August 31, 2009
Sports bubble watch: Giants, Jets seats still selling slowly
More on the previously reported difficulties the New York Giants and Jets are having selling tickets at their pricey new stadium opening next year, this time courtesy of the New York Times:
The Giants, who still have seats to sell for some games this season, have not found buyers for about 3,000 club season tickets for 2010, some in the best locations at the highest prices.
And the Jets lag behind the Giants. They said they still had "a few thousand" season tickets remaining for 2009 and were advertising half-season packages...
Jim Lites, a senior consultant contracted by the Giants to sell seats in the new stadium, acknowledged that the recession and the higher ticket costs for 2010 were having a chilling effect.
"There is a point at some price that people won't purchase a product," Lites said. "It's still a bit of sticker shock. There has been some pushback on the price."...
Albert Cruz of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., had a similar reaction when he was asked to renew his Jets season tickets for next year. He has sat in the fourth row for 25 years, he said. His tickets cost $90.
For next year, he said, he was offered midlevel seats with P.S.L.'s from $8,000 to $9,000 and per-game prices of $400 to $500.
"They're just too darn expensive," Cruz said. "As a loyal fan, I feel shafted."
Both teams say they'll sell their remaining tickets by next fall, but given that the Giants have already run through what had been a 20-year-plus waiting list, you have to figure they'll need to resort to price cuts or two-for-one deals to get there. And as we've seen before, that tends not to sit well with those who paid full price.
Yankee fans allowed to pack bags again
Without fanfare or explanation, the New York Yankees management has apparently begun allowing fans to bring in small bags for the first time in eight years, finally bringing their security policies in line with that of the rest of MLB. Not sure what prompted this — I'd suggest common sense, but that's never been in strong supply in Yankees customer relations. In any case, it looks like at least my direst predictions won't come true.
August 30, 2009
Edmonton edges closer to Oilers TIF
Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel says details of a planned billion-dollar entertainment complex — to include a new Oilers arena — should be released in "the next two or three weeks." He also said the city's $300 million share wouldn't be paid for with "current" tax money, but reiterated that he would consider a "community revitalization levy," which is apparently Canadian for tax increment financing.
TIFs, in which future property tax revenue are kicked back to pay off the developer's construction costs, are apparently new to Canada. One Canadian economist told the Edmonton Journal that they had successfully been used in Chicago for redevelopment — given that one study of that city's TIF districts found they'd cost $1.3 billion in taxpayer subsidies while generating just $362 million in new revenues, either Canadian economists haven't been paying close attention, or they have a different definition of "success." We'll see whether the arena-skeptical people of Edmonton concur.
Could NUMMI plant closing re-open Fremont to A's?
Toyota has announced it's abandoning its giant NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, next March, on the grounds that nobody's buying cars anymore. What does this have to do with sports stadiums? Well, NUMMI's opposition was one of the main reasons that Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff decided to ditch plans for a new stadium in Fremont earlier this year.
If NUMMI is shut down — it's still part-owned by the tattered remnants of General Motors — that would seem to open the door to a stadium on the Warm Springs site near a planned BART train station, especially if the NUMMI property is made available as well. Of course, given that Wolff's main goal right now seems to be convincing everyone that San Jose is his only option, he might not be all that happy to hear that.
Cowboys low-hanging video board to stay put for 2009
Looks like Puntgate will linger on for at least another few months: The NFL has ruled that the Dallas Cowboys don't need to raise the video screens at their new stadium, regardless of the fact that punters have hit the boards during exhibition games. Instead, the league implemented emergency ground rules for the coming season only (permanent rules changes require a vote at the annual rules meeting) that essentially make any punts hitting the board a do-over, with replay used to check if balls hit the board in case officials miss it.
Last night's game was free of punt-board collisions, so the ground rules won't come into play for another week at least. Until then, the only problem with the video screens will be the one that former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson identified recently: "If there's anything wrong, it's that people are going to watch the video board and not the game." I haven't been there myself, but still I know what he means.
Janet Marie Smith leaves Fenway almost done
Boston Red Sox ballpark renovations director Janet Marie Smith has "left the team," according to the Boston Globe, which says "much of work" on renovating Fenway Park had been completed. Smith, who did not comment for the article, was reported by Sox president Larry Lucchino to now be working on renovations to the Rose Bowl "among other projects."
