at it, the project is going in. There's no way to stop it." (Okay, maybe "enthused" wasn't quite the right word.) The Industry plan still faces a lawsuit from another neighboring town, Walnut.
San Jose cuts Quakes land price
In what the San Jose Mercury News calls an effort to "speed along a San Jose Earthquakes soccer stadium threatened by the cratering economy — now that doesn't sound promising — the city of San Jose has agreed to cut their asking price for the proposed stadium site from $132 million to $89 million. There are two ways to look at this, of course: as the city offering the Quakes a gift of $43 million, or as a reflection of the fact that California land isn't worth the paper it's printed on right now. City councilmember Sam Liccardo, whose district includes the stadium site, took the latter view: "Prices have come back to earth, and we have to face that reality. Doing something beats doing nothing in this economy."
While the council is expected to approve the land sale next month, it's still uncertain how the stadium would be financed; Earthquakes owner Lew Wolff (remember him?) originally proposed one of his patented development-rights swap deals, but with development not so much a going concern in California anymore, that plan is now "on hiatus," according to the Merc News. Last word from Wolff was that "we're trying to piece it together and I think we're going to get there."
In other Wolff-related news, the San Jose city council voted unanimously last night to move ahead with attempts to lure the Oakland A's to their city, with councilmembers calling for a study group and new environmental impact report for their proposed stadium site near the Diridon rail station. San Francisco Giants exec Bill Neukom responded on a local TV news show: "Those are our [territorial] rights, and we will continue to defend them."
April 06, 2009
Yankee Stadium: The reaction-thon continues
More commentary and reviews of the New York Yankees' new stadium from the past few days:
The New York Post's Joel Sherman calls it "a monument to greed" and "a fake place designed to manipulate my emotions and get into my wallet." Long Island University history professor Joe Dorinson says the Yanks and Mets stadiums are "unnecessary, building almost for the sake of building," and "reinforce the notion that baseball is not a sport; it's a business." Daily News columnist Filip Bondy says it has "little charm" but will be okay if the Yankees win, and complained that Citi Field's WiFi wasn't working. Carlos Zambrano wishes the Cubs had one just like it, but his manager Lou Piniella says Wrigley Field with some improvements would be just fine. Joe Torre said it looked nice on TV. The Newark Star-Ledger's favorite part was when the new megapowered p.a. blew out on Saturday, temporarily leaving the field in blessed silence. Daily News columnist-turned-blogger Lisa Olson loves the new place, especially that "the green design ensures that beverage cups are made of biodegradable material rather than petroleum based plastic," though she doesn't exactly say what this has to do with the new stadium.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the blogoverse, New Stadium Insider has a long list of pros and cons, concluding, "At this point we would trade our surprisingly good sushi and Lobel's steak for the amazing views from the upper deck of the old Yankee Stadium in a heartbeat." Bronx Banter's Cliff Corcoran says he couldn't find any pretzels, notices the scoreboards don't work too well, agrees the p.a. was way too loud, and says any resemblance to the old stadium "began to fade half-way through my second visit." His co-blogger Alex Belth was dazzled, but not necessarily in a good way:
It is not only the TV, which cuts to live action as a Yankee player circles the bases after hitting a home run (what to watch, the player running around the bases or the TV?). It is all the other billboards, one brighter than the other—Delta, Pepsi, Bank of America, Dunkin Donuts (I wonder how it will play during the afternoon). And there are several scoreboards. The entire area is so busy, so insistent, it was difficult for me to focus on the field of play. And I didn't exactly know where to look. My eyes were overwhelmed and I felt lost...
The new Yankee Stadium does not look elegant or stately once you are in the stands. It is remarkable though. It looks like the inside of a pinball machine. Or a slot machine. It is Vegas, sparkling state of the art technology, spectacular in a way that WOULD MAKE TOM WOLFE SMILE. It is Times Square redux—a Disney production, but not imperial in the manner of the Time Warner buildings. It's more like baseball's answer to the Francis Ford Coppola epic, One from the Heart. I missed the sense of awe, the sheer volume of the old building. This park is wider, fatter in the hips, but it isn't nearly as steep.
Finally, Jay Jaffe of The Futility Infielder sums up his feelings after his first visit to the new place: "To my mind, the Yankees need a new park more than ever."
April 05, 2009
Legislators weigh Indy stadium bailout
WRTV News reports, somewhat dramatically, that Lucas Oil Stadium could close if a state bailout deal is not reached for the Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board. The CIB, which operates the Indianapolis Colts' one-season-old stadium along with Conseco Fieldhouse, home to the Indiana Pacers, is facing a $47.4 million operating deficit, after failing to budget properly for $26 million in annual operating costs for Lucas Oil Stadium.
