I have nothing introductory to say this week other than that I’m wondering if you kind FoS supporters would give me $2 million in 24 hours if I made more robots out of lacrosse masks. So on to the news:
- Here’s a long article about the opening of Veterans Stadium 50 years ago that has some interesting bits about all the other stadium proposals for the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles that were considered and rejected, but mostly is instructive for referring to the Vet as “a cathedral” and “a marvel” rather than how it was mostly described when it was being torn down, which was along the lines of “a dump.” It’s funny how things go from wonderful to outmoded to nostalgic, based mostly on who can make money off of getting them built and/or getting them replaced.
- Honolulu’s replacement for the genuinely-falling-down Aloha Stadium is set to cost $350 million, and the state legislature has quietly switched its financing plan from a roughly 50-50 split of revenue bonds (those paid back with stadium revenues) and general obligation bonds (those paid back out of the state’s general fund) to all general obligation bonds. This could be because revenue bonds are a tougher sell during a pandemic when no revenue is coming in, or it could be because revenue bonds are a tough sell regardless when the only revenue will be from college football games; either way, my question stands about whether maybe if you can’t afford a $350 million college football stadium, you just don’t build a $350 million college football stadium.
- Aaron Gordon makes an excellent point about the current debates over the federal infrastructure bill that the question should be less what counts as “infrastructure” and more what creates a good public-benefits bang for public bucks. For example: “Should we be spending $174 billion in electric vehicle incentives — a subsidy for massively profitable automakers and upper-middle class Americans — when a fraction of that could provide frequent, reliable bus service to the majority of Americans instead?” Nobody’s proposed any of the new federal infrastructure money going to stadiums just yet that I’ve seen, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before someone tries to build a gondola with it, at which point I sincerely hope the decision is based less on whether gondolas are infrastructure than on whether gondolas are stupid infrastructure.
- San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s plan to tear down his city’s old arena and build a new arena with money from mumble mumble hey look over there has hit a snag in the form of our old friend the California Surplus Land Act, which you will remember from such past hits as “Can Inglewood provide land for a new Los Angeles Clippers arena without offering it up to affordable-housing developers first?” The Surplus Land Act got tightened with new guidelines in late 2019, so turns out the city may have to reopen bidding on the arena site, though San Diego COO Jay Goldstone (cities have COOs now?) told the Union-Tribune “there is no intention to issue a new request for proposals at this time.” Tune back in for further updates once the lawyers are done.
- The planned $450 million renovation of the Superdome for the New Orleans Saints has been stalled and may be scaled back as a result of 1) the pandemic, which is making investing in such things as expanded clubs and suites look like not so great an idea, and 2) state legislators who are questioning the state’s $90 million (with another $210 million coming from the state stadium district, which is also run and funded by the state) as too expensive because “they’re the New Orleans Saints, not the Louisiana Saints.” (Okay…) The good news, reports WBRZ: “the latest federal coronavirus aid package has dollars for which the [stadium] district could be eligible.” Aaron, you listening to this?
- Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno still hasn’t decided whether to build a new stadium or renovate the old one on the 153 acres of land worth $500 million that Anaheim gifted him with for only $150 million last year, but he has released some images of colored blobs of whether things might go, or not.
- If you were wondering whether former NBA player Jackie Robinson’s plan for a $2.7 billion arena/hotel/conference center/bowling alley/wedding chapel in Las Vegas is still in the works, a year after he initially said it would be completed, and with still no sports team to play in the arena because Vegas is already swimming in arenas, the answer is of course it is.
- And finally, if you thought the Dollar Loan Center Center was hilarious, you’ll love Inter Miami‘s renaming of its temporary (they swear) stadium to “AutoNation’s DRV PNK Stadium,” a name that just trips off the tongue. It looks like AutoNation even spells it “drive pink” sometimes, so the bizarre spelling seems especially unnecessary, but if you want to promote your car dealerships by giving money to cancer research and then paying the local soccer team to put your charity’s name on its stadium, you can spell it however you want, because America.
Interesting read on the Vet, truly one of the worst places to watch a game.
When it was referred to as a Cadillac, it must of been an 80s Cimarron, the model you couldn’t tell wasn’t a Pontiac, Buick or Chevy.
Thank goodness the Philadelphia Railroad was only allowed to ruin one classic train station (NY Penn) and not another architectural gem (30th St).
Agreed. Boy, “vaportecture” sure has come a long way since olden times.
Neil, not sure you get enough thanks. Thank you for the links in your articles for all the research you’ve done. They are nothing but interesting, if not entertaining.
You’re very welcome! I am always happy to take credit for things other people wrote and I just linked to. (Once journalism finally and totally dies, this site is going to be much harder to write.)
A 2019 CFN ranking of NCAAF attendance showed Hawaii 81st with a five year avg attendance of just over 25,000 fans.
https://collegefootballnews.com/2019/07/college-football-attendance-rankings-no-1-130-2019-cfn-five-year-program-analysis
I wonder what the last year was that the team recorded attendance of over 30k on avg?
Are we really at the point where a college football stadium with a 25-30k capacity must cost $350m? An article I found from 2011 indicated that the total budget for all U of Hawaii athletics programs was $29m, and that the university expected to generate just $5m in revenue from the football program (I assume this is attendance only, not sponsorships etc).
A 20-22k seat stadium costing not more than $100m would seem to be more than the school needs.
Thank you as well, John. Your insightful commentary always makes for a nice bookend to Neil’s articles.
Philadelphia definitely treated the Vet very poorly. I’d say my memories of the place are not as dire as those of many others. Yes, the highest seats were bad (but cheap!), but I always felt the sight lines of the Vet were very well designed and you could see the field from just about any seat. In those few years the Phillies were good, it could have a really electric feel with 30-40k in the crowd.
I suppose one’s own memories of youth are always a little grander than they should be, but I remember enjoying going to see games there.
I know what you mean about childhood memories twisting opinions of sports venues.
Many fond memories of Mets games at Shea, then I recall the feeling of the upper deck late in the afternoon as a flight just took off from LaGuardia. Snap, back to reality.
One genuinely good thing about both Shea and the Vet: They were more compact than the stadiums that replaced them, since they didn’t have all those suites and such pushing the upper deck into the sky. (The only reason the new stadiums aren’t crazy-tall is that they hold way fewer people.) Circular stadiums make for crappy seating distances down the lines, but there was something to be said for everyone being on top of each other.
I suppose having a stadium seating 60k for baseball was always a little fanciful (in a good year in the 1970s and 1980s, the Phillies averaged around 30-35k, and usually only sold out for playoff games and fireworks), but for a family without a lot of money being able to get a seat for (in modern terms) $10-15 dollars had a lot of value.
I remember sitting down the lines in the Vet and don’t remember it being all that bad (most of the time, there were plenty of seats available between 1st and 3rd, so why sit way out there anyway?). I’ve certainly had much worse views for far more money in modern stadiums.
Hey look an insightful article on economic impact!:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/apr/07/mlb-all-star-game-moved-georgia-economic-impact-voting-laws