There's some weirdness here — while most of the new amenities were indeed complete, some, such as renovations to the grandstand down the first-base line, were not, so it's an odd time for Smith to leave. It's certainly possible that the Sox ownership simply decided that in a still-weakened consumer economy, they'd reached a point of diminishing returns on what they'd get in return for spending millions on further renovations.
In any case, Smith, who before her Fenway gig was best known for overseeing the building of Camden Yards and setting off the modern retro stadium craze (and, some said, taking more credit for it than she deserved), has accomplished what some said was impossible: taking a cramped, undermaintained ballpark and making room for modern amenities without tarnishing the building's history or charm. The Ricketts family could do worse than to give her a call.
August 27, 2009
New Cubs owners said to be considering Wrigley rehab, not reconstruction
Soon-to-be Chicago Cubs owners — as soon as the team has been put through a cleansing bankruptcy wash — the Ricketts family are likely looking at a scaled-down renovation of Wrigley Field, not a major reconstruction, according to Crain's Chicago Business. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported last month, this would be a $250 million makeover, not the earlier $400 million-or-so plan, focused on the "triangle building" to be built in what's now a parking lot adjacent to the third-base grandstand. According to Crain's:
Other elements are likely to include upgraded skyboxes, a lounge area, widened concourses, better bathrooms and concessions, and some sort of fan-friendly space between the triangle building and the stadium, a source said....
The state envisioned many of the same improvements the Ricketts are mulling, but it considered an ambitious expansion of Wrigley's modest skyboxes, which hang underneath the upper deck. Certain parts of the upper deck might have had to be "done over" to accommodate new skyboxes, [Illinois Sports Facilities Authority chair Jim] Thompson said.
But the trend among stadium owners is to eschew over-the-top luxury boxes, which have faded in popularity, in favor of private lounge areas dispersed throughout the ball park, coupled with expanded retail offerings, says Jason Thompson, a senior associate at facility planning firm Brailsford & Dunlavey in Washington, D.C.
If all this sounds familiar — a building next door to house shops and back-office operations, widened concourses, limited skyboxed — it's probably because you've been to Fenway Park lately, as this is precisely the model the Boston Red Sox have used for their renovation of their 90-something-year-old ballpark. While it's too soon to say if the Cubs' new management will have as polished a touch as Janet Marie Smith did for the Sox (the Ricketts aren't talking about specific renovation plans at all yet), this is certainly a good sign for fans of baseball's two remaining classic ballparks.
As for who would pay for it, that's a state secret as well, and Crain's doesn't deign to speculate. Has Carlos Zambrano's fine fund hit a quarter-billion dollars yet?
August 25, 2009
Cincy stadium fund running $13m a year in red
Hamilton County, Ohio, is now projecting that its stadium fund will run a $13.2 million deficit for the year 2010 if tax revenues dip by a mere two percent, an amount that might be conservative in light of hard times. Commissioners are hoping to get concessions from the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals [ed. note: Good luck with that], and/or cuts from the Cincinnati Public Schools to close the gap.
Long before Bernie Madoff, Hamilton County Commissioners and insiders in the Cincinnati area knew that a day of reckoning would come as bills for the two stadiums came due. In 2004, County Commissioner Phil Heimlich called the stadium debt a "fiscal time bomb," suggesting service cuts may be needed in the future.
Since schools have a tougher time threatening to relocate, the smart money on who will make the most concessions might be placed on education. The county could roll back property tax relief, but the commissioners argue that would be "the last option they will consider."
One possible way to close the gap might be to offer naming rights to someone for the Bengals' stadium, something that Bengals owner Mike Brown bypassed so that he could put his Dad's name on the new facility. Betting that the taxpayers of Hamilton County will be able to benefit from naming rights revenue might be as unwise as betting on Cincinnati Reds games if you were a local legend.
August 24, 2009
Cowboys Stadium just gets worse and worse
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has outdone the Steinbrenners in one way, anyway: He's built seats with views even more obstructed than those in the new Yankee Stadium bleachers. Deadspin has the link the the GeekBrief.tv video segment, and the color commentary:
One is literally behind a cement column. The other sits up against a cement wall that obstructs all of the stadium except for one red zone. I'm not sure which exact seat this is, but there doesn't seem to be any indication on Ticketmaster that obstructed view seats are available or that they are any cheaper than the lowest listed price of $75. ($59 as part of a season ticket package.) The standing-room only morons get a better deal than that, but at least you get a chair.