The consequences of financial failure for the CIB remain unclear. CIB President Bob Grand sounded pessimistic, if vague, saying, "If you want me to give you worst-cases, I mean the worst-case scenario is we could be out of money and the facilities would be, arguably, closed."
The bailout plan includes annual $5 million payments from both the Colts and Pacers, which neither team has agreed to as yet (UPDATE: Since the Pacers would be absolved of about $15 million a year in operating costs, this would actually save the team $10 million a year. -ND), as well as tax increases on alcohol, restaurant meals, hotel stays, and sports tickets.
Politicians are not yet on board with the plan, either. NWI reports that Thomas McDermott Jr., Mayor of Hammond in northwest Indiana, is incensed that a similar finance plan for flood protection levees in his district was blocked in December. "It seems to me that it's more important to build football stadiums than it is flood walls," he said on Thursday.
Sale prices of Boston Red Sox opening day tickets on the secondary market — that's "legal ticket scalpers" to you and me — are down almost 50% from last year, yet another sign that the economy is having a major effect on demand for high-priced sports tickets. The New York Mets have also announced they're auctioning off unsold seats for their opening game at Citi Field, though given you're not allowed to bid less than the face value that was the reason the tickets went unsold in the first place, it'll be interesting to see how many bids the auction draws.
(Thanks to The Sports Economist for the links.)
Nets arena plans keep getting vaguer
Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report, the only blogger we know who goes to the trouble of digging through 10-K forms, reports that New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner's Forest City Enterprises changed its description of its planned Brooklyn arena project from "an 850,000 square foot sports and entertainment arena" to "a state of the art sports and entertainment arena." That would certainly jibe with previous reports that Ratner was desperately trying to "value engineer" the project to keep it alive; original architect Frank Gehry has already said of the arena, "I don't think it's going to happen," though he could easily have meant his design, not any arena at that site.
April 03, 2009
The new Yankee Stadium: What we got for all that money
I made my first visit to the New York Yankees' new stadium yesterday and, well, the earth didn't open, and the sky didn't fall. I've already written extensively about this for the Village Voice and Baseball Prospectus (coming later today), so allow me the luxury of quoting from myself:
It's a bit like visiting a Grand Theft Auto version of the old ballpark, where reality has been twisted to make it easier to render on a computer. (All that was missing was a sign reading "Pinstripe Cathedral" or "Bomber Field.") Yanks execs' claims to the contrary, the new stadium feels less like the 1923 original than like the 1976 rehabbed model, right down to its cinderblock-and-painted-aluminum-panel aesthetic — or rather, like another, more dramatic rehab further along, a faded copy of a faded copy...The Yankees at last have their own souvenir stands that can compete with Stan's Sports World, with team stores offering every variety of pennant, shirt, jersey, and jacket imaginable — as well as, bizarrely, officially licensed "team gnomes" at a mere $35 a pop. Fans in the lower deck can now enjoy their pick of food stands serving such specialities as sushi, garlic fries, and Cuban sandwiches (as well as possibly the worst idea ever at a ballpark: a gallery selling artworks by Peter Max). Those who are denied entry into the fine dining class will still find improved food options — though with bottled beers going for $9 apiece and "Popcorn Indiana gourmet kettlecorn" starting at $6, it's unlikely anyone up in steerage will be able to afford to sample more than a tasting at any one game.
Speaking of steerage, the upper deck is one place that diverges dramatically from the old stadium: Shrunken and set back farther from the field, it's no longer as steep as at the old park, but also no longer on top of the action. Though the new stadium seats 5,000 fewer people, its worst seats are easily as distant as the back row at the old ballpark across the street, if not quite as vertiginous; think Shea Stadium upper deck, and you're on the right track. (Not that this will matter much, as most fans will no doubt spend most of their time watching the real star of the show: the Yankees' high-def centerfield video screen, which is the one item at the new stadium that looks worthy of the stratospheric price tag. It's probably only a matter of time before the Yanks start advertising a night at the ballpark as "just as good as watching it on your own computer!")
And from BP:
As at many if not most new stadiums, the class segregation here feels both deliberate and complete — only further compounded by the obstructed-view bleacher seats (the TV screens set up as a belated fix, I found yesterday, didn't help much), by the team's decision to exclude cheap-seats denizens from even eating at field-level concessions stands, and by a sunken walkway behind the "Legends" seats at the field's edge that gives the odd impression that the Yankees have surrounded their highest-priced seats with a moat.
