- A plot of private land that Portland baseball backers were eyeing for a stadium has been sold to another developer, but they could still sell or lease it for baseball. Portland is definitely at the forefront of not just handing land to the local sports team for whatever price it wants, though of course it doesn’t hurt that there isn’t an actual local sports team in question right now, just the idle thought of one someday.
- Tampa Bay Rays chief development officer Melanie Lenz says the team will decide in six to nine months whether an Ybor City stadium will work; I’d think they’d want to know who’s going to pay for it first, but maybe that’s what they need the six to nine months for: bribery. (I typed “lobbying,” right? Pretty sure I did, note to self to go back and check.)
- D.C. United is about to open its new stadium with the help of $183 million in public money, and has belatedly noticed that its TV camera angles will be all screwed up because the sun sets in the west. Who could have known something like that?
- A group of Inglewood residents is suing to block the proposed Los Angeles Clippers arena project, which is not surprising; more surprising is that they attempted to serve Mayor James Butts with lawsuit papers during Tuesday’s city council meeting, causing the council to abruptly call a halt to the meeting and run away.
- The Cincinnati Reds are asking for $88,000 in state tax breaks on bobbleheads, on the grounds that they’re included in the price of ticket packages and not being sold separately, even though the ticket package costs more specifically because it includes a bobblehead. I shoulda been a tax lawyer.
- The Philadelphia Phillies are asking for $40 million in hotel tax money from Pinellas County for a new renovations to their spring-training stadium in Clearwater, but the county has run out of hotel tax money because it already spent it on other projects, including the Rays’ Tropicana Field and a spring-training facility for the Toronto Blue Jays, along with a bunch of museums and the like. Opportunity cost!
- A Spectrum News Charlotte headline asks the question: “Does Charlotte need a domed stadium? City leaders are trying to figure it out.” I got an answer for you, Spectrum News Charlotte! (Also, Spectrum News Charlotte, the Atlanta Falcons‘ stadium didn’t really involve a “public investment” of only $200 million. Your friends across town the state at Fox 8 got it right, you might wanna talk to them.)
12 comments on “Friday roundup: Rays set stadium deadlinish thing, D.C. United can’t find the sun in the sky, Inglewood mayor flees lawsuit filing on Clippers arena”
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I’ll be pedantic (I gotta be me). Fox 8 isn’t across town – it’s an hour and a half north in the Piedmont Triad. Most people in Charlotte don’t get Fox 8. I only mention this because the unofficial “omertà” on what a terrible idea this is persists in Charlotte.
Thanks for the correction (and excellent point) — will fix now.
If they haven’t got them yet, those Inglewood residents will be receiving care packages from MSG.
If LA had tabloids, we’d get titles like:
Butts Butts Out of Meeting
or
Pain in the Butts
It looks like the Phillies are looking for the money for renovations, not a new stadium in Clearwater.
You’re correct — I misread, will fix.
I wish Cuomo would start using the threat of not upgrading the LIRR Belmont station unless the Sound Tigers relocate to Uniondale.
What exactly is the point of upgrading the Coliseum if it will go under with no main tenant? : /
errrr…. spinoffs. Trickle Down. Friedman. Stop asking questions. Sad! Terrible.
Audi Field looks nice, even if not as nice as promised. I can only laugh as the shortcomings of the location are “identified”–long after they were identified. That neighborhood is hardly prime location and is a pretty good walk from public transport. Small site, power lines, industrial location, sunset in the west…yeah.
Also, please tell the “supporters” that–try as you might–you don’t “own” the team in any way in the US. Your team can afford Wayne Rooney, but not a marketing director, just as your team moves into new digs and preps for a sale. Hmmm. Maybe Wayne Rooney can run the marketing.
I’d argue the departures of the three executives is more an example of MLS being a victim of its own success than anything else. Now, if they all leave and take other jobs within MLS then that would be a definite red flag. However, they all landed jobs in MLB. If you work in sports you’re going to take the job in the bigger league 100% of the time. The pay will be better, budgets will be bigger, etc. A few years back maybe those guys aren’t seen as being qualified by MLB but now they obviously are.
So the Isles tax break request is not for Belmont. It’s for upgrades to the Nassau Coli where they will play about 1/2 their home games until Belmont is built.
Ugh, sorry, I just whiffed on this week. I’ll leave myself more time for fact-checking (and just plain reading) next week.
This really shouldn’t make me laugh, but it does.
http://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/restaurants/article213797094.html
“I gave them $300M, and all I got was a lousy sign.”
Actually, we also got Sauced, a barbecue joint where state workers can get lunch for just $30, which explains why the place is never more than 20% full.