A quick programming note: The next two Friday roundups will be on Thursdays, since the next two Fridays are Christmas and New Year’s. Not that I’ll be doing much special those days — I’ve done pretty much nothing since March other than sit and stare at my laptop screen — but I’m doing this anyway as a courtesy to readers who may feel the need to go out and infect extended family members with a deadly disease or something.
And on to this week’s news remainders:
- Tennessee Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk has opened talks with Nashville Mayor John Cooper over upgrades to the Titans’ stadium, which was built way back in 1999, and so is made entirely of wattle and daub. Strunk had previously called the Miami Dolphins‘ $350 million stadium renovation “a very interesting model,” though it doesn’t sound like she’s committing to pay for the upgrades as Dolphins owner Stephen Ross did: Rather, the rumblings are of some kind of tradeoff where the city gets the Titans to re-up for a longer lease and the team gets some cut of the revenues from developing its stadium parking lots. The Los Angeles Angels‘ deal with Anaheim would be the financing model, then, which given that that deal was very, very good to Angels owner Arte Moreno, you can see why Strunk would be interested in replicating it.
- F.C. Cincinnati is getting another $16 million in state money for its stadium project, because … actually, none of the reporting gives any indication what it’s for. Probably Christmas presents for the construction workers? Anyway, added to the roughly $81 million worth of goodies the team was getting at public expense prior to this, we now have a total taxpayer price tag of $97 million, which is starting to turn into some real money.
- Knoxville’s city council has approved the creation of a sports authority, the first step toward building a $52 million to $65 million stadium to lure the Tennessee Smokies back to town from their stadium in the suburbs. The Knox County Commission will vote as well on Monday, after which people can start talking about who’ll pay for this thing. There’s already been preliminary talk about “public-private partnerships” and “mixed-use developments,” so you just know that whatever finance plan is arrived at, it will be as confusing as possible, the better to make voters’ eyes glaze over come election time.
- The Minneapolis Star Tribune sportswriters got so bored this week that they interviewed a Minnesota Vikings fan who went to a road game in Tampa to ask what it was like. Answers: “It felt like a normal gameday weekend. We tailgated with Tampa super fans a couple blocks from the stadium — maybe a few hundred people, minimum.” (Eeeagh!) Inside the stadium, “honestly, not a lot of people were wearing masks.” (Also eeeagh, though at least fans were distanced when in their seats.) He wouldn’t go to a road game in New Orleans, because of the “party atmosphere” there. (Harm reduction!) More on this breaking story as it develops.
- The “stadium construction is proceeding” story has a long history, but “St. Louis S.C. stadium has its foundation 60% done” is still a journalistic low point. The extended video footage of nothing much in particular is impressive — maybe they should have interviewed some of the rebar to see how it felt about its safety?
- If you haven’t had enough of me this week already, here’s a long Q&A with me about the San Jose Sharks hinting they’d leave San Jose if construction nearby messes too much with their parking. Features the line, “If you look at the number of teams that threaten to move in sports versus the number of teams that actually move, at least nine out of 10 move threats are nothing but hot air,” which really should be on my Wikiquote page, not that I have one — though a text-adventure superhero game I once wrote somehow does. The internet is weird, man.
Neil, I’ve been reading you for a few years now. Wouldn’t you typically argue that using $16M for gifts to construction workers be a better use of public funds than whatever it is actually being used for at F.C Cincinnati? :) At least you know who directly benefits from the money.
If you’ve been reading me for a few years, I would hope you can spot the implicit <sarcasm> tags by now.
I think this article is interesting regarding Nashville. I think the Titans are in the same boat as MLB. Last I heard the mayor of Nashville said “we’re flattered MLB has an eye on us but we have other fish to fry” . I am old enough to remember Mayor William of Washington holding a presser with other big wigs singing “take me out to the ballgame” before Jeff Loria had bought the expos. Now they are begging to enter a market where the mayor is saying “No shakedown here”. Good Luck Titans
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2020/12/17/22180317/mlb-expansion-might-not-happen-for-a-long-time
I saw a headline on bostonglobe.com “If Cleveland can say goodbye to Indians name why can’t Red Sox say goodbye to Fenway park?” I don’t have a subscription so I’m not going to read the article. But my first thought is because Fenway Park isn’t racist to my knowledge at least. But a better reason is because Fenway is at minimum a perfectly acceptable place to watch a baseball game and it would be a huge waste of money to build a new stadium. But something something seats don’t fit my rotund ass…
I was able to read it in an incognito window:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/18/sports/if-cleveland-can-say-goodbye-name-indians-why-cant-we-say-goodbye-fenway-park/
That is indeed a pretty dumb excuse for a column. (Sample: “Would it be easier on the heart and soul to accept the Boston Americans (or other new name) still playing at the existing Fenway, or the Red Sox, operating under their same name since 1908, playing in a dazzling new park, with 42,000 seats, dynamic views, sparkling bathrooms and enough electrical outlets to bring Nikola Tesla to tears?”) As noted above, sportswriters are rapidly running out of things to write about.
Oh holy hell. Why would we want 42,000 people in a ballpark? They have trouble enough filling up 38,000 now. Also does anyone else read “more electrical outlets” as, “build a new ballpark so I can have a place to charge my iPhone.”
Surprised the Adams Family (ba-da-da-bump…the Adams Family) took so long to start pressuring Nashville.
In Houston, Daddy Adams took only 10 years after a major upgrade of adding 10,000 seats to the Eighth Wonder of The World (paid for by taxpayers) before they threatened to leave.
I remember having a pint of beer in a 300 year old pub in Chester, England and seeing an exposed wall of wattle and daub. Very nice construction in fact. I think American stadiums may move in that direction soon for their construction.
Aloha stadium in Honolulu can no longer hold fans and will be condemned. The replacement isn’t due to open until 2023. There’s no word on where UHawaii or the Pro Bowl will be played. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/hawaii-without-a-home-stadium-after-aloha-stadium-a-former-pro-bowl-site-reportedly-will-be-condemned/ar-BB1c1kRL?return-to-referrer=true&ocid=uxbndlbing
War Memorial in Maui, probably. It’s not great but its structurally sound. The Pro Bowl is being played on Madden this year.