How bad are these seats? You are in the same room with the world's largest video screen, a massive 160-by-90-foot egoriffic TV built specifically to give fans in the cheap seats a visual reminder that they are actually attending a football game ... and you can't even see that.
Maybe they can at least put a painting of a football game on the wall.
I am pleased to announce that, thanks to the devoted work of our friend Scott Turner at Superba Graphics and just in time for the baseball pennant races, Field of Schemes t-shirts are now available via our Zazzle store.
You can choose from black shirts, which are stylish but a bit pricier, or white shirts, which are more inexpensive but will get stained if you spill ketchup on them. Unlike whether to have your tax money spent on sports stadiums, it is your choice!
August 23, 2009
Cowboys' scoreboard is a punt hazard
There have been plenty of articles about the first Dallas Cowboys preseason game at Cowboys Stadium, but what do I want to talk about? The fact that the new $25 million video screen was hung so low it's getting hit by punts. The NFL is apparently going to have to make new rules to account for this, and Cowboys tour guides were telling visitors on Saturday that the board was being raised, though team officials denied this.
What was behind this screwup? No one's saying, but it couldn't have hurt that the video board appears to be the main attraction both for those in the luxury suites and those in the standing-room-only sections on the same level. One fan told the Dallas Morning News on Friday night: "I catch myself watching that screen instead of watching the field. They zoom in on the bench and you can see sweat running down the back of the players' necks and you can see the expression on their faces. It just draws you in." Maybe the Cowboys could just skip the game itself and have computer players play the game on the big screen — that way they'd both save on player salaries and could just avoid scoreboard-colliding punts by adding a few lines of code.
August 21, 2009
Beaverton Beavers push has no financing, site
The nonprofit Oregon Sports Authority has officially launched a campaign to build the Portland Beavers a new stadium in Beaverton — a decision that surely has nothing to do with Beavers owner Merritt Paulson's presence on the OSA board of directors. Only one problem: No one knows how it would be paid for. Oh, and Paulson says the proposed site might be big enough. And local landowners are threatening "war" if the city tries to take their property for use for a stadium. So, okay, three problems.
Rays stadium committee: We wanna Rays stadium!
The A Baseball Community coalition of business leaders studying a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium issued another report yesterday, and concluded that the Rays need a new stadium, and need someone else to pay for it. "Constructing a new stadium is required. It's no longer a question of if, but when," insists the draft report, adding that it should have a retractable roof, that it shouldn't be in downtown St. Petersburg unless it gets "iconic" surroundings, and that the public should pay for most of it.
An expected addendum to be released today will indicate that the Rays want a pony, and are prepared to hold their breath until they get one.
August 19, 2009
Wolff backs away from Quakes stadium plans
Has the MLS pixie dust worn off? San Jose Earthquakes owner Lew Wolff has told the San Jose Mercury News that his new soccer stadium isn't opening in 2012 as planned, as he hasn't been able to line up the necessary sponsors. And this even after getting an offer of cut-rate land from the city of San Jose.
"You can't do it out of magic," said Wolff. "There's no sense building a stadium unless you have some flow of revenue." Guess he didn't like the view from the diving board.
If you Favre it, will they build?
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he isn't going to build a new stadium for the VIkings just because they signed Brett Favre. Just in case you were wondering.
Though Pawlenty added, "It's clear that the Metrodome isn't going to serve the Vikings' needs in the intermediate and long term ... it's just going to have to sit on the back burner for a while." So he could still maybe build them a stadium the next time Favre unretires.
August 18, 2009
When is a Bronx park delay not a Bronx park delay?
As promised, here's the followup on the apparent slow pace of demolition of Yankee Stadium, and construction of the new parks that will replace it:
- NYC Economic Development Corporation spokesperson David Lombino says everything is proceeding according to plan, and major demolition will begin "within two months." And, he insists, that movie shoot isn't causing any delays.