Needless to say, opinions differ: The Daily News editorial page has a rave review ("limestone and granite hewn large to shoulder among the big town's big places"), and Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon love it (though Jeter still finds it "a little weird"), while Bloomberg News architecture critic James Russell is less impressed ("The peculiar choice of metal mesh as a wall finish suggests imminent arraignment, rather than an afternoon's leisure"). Team owner Hal Steinbrenner, meanwhile, actually admitted that some of the tickets "might be overpriced ... we're continuing to look into that," which may have something to do with the fact that plenty of premium seats are going unsold.
For photos from my day at The House That Randy Levine Built With Lots of Your Money, see below the jump:
April 01, 2009
No joke this time: Barring A-Rod getting caught eating baby seals or something, I'll be on ESPN Radio tonight at 8:25 pm Eastern to talk about stadiums and the economy.
Then on Friday, at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am Eastern, I'll be on WBAI-FM in New York to specifically talk about the new Yankees and Mets stadiums.
Both shows will be streamed live online, and I'll post any archives here as well.
Finally, Major League Baseball has announced that to honor the 87th anniversary of its exemption from federal antitrust laws, all 30 franchises will hold Monopoly Night this year. All fans in attendance for those games will be treated to free parking, wheelbarrow and cannon races, and Sell Your House For Half-Price To Avoid Bankruptcy contests; those who purchase three or more box seats will be eligible to join a special Monopoly Club, with exclusive rights to view the final three innings of the game.
While the teams themselves will not wear special uniforms or otherwise mark the occasion, any player who hits three consecutive doubles will be immediately arrested.
Portland Timbers won't join MLS unless more money is found
That stadium funding gap is turning out to be a bigger deal for the would-be Portland Timbers expansion MLS franchise than anyone wanted to admit: Not only is there $26.8 million in funding unaccounted for, but the city would need to sell $36 million in risky taxable zero-coupon bonds, a prospect that city officials are "pessimistic" about, according to the Portland Business Journal (article not online). If the funding isn't in place by August 1, the team's stadium deal falls apart, as does the franchise's entry into MLS.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams says he's considering either raising more city urban renewal money to fill the gap, or levying new taxes on alcohol and food in and around the stadium; Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, meanwhile, is exploring everything from asking for state aid to making the bonds tax-free to asking for federal stimulus funding — maybe he can see if his dad has any leftover TARP money in his coat pockets.
D.C. United stadium hitting snags left and right
Plans for a Prince George's County stadium for D.C. United aren't exactly moving ahead smoothly. The bill to study possible stadium sites is back in committee again, after the original version was determined to be not exactly constitutional. Meanwhile, Prince George's County Council chair Marilynn Bland is under fire for refusing to let opponents of the stadium plan speak at a public hearing, calling a recess after ten minutes when she realized she didn't have the votes to approve a stadium measure, and then shutting off cameras and microphones to ensure that those who'd signed up to testify wouldn't be able to.
Wolff to grudgingly meet with Oakland mayor
Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff says he'll meet with Oakland mayor Ron Dellums in coming weeks to discuss the team's future, but a team spokesman insists this doesn't mean he's had a change of heart about considering staying in town: A's VP Ken Pries insisted, "We shouldn't read more into it than there is. He's just following through on the request made [by Dellums]."
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer wrote to baseball commissioner Bud Selig yesterday, saying, "It is critical that Major League Baseball and the A's ownership do everything possible to keep the A's in Oakland, and I stand ready to help in any way possible, including attending and setting up meetings for you and the committee." Apparently that committee got some people's attention — as no doubt it was intended to.
Eleven years after opening, Atlantic City stadium left without team
Desperately-searching-for-a-silver-lining headline of the day:
No team, but stadium can still be asset for Atlantic City
Apparently the Atlantic City Surf of the indie minor Can-Am League folded on Monday, after a dispute between the team and the city over which would pay for maintenance on Bader Field, which despite having been built only 11 years ago (with $15 million in public funds) now has no working heat or bathrooms. City officials are now exploring using the field for concerts or high school baseball practices, because everyone knows concertgoers and high school kids never need to use the bathroom.
Still, state senator Jim Whelan defended the public money spent on building the stadium for the Surf, saying, "This place had 11 good years." I guess if you set the bar low enough, anything can be considered a success.
L.A. stadium on hold during legal battles
The City of Industry NFL stadium is officially on hold while lawsuits from neighboring towns are resolved, according to Majestic Realty exec John Semcken: "We can't begin the process until there aren't any lawsuits." (Yes, that's the same John Semcken who said last week, "If they think we're going to stop working on football because of little old Walnut, they've got another think coming.") Semcken also asserted that "we've designed the building to accommodate two teams," in case more than one NFL franchise wants to move there.
And before you ask: He said this Monday, so he wasn't just honoring today's date.
