Tons more stadium and arena news to get to this week, so let’s dive right in without preamble:
- Minnesota Twins CEO Dave St. Peter told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that revenue from the team’s new stadium is what allowed the team to build a winning ballclub. The Twins actually made the postseason more times in their last decade in the Metrodome (five times) than in their first decade in Target Field (three times), and skimped on adding expensive players at the trade deadline this summer before running its postseason winless streak to 16 games across 15 seasons, but one of the nice things about being a CEO is that you can say things in the newspaper without getting fact-checked.
- The Carolina Panthers got a break on their property tax assessment from county officials that will cut their annual tax bill from $5.7 million to $4.7 million, though team execs still want it cut to closer to the $1.8 million they paid last year before it was reappraised this year, and also they already don’t pay any taxes on the land under the stadium because they lease that from the city. The rich really are different from you and me: They can get their taxes lowered just by asking, that is when they don’t get to avoid paying taxes at all.
- Also, a clause in Nashville’s lease with Nashville S.C. requiring the soon-to-be MLS team to play at least one game in Nashville in any 24-month period has the team’s financiers balking at loaning money for the stadium — presumably because they’re afraid MLS will up and disappear for a couple of seasons, maybe as part of a labor stoppage, who knows — so the city may just delete that clause. Seriously, lord grant me the negotiating powers of a mediocre rich man.
- Golden State Warriors fans are pleased to discover that their team’s new arena isn’t just in the middle of the San Francisco Giants infield, plus it has a really really big scoreboard. But maybe it won’t be as loud as their old arena in Oakland? Or maybe this was just because it was an exhibition game? At least you can enter a lottery to win the right to buy one of 250 tickets per game priced at $25, without which the cheapest opening day seat would be $188, which taken together is the most 2019 factoid I can imagine.
- Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and New York Knicks owner James Dolan are still fighting over Ballmer’s plans for a new arena in Inglewood, and they will fight eternally.
- The U.S. Supreme Court has given a final dismissal to a case charging that the car rental tax used by Arizona to fund sports facilities was unconstitutional because the money wasn’t being used for transportation projects.
- There are 52 pro sports stadiums located in the new Trump-created Opportunity Zones, according to research by Billionaire Boondoggle author Pat Garofalo, which means they’re eligible for some kind of future tax breaks on appreciated value, though still nobody seems quite sure exactly how that works no matter how many FAQs the IRS adds about Opportunity Zones.
- The Tampa Bay Rays weren’t the only team to play a postseason game before a less-than-capacity crowd: The Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals did too, though in the latter case maybe partly because of games that started in the afternoon, though games have started in the afternoon before and still sold out, so draw your own conclusions about the death of baseball or whatever.
- The Halifax CFL stadium proposal isn’t dead yet, but it’s close, with city councillors readying a motion to kill the $110 million plan because its funding plan is too hazy, which it really is.
- The Boston Bruins‘ and Celtics‘ arena may have to replace all its seats again after installing new ones that eliminated any leg room to add more padding. This seems like the sort of thing that somebody should have tested out before ordering all new seats, but hey, that’s just me!
- The Pimlico renovation subsidy battle has now entered into the former owner suing his own daughter phase.
- The city of Santa Clara has voted again to remove the San Francisco 49ers as manager of their stadium, after the first vote might have been illegal because it took place in closed session. Glad we worked that out!
- The Hamilton County Commission approved a plan that will involve spending $30 million to relocate a concrete plant so the county can build a music venue next to the Cincinnati Bengals stadium, with the Bengals helping out by forgoing $30 million in future payments from the county, though the team will also now get free parking space on the land. The music venue is reportedly needed because the waterfront is “an area starved for attention outside of Bengals and Reds games,” which maybe is something to keep in mind the next time you hear that a sports stadium will be enough to revitalize an underused area.
- In completely unrelated news, here’s an article about a Columbus bar owner who is hoping that the new Crew soccer stadium being built nearby will be a windfall for her business.
If it helps, Frank Stronach and his daughter Belinda have kept multiple attorneys in Canada and the US happily well-paid by suing each other repeatedly over the last couple of years. Basically, he’s more than old enough to retire, doesn’t want to do so, gave the reins of the Stronach Group to her, and now has seller’s remorse. So he’s suing to toss her out of the position (President of the Group) that he put her into.
It’s believed he’s a cranky old man who doesn’t like her husband.
The Supreme Court decision is huge when it comes to the Diamondbacks, and maybe even the Coyotes being in Maricopa County.