- Ramon Jimenez, one of the leaders of the new For The South Bronx Coalition, begs to differ — not about the movie shoot, but about whether demolition is proceeding too slowly: "Shea Stadium was demolished in a couple of months, while Yankee Stadium is going to take a year and a half because they're selling it off brick by brick by brick." The 4DSBx Coalition staged a protest outside the new Yankee Stadium on Sunday, to mark the third anniversary of the closing of the public parks that formerly occupied the site.
- The single artificial turf field that's been opened for public use is, as predicted, really freaking hot in the summer: "The kids start to play football there, and the temperatures reach 150 degrees."
For more, see my article on the Village Voice website.
August 16, 2009
Bronx parks being delayed by movie shoot?
I was up at the site of Yankee Stadium and Fake Yankee Stadium on Friday, and there was still remarkably little evidence of serious demolition work to the structure, let alone construction work on the much-delayed new public ballfields that are supposed to replace it. (The temporary park that opened in 2007 has already been demolished, though, in preparation for a new Yankees parking garage.)
My assumption was that the city is delaying major demolition until after the season so that fans wouldn't have to walk past a wrecking ball in full swing on the way to the game. The Waterblogged blog, though, notes that there's a movie shoot going on inside the old stadium right now, and speculates that this could be holding up demolition.
Meanwhile, a new community group had a protest scheduled for today outside the new stadium to demand that the Yanks live up to promises made during stadium negotiations, including hiring Bronx residents and promptly replacing parkland.
I'll have more on both these stories shortly, I hope.
August 14, 2009
Why your national pastime sucks
I came to Deadspin's latest installment of its excellent "Why Your Stadium Sucks" series because it mentions our book (remember the book? if you like the website, you'll love the book), but stayed for the excellent reader comment on his experience at the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field, which concludes:
These journeys really impressed upon me that professional sports in the US really is no longer about anything going on on the field. It's really just a corporate beer garden designed as an alternative to some big budget action film, or theme park or shopping mall or some sort of mindless "family" entertainment in which the goal is to placate your offspring with as much food as they can ingest and to acquire some more cheap, shiny stuff from China that no one really needs.
For my own take on Safeco, see this oldie but goodie.
Saving (bits of) Yankee Stadium
The push to preserve something of the original Yankee Stadium when it gets turned into a public park over the next two years continues to pick up steam, or at least rise to a low boil. Today's Daily News has another op-ed calling for saving Gate 2, the piece of the stadium exterior that most resembles how it did in 1923. (Details here.) And a recounting in the current New Yorker of a recent meeting of architects, preservationists, and Bronx community leaders to discuss the plans for "Heritage Field" revealed a certain displeasure with the "heritage" aspect:
"What is missing from the design is the architecture of the Stadium itself," [Bronx borough historian Lloyd Ultan] said, holding up a souvenir cookie tin shaped like the old Stadium. "Some people came to see me recently who were trying to save Gate 2, which has not been altered. Couldn't we preserve that as a monument?"
"Our research showed that Gate 2 had been altered," one of the planners said. "It would have to be restored."
Retorts Ben Kabak of River Avenue Blues: "So then restore it, I say."
The problems here are time and money: With the new parkland to replace what was destroyed back in 2006 for the Yankees' new stadium running behind schedule and over budget, it'd be tricky to introduce new elements that caused further delays or added costs. (Maybe if the state legislature had taken more than eight days to consider the park replacement plans, this could have been dealt with before it became a rush.) That said, it's hard to argue with Kabak:
In the end, the city should do more than create a park that sort of resembles Yankee Stadium while telling a story through staid plaques and panels in the pavement. They should be able to create a monument to a great ballpark while keeping the essence of the park alive. It is a challenge in urban planning, but after decades of tearing down history, it is one the city should meet.
August 13, 2009
Reinsdorf up, Balsillie down in Coyotes chase
Another week, another dip in the rollercoaster that is Jim Balsillie's bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario. Last week, you'll recall, the bankruptcy court judge overseeing the team's sale said Balsillie would be allowed to bid at the September 10 auction, while the team's biggest creditor came out in opposition to Jerry Reinsdorf's lower bid, which would keep the team in Glendale but would rely almost entirely on public subsidies.
This Tuesday, all that changed. First, the creditor, SOF Investments, announced that it had cut a deal with Reinsdorf — no one's saying what exactly, though apparently it involves some cash and some debt — and now approved his bid. Then, Judge Redfield Baum declared that he'd set a September 2 hearing to determine whether Balsillie would be bounced from the auction, as the NHL wants, on the grounds that the league has already rejected him as a prospective owner. The two sides are already wrangling over who will be deposed for the occasion, so the hearing itself is likely to bring fireworks galore.
