I am way too tired this morning from waiting for tranches of vote counts to drop to write an amusing intro, so let’s get straight to the news:
- San Diego voters have approved Measure E, which removes a 30-foot height limit on buildings in the Midway District, which will allow the construction of a $1 billion-or-so new arena complex, which it’s still not entirely clear how it would be paid for, plus there’s still a lawsuit against it, so tune back in later.
- MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has told Sports Business Daily that holding the World Series at a neutral site every year is not “completely off the table” because “you can plan, you can take out travel, you can pick sites that eliminate weather problems.” Marc Normandin notes that this is probably just a trial balloon — “Manfred says a lot of things to gauge the reaction of them, and then attempts to move forward with the things he thinks he can get away with or that are worth MLB’s time regardless of fan reaction” — but also points out that MLB could require cities to bid for the World Series like they do the Olympics, or at least use hosting rights as a carrot for cities to build new stadiums (like they already do with the All-Star Game), which is likely a way bigger factor than how early John Smoltz gets to book his plane tickets.
- The MLS expansion team Charlotte F.C. is no longer looking to build a new headquarters at the former Eastland Mall, apparently as a Covid-sparked cost-saving measure. As a result, the city of Charlotte is cutting its subsidies to the team (at least for now) from $110 million to $39 million. There needs to be a new agreement worked out between the team and the city, but also the city council is voting on it on Monday, so maybe it’s already worked out?
- The Toronto Raptors could play the 2020-21 season in Newark to get around U.S.-Canada travel restrictions, because at least Newark is in the East. The safety of playing basketball indoors without a bubble remains unclear, but that big German indoor concert study shows that maybe it’s actually safe so long as there’s good ventilation and everyone wears masks and distances, which basketball players aren’t going to do, so never mind.
- D.C. United fired its security company to save money and then asked team staffers to take unpaid shifts sitting in the arena watching security cameras, which is very much not a good look. Adding “Volunteering to assist with security will certainly be looked favorably upon (and vice versa)” really didn’t help.
- Hotels in Tampa Bay are excited about the upcoming Super Bowl, even if it’s at reduced capacity, because absolutely nobody is staying at hotels in Tampa Bay right now.
- Portland’s sports-owner-friendly mayor Ted Wheeler was re-elected, and this guy is really happy because yeah sports!!!
- As if the San Francisco 49ers battle with the city of Santa Clara over their stadium operations isn’t weird enough, now the team has signed a parking agreement with the city and then asked the city to tear it up, which is both weird and probably illegal.
- SB Nation’s Minnesota Twins blog looks back at that time team execs ran an ad warning that if they didn’t get a new stadium and the team left town, outfielder Marty Cordova could no longer visit eight-year-old cancer patients. Also the kid in the ad had already died by the time it ran. That did not work out well, but the Twins still got their publicly funded stadium a decade later by doing an end run around the city and getting the county to pay for it, so all’s well that ends well or something.
In other news, Glendale wants more commitment from Arizona Coyotes as city finally receives arena revenue
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2020/11/05/glendale-wants-more-commitment-az-coyotes-finally-gets-revenue/6175863002/
Well, the DC United security camera plan is really just a warmed over version of something the border patrol does with their webcams…albeit that the volunteer ‘agents’ are just people off work who are sitting in front of their own computers in their own homes and, I suspect, probably drinking quite a lot while they watch static pictures of the desert near the US-Mexico border with whatever vigilance/frenzy one could muster for watching static pictures of the desert in the middle of the night when you know someone else is actually being paid to do the job themselves.
I think DCU missed the boat a little by not requiring season ticket holders to set aside 4 hours a week each to volunteer to watch the security videos instead of demanding actual employees “volunteer” for the job.
It’s all about citizen involvement these days. Is it really all that different from the power or phone company expecting you to log in to their website to find out what your usage was last month and how much they think you owe them? What happened to company billing and accounts divisions?
I wonder when said companies will start requiring customers to initiate non-payment/late payment lawsuits or write their own disconnection notices too?
I am eagerly looking forward to the day when corporations realize that their highly paid C-suite jobs can be crowd sourced as well. Sure, some convenience store clerk in Nome might not really be equipped to act as Chief Technology Officer for a major nuclear weapons manufacturer, but think of the savings in salary and benefits that company could realize if they just took that chance. I mean, they have a responsibility to their shareholders to outsource every job they can to volunteers.
Think of the money HMOs could save if they just stopped requiring surgeries to be performed by trained doctors and nurses or in actual hospitals? I think this plan has legs (insert your own medical joke here).
It looks like 3 of the 4 York family sponsored candidates in City of Santa Clara have won council seats. Let’s find the moral of the story….