It’s getting to the point where we’re flying to Vegas, renting my car there, and driving to Phoenix. It’s a hassle but the cost savings is huge and I catch up on my audiobooks…
This seems hyperbolic and highly unlikely. Without traffic, it’s a solid 4.5 hours each way between Las Vegas and Phoenix.
The only sad part of the Ballmer/Dolan thing is that at some point those two idiot billionaires will realize that they could put their “You’re an idiot NO you’re an idiot” debate on PPV and bundle it with RSN rights to make even more money.
Also, I find it hard to imagine that Trump’s Opportunity zones don’t have much more to do with scantily clad barely out of their teen years girls and back stage areas that deliberately lack the appropriate security coverage rather than actual business districts.
I had a long talk a few months ago with a tax law expert about Opportunity Zones, and the upshot was “We have no idea what exactly the IRS is going to let people get away with.”
Interesting. So is the idea that they will be something like the infamous “export processing zones” where the normal laws of the land (and maybe even physics) do not apply?
I think the idea is that the regs were written really quickly without spelling out exactly how they’d be interpreted. You can read the IRS’s FAQ here, if it helps:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/opportunity-zones-frequently-asked-questions
I think you’ve pretty well explained the ticket problem in the past. Teams want to “capture” more of the revenue that goes to Stub Hub, so they price playoff tickets a lot higher, and there are only so many folks willing to pay those prices.
I’m sure it works–even if the Cardinals were a few thousand short they more than made up for it in the 42,000 tickets they did sell. It is the NLDS, after all–so if you are a Twins fan (or until recently a Nats fan)–is it really worth your money to watch them lose.
For the record, Washington standing room tickets for Game 3 start at $160. It is a different economy than the rest of us.
It is. Does that price include the “lobbyist premium” that most political hubs charge?
If teams can run lotteries or other competitions for their own tickets (sometimes but not always lower priced… see the Cubs CBOE gambit)…. why can’t they charge fans for entering the lottery or competition?
Or a PSL lottery! You have to buy tickets to get a mathematical chance to win the right to purchase the right to purchase actual tickets. But the good news is there is no limit to how many lottery tickets you can buy in the hopes of winning the right to purchase a PSL.
Want a team to play in Halifax?
Build a stadium the town surely lacks.
And make it cutting edge to the max,
an inflatable dome and seats that have backs.
=============================================
But for now, there’ll be no football tax.
The stadium train’s going fast off the tracks.
The funding plan now is springing large cracks.
So this deal then will soon get the ax.
=============================================
The CFL? This yank does know some facts.
Twelve man teams, and the rouge. No touchbacks.
But the thought that won’t let my mind just relax
is “Where the hell is this place, Halifax?”
This got.me wondering? When is the last time a bubble dome arena or.stadium was built, at least for a professional team?
The last one I am aware of was BMO field in Toronto. The bubble was over the playing surface only, and it wasn’t really for the MLS team… it was so the community could theoretically use the facility in winter.
That really didn’t happen… within a couple of years the team wanted to retrofit another stadium a couple of miles away to accept the bubble and then moved it there.
Source on this? I can’t find a single thing about BMO ever having a structure like this.
It’s not hard to find. Prior to about 2009 (I think) the city (which paid for a good part of the original stadium) installed a bubble over the playing surface and made the field available for rent to local and amateur sports teams each winter.
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-23710.pdf
https://www.tuc.org/zuluru/facilities/view/facility:142
The system consisted of a concrete ring to anchor the bubble as well as airlocks and large fans to inflate and maintain the bubble. As part of the agreement to retrofit BMO to a grass field (it was originally field turf) TFC’s owners paid to have the ring and bubble moved to nearby Lamport stadium. Whether the ring could actually be moved or was demolished and built fresh at Lamport, I’m not sure. But it was done. And thus did the community use of BMO field come to an end…
When you read the linked agreements, it sounds like MLSe went all out on this one… but just remember, the things they agreed to pay for elsewhere essentially gave them complete control over a stadium built with public funds. They contributed $10m to the stadium originally in exchange for naming rights… which they immediately sold for $27m over 10 years.
This facility was originally supposed to be owned and operated by the CSA for the Canadian National soccer program. MLSe swooped in and bagged it all…
I have tons of pics of BMO during construction, but none showing the dome… here’s a video from the people who actually installed it:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIpQOhbeuEg?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUjN1agDYV8
Why aren’t the Red’s in the playoff’s? They’ve had a new stadium for 16 years? They had more success as Riverfront Stadium…..Weird.
Also… “Nationals win NL Pennant, owner does not demand a new stadium during podium presentation”.