Among Balsillie's gripes, notes Hamilton Spectator writer Steve Milton, is that he's being unduly discriminated against by the NHL:
Balsillie's rejection was the first the NHL has ever applied to a prospective ownership transfer or relocation on the basis of the proposed owner lacking "good character and integrity."
Everywhere but in NHL legalese, the character and integrity issue is, of course, a ridiculous joke, considering what Balsillie has accomplished in his working life and some of the scoundrels whom the NHL has approved as owners during Bettman's tenure alone.
What, you mean like inmate number 48605-053?
August 11, 2009
The New Jersey Nets revealed a few weeks ago that they'll be dropping "New Jersey" from their road uniforms this season, as part of their never-ending plans to move to Brooklyn one of these years. And apparently New Jersey state senator Kevin O'Toole just noticed, because he's hopping mad:
"New Jersey's professional sports teams, the Nets, Jets and Giants, have no problem feeding at the taxpayer funded trough, yet seem to forget who their benefactors are when they order the teams' uniforms," O'Toole said. "The taxpayers of this state have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure upgrades in the Meadowlands where all the teams play their home games. Is it too much to ask that professional sports teams that benefit from the support of the New Jersey taxpayer recognize the state on their uniforms?"
Actually, given the going rate for uniform advertising, you could argue that for "hundreds of millions of dollars" the Nets should have the outline of the state shaved into their hair, too.
Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes is calling on the county to sell its luxury suites that it got as part of the deal to build the Reds' and Bengals' new stadiums, or at least get "something else of value" in exchange for giving them back to the teams: "At a time when county employees are losing their jobs ... it is simply irresponsible and wrong to be giving away for free these assets."
In the county's defense, at least the suites are available to non-profit groups and by lottery to county residents, which is a public benefit of some kind, albeit only to a lucky few members of the public. That's better than some other deals I could name.
August 10, 2009
New Yankee Stadium: Loud or not?
With its roomier seating bowl, is the new Yankee Stadium as loud as the old one? Ross from New Stadium Insider, writing at River Avenue Blues, says no way:
At the old Yankee Stadium — and other great home parks such as Fenway — crowd noise builds in anticipation of a big moment. So far in 2009, the new Yankee Stadium has had small bursts of overwhelming crowd noise, but those have typically been in response to a big moment. The wall of sound that engulfs you and makes you feel like you are a part of something truly special conspicuously absent.
We are left wondering whether that wall of sound will ever return. Is the significantly further recessed (and partially covered) upper deck to blame? Are the fans that can afford to attend games at the new Yankee Stadium even more corporate than the fans at the old one? Did the 6,000-7,000 extra seats in the old place make a huge difference in terms of crowd noise? We probably need to wait until the new Yankee Stadium hosts a playoff series to draw any reasonable conclusions, but as of now, we're disappointed.
Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, writing after Friday night's 15-inning nailbiter, says is too:
Yankee Stadium II made its bones last night, proved it can be a fair acoustic heir, and maybe approach the experience the old joint used to specialize in: feeling like you had a stake in things. Feeling like everyone on the field could hear you. Feeling like a 10th man.
And being one. The games that came before didn't have any of that. This one did. This one lasted until close to 1 in the morning, but when it ended everyone was ready. Everyone was prepared. The best game in the new ballpark, and they screamed as the ball soared, and it sounded sweeter even than Sinatra.
Anyone who was there for this weekend's Yanks-Sox series care to cast their vote? On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is front row at a Mission of Burma concert, how loud was it?
August 09, 2009
Cowboys Stadium brings flood of ... something
A month away from opening day of football, the Dallas Morning News is already ready to declare the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington a smashing success for the economy:
The Dallas Cowboys have yet to play a down in Arlington, but the impact of the team's new stadium is already being felt in the local economy.
At least 80 percent of Arlington's hotel rooms were filled for the Cowboys Stadium debut concert with George Strait in June, and the municipal airport was packed with private planes. Tourism officials said the 4,000-room nights booked for that weekend were comparable to Arlington's largest conventions.
"It would have been hard to find a hotel room the night of the George Strait concert," said Jay Burress, president and CEO of the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Items not covered in the article:
- How many hotel rooms are filled on a typical weekend in June.
- How it could be "hard to find a hotel room" when there was a 20% vacancy rate.
- What the economic activity (and hotel vacancies) were like in nearby Irving, where the Cowboys played until this year, and where any local stadium concerts would have gone had it not been for the new stadium.
The Morning News did mention that the manager of a nearby shopping center reported that "people were so fearful of traffic jams that north Arlington became a ghost town during the Strait concert" — though traffic jams didn't materialize, so she hoped shopping would pick up during future events.
August 06, 2009
Bankruptcy judge: Come one, come all to Coyotes auction
The Phoenix Coyotes soap opera just got much more interesting again yesterday, when bankruptcy court judge Redfield T. Baum announced that any and all bids for the team will be accepted at a September 10 auction, including those from prospective owners who would move the team. And yes, that includes Jim Balsillie, whose offer to buy the team and move it to Hamilton, Ontario Baum rejected in June.
Baum didn't say why he'd changed his mind, but it couldn't have helped that the only two local bidders have started looking more and more troubled in the past week. The lets-play-a-bunch-of-games-in-Saskatoon consortium was already getting laughed at in Canada. Then it was revealed that Jerry Reinsdorf's bid would require the city of Glendale to pay him $23 million next year from a sales tax surcharge, and up to $15 million a year after that, or else the team would be relocated. (This was revealed in court papers filed by current Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes, who favored Balsillie's bid; Moyes is currently facing possible contempt charges for revealing the documents, which the city claims were supposed to be secret.)
The Arizona Cardinals immediately filed papers opposing any tax on their tickets to bail out the Coyotes — or, more to the point, Reinsdorf, who could easily recoup his entire $148 million bid through public tax money — while the Coyotes' biggest creditor, Michael Dell of computer fame, objected to the Reinsdorf bid as well. (Baum specifically cited Dell's opposition in his decision.)
As for what happens at the September auction, all bets are off: Baum has previously agreed that the NHL has the right to approve or deny franchise sales, so there's a significant chance that Balsillie could win the auction, but still be denied the team. And no matter who wins, there are sure to be plenty of lawsuits filed by the losers.
In the meantime, though, Hamilton hockey advocates are singing Burton Cummings songs in celebration — though sadly, not the one about strained Canadian-U.S. relations.
August 05, 2009
Arena Football League, 1987-2009
The Arena Football League folded last night, though it used the more upbeat term "suspended operations indefinitely." Aside from being bad for arena football fans — who can still follow the minor-league AFL2, weirdly — this is bad news for cities in need of arena tenants, since that's one less league to help fill dates. In particular, Kansas City's Sprint Center is going to have an even emptier calendar now.
Keeping naming rights could pay Portland's share of Timbers stadium cost
Writing in The Nation, Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff call attention to yet another problem with the problematic Portland Timbers soccer-only renovation plan for PGE Park:
PGE secured a decade's worth of naming rights at a bargain-basement price of $8.5 million, but the deal expires after 2010.
If the naming-rights agreements signed recently by other MLS teams are any indication, Portland could get a lot more bang for its corporate buck.
In Toronto, the Bank of Montreal paid $24 million for a ten-year naming-rights deal. The Los Angeles Galaxy scored $70 million over ten years from Home Depot for soccer-stadium naming rights. Real Salt Lake signed a ten-year deal with Rio Tinto for approximately $20 million, while Dick's Sporting Goods agreed to pay the Colorado Rapids $30 million over fifteen years for stadium naming rights.
If PGE were asked to fork over $19.7 million for the next decade of sponsorship--a figure in line with other MLS agreements--there would be no need to finagle the city for money.
Of course, that would mean Timbers owner Merritt Paulson giving up the naming-rights money — which the current stadium agreement would hand over to him, even though the city currently gets the money, and the stadium would continued to be owned by the city. See what I was saying about hidden costs?
Cowboys charge $29 to put your fanny nowhere a seat
As part of their bid to make their new taxpayer-supported stadium even more of a monument to excess than the Yankees' new stadium, the Dallas Cowboys have announced that they'll be selling "Party Pass" tickets for $29 a pop that don't even get you a seat. The Cowboys plan to sell between 15,000 and 35,000 of the standing-room seats per game, which is an unprecedented number — little wonder that one Dallas local who attended a soccer game in the standing section reported that most people couldn't get close enough to the front to see the game.
"For your die-hard Joe Sixpack Cowboys fan, $29 is a fantastic price point," one Texas ticket broker told Bloomberg News. Of course, given that the cheapest actual seats cost $75, and that the pizzas in the luxury suites go for $90 (or maybe $60 — either way), maybe he has a point.
August 03, 2009
Balsillie sues again over Coyotes; new bidder mulls Saskatoon time-share
The Phoenix Coyotes sale saga drags on, with jilted bidder Jim Balsillie filing still more court papers before a bankruptcy hearing today, claiming that the NHL has "attempted to sabotage the sale process" because "[Commissioner Gary] Bettman and a number of the governors have a personal grudge" against him.
Balsillie had bid $212 million to buy the team and move it to Hamilton, Ontario, though the NHL disagreed that his bid was actually worth that much. With Balsillie's bid shelved, at least for the time being, that leaves two bidders who claim that they'd keep the team in Phoenix: Chicago White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who bid $148 million; and a consortium that bid $150 million with the intention of boosting the team's value by — I am not making this up — having it play five games a year in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. If you're wondering why the NHL encouraged the team to move from Winnipeg to Phoenix in the first place, yeah, so is Gary Bettman.
In case you were wondering what ever happened to that Las Vegas basketball arena that got preliminary approval two years ago, well, it's dead, a victim of the collapsing economy and, quite likely, what was a nebulous financing plan from the start. Just listen to the Las Vegas Sun's report:
At a June 2007 council meeting, an REI Neon official promised the developers would be able to tap the deep financial pockets of "multiple billionaires." At one point, Goodman asked REI Neon official Greg Borgel to confirm that four billionaires "who have contacts with the business community" were lined up to be principal investors.
"I'm not asking for their names," Goodman said, according to a transcript of the meeting.
"Oh good, 'cause I can't tell you," Borgel replied.
They call them "mayors," but another M-word might be more appropriate.
Baseball to baseball fans: It's not about you
The New York Times' Bats blog confirms what everyone already knew: Diehard baseball fans hate what the game experience has become, and teams don't care.
Some of the most frequent unsolicited comments on the Bats blog are along the lines of, "I wish they'd turn down the music" or, "Stop telling me when to clap!"
"What happened to going to the game for the sake of the game?" asked Dave Weickert, a 40-year-old video engineer from Old Bridge, N.J., who takes his 9- and 10-year-old children to four or five games a year. "Do I need pizza races down the aisles between innings? No, no I don't. And if the players want to hear their songs every time they come up, get an iPod like everybody else I work with.
"It can be very distracting, and at the risk of sounding like a cranky old man, it's just too loud. Baseball has always been more of a pastoral experience — a good day at the park with your friends. You could even sneak in a conversation. Not a trip to the discotheque."...
[Tampa Bay Rays VP Darcy Raymond] recognized that the old-school fan might not appreciate the piped-in smell of bubblegum.
"You're really coming to see a show," he said. "To some people, the traditionalist, it may be sensory overload. If you're not into a sensory experience, the Trop is not for you. We're a new-school team."
This recalls a conversation I had many years ago with a sports economist and baseball fan, who related a talk he in turn had with a sports marketer. After the economist made similar complaints that he just wanted to go to a ballgame to watch the ballgame, the marketer replied, "Oh, yeah, you're what we call a 'traditional fan.' Let me tell you something: There aren't that many of you."
More to the point, diehard fans will keep showing up to games regardless, while more casual one will just go do something else if they're bored. And so sports, like Congress, ends up being run to cater to swing votes.
Judge absolves Yanks of document search
The fight between the New York Yankees and state assemblymembers Richard Brodsky and Jim Brennan over documents that Brodsky subpoenaed relating to the team's stadium deal ended with a partial win for the Yanks last week: Judge John Egan Jr. ruled that Brodsky had the right to subpoena the emails and other documents, but that the team had made a "good-faith" effort to do so. There's still a chance that Brennan and Brodsky will appeal, though, so don't give up all hope of getting a glimpse at hot chat between Lonn Trost and Seth Pinsky.
