Holy moley, all the news this week! No time for clever repartee, let’s dive right in:
- The Cleveland Indians owners are “well along” on a lease extension beyond the expiration of their current deal in 2023, says Gateway Board Chairman Ken Silliman, in exchange for stadium upgrades that according to WKYC-TV will be “in the tens of millions, if not more,” which will be paid for by … whoops, looks like WKYC’s reporter forgot to ask about that, though they did note that Silliman mentioned the possibility of selling development rights around the stadium and using the proceeds for the Indians when this last came up over a year ago. Keep an eye on this one.
- Speaking of land development deals, remember that one that Boston Red Sox owner John Henry was seeking back in February to build a ton of skyscrapers near Fenway Park and tae over a public street? Well, he and his partners officially submitted them to Boston this week, though they made sure to note that they weren’t proposing to build a “sports theme park” and that “the Project should feel like the neighborhood is enveloping the ballpark, and not that the ballpark is spreading its influence into the neighborhood.” There’s no lease extension in play here since the Sox own Fenway Park, and no public money (that we know of), so this one would just be the city doing a favor for a local billionaire by approving his massive redevelopment plans, which is standard operating procedure — whether you consider that more or less egregious than handing out special favors to sports teams is between you and your economic belief system.
- And speaking further of the same thing, lots of Nevada legislators say they wouldn’t want to spend public money on a new baseball stadium to lure the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas, but providing free land and development rights? Mmmaybe.
- Not to be left out, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan has followed up the collapse of his Lot J redevelopment plans by seeking a $441 million development project that would include a new practice stadium, which would include $93 million in public cash, plus maybe a discounted land price, it’s really hard to tell from reading the term sheet. Anyway, it’s another data point that the Los Angeles Angels land-rights subsidy model is the new game in town, for Big Four sports owners, anyway.
- Meanwhile, in minor-league baseball, Reading Fightin Phils general manager Scott Hunsicker says the team’s owners “have no intention of ever leaving Reading” but also if their stadium doesn’t get about $15 million for bigger locker rooms and other sundries, “Major League Baseball could terminate our license here in Reading and Major League Baseball could at that point give the license to somebody else, somebody in another city,” maybe a city that just lost its team like Williamsport, State College or Trenton. Yep, minor league contraction is working its subsidy-grubbing magic just like it was planned to.
- The Pensacola Blue Wahoos are only set to get $2 million in public cash for their MLB-mandated upgrades, but same deal as the Fightin Phils. Every penny (or 200 million pennies) counts!
- Not to be left out, the Los Angeles Angels are getting $40.9 million in public money for upgrades to their minor-league stadium in Tempe, Arizona, in exchange for extending their lease for 13 years, through 2035. No more details from the Arizona Republic about where Tempe will get the cash, but there is a bunch of stuff about how the stadium was originally built by the short-lived Seattle Pilots, so that’s kind of interesting, I guess?
- The Toronto Blue Jays are playing temporarily in Buffalo while Canada works to vaccinate enough citizens to be able to reopen, which led WGRZ-TV to ask: Could Buffalo get a permanent MLB team? Their answer: No, almost certainly not, Buffalo barely has 250,000 people, what are you even saying? No wonder the Bills are moving to Greensboro.
- When Cobb County wanted an extra $2 million to cover expenses related to this summer’s MLB All-Star Game — back before the game got moved to Denver after Georgia passed its new voting restriction law — county finance director Bill Volckmann claimed the expense would generate between $37 million and $190 million in economic impact, without providing any methodology at all for how those figures were calculated. Here is economist Victor Matheson pointing and laughing at him.
- The USFL Is coming back! With original team names! But not necessarily original cities! No, I don’t know how that works, but the league is partly owned by Fox Sports, so expect the games to be aired out of order and then the season to be canceled right when people are starting to get interested.
- Also MLS is planning to launch a league for its franchises’ B teams, which currently mostly play in the USL, which you might think would put a damper on the USL expanding by as many as 35 teams, but that’s not how Ponzi schemes work.
- Note to Cleveland.com reporter Steven Litt: Please do not use “gain yardage” to refer to progress by the local sports team owner in getting public money, it conflates rooting for the team with rooting for the owner, I covered this more than 20 years ago, seriously.
It’s a pathetic life a dedicated reader lives, when waking up at 5:00 AM PST and waiting in a front porch chair in Robert Klein jeans and OP (Ocean Pacific) T-shirt for the FoS Friday Edition to be delivered.
#GreensboroBills (this is called a “hash-tag.” My grandson uses these when he twitters and tweets).
NdM,
I’m surprised you haven’t covered/mentioned the City of Oakland asking Alameda County to help out (so to speak) with infrastructure costs at Howard Terminal. LOL! If I’m Alameda Co. i’m telling Oakland officials to kiss my civic @-$!!!
Regarding Vegas, I truly believe if that’s the route the A’s take it would definitely include a nice land donation, with enough space for ballpark and ancillary development; not necessarily public financing in the traditional sense. Heck, they could even join the Raiders/Clark County in their newly proposed 1.25 square mile Stadium District (shops, restaurants, hotels, residential).
And just for the record, if the A’s were to relocate to Vegas, they would immediately get back on MLB’s annual revenue sharing program for “small market” teams; an extra $70 million per year (per newballpark.org website). Something to think about going forward.
The Oakland letter to Alameda County was last week, but sure, since you asked:
https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2021/city-of-oakland-urges-alameda-county-to-join-regional-collaboration-on-the-waterfront-ballpark-district-at-howard-terminal
It’s really just a restatement of the original Howard Terminal plan — “the city would be kicking back taxes, and oh yeah we’ll want to county to too” — but I guess they did make it official.
On the all-star game, you undoubtedly saw that several local businessmen are suing for ridiculous sums (1 billion! Now that’s a lot of pennies!) because of the aforementioned lost revenue.
So I guess it’s up to the courts to decide if lost revenue is laughable or not? Assuming the case doesn’t get dismissed before getting started.
On the USFL, I wonder if the trump will manage to kill this version too?
[I highly recommend “who killed the usfl” a 30 for 30 production from espn]
The thing with President Trump and the USFL is highly amusing to me. Those of us who lived through it know that the USFL had to move to the fall. It was only after President Trump started criticizing President Obama that the media started to conjure this delusion than the USFL was a successful spring league.
Actually those of us who “lived through it” remember only too well what happened… and the USFL absolutely did not have to move to the fall.
Trump was, then as now, just an idiot. He thought he could force his way into the NFL and didn’t care how many people he hurt in trying (and failing).
The USFL was not commercially successful overall and had badly overexpanded. However, several of the markets were sustainable and the league was still building it’s spring fan base. Until Dipshit Don decided this was his big chance to get into the league that didn’t want any part of him. Had the owners resisted that incompetent clown’s efforts to use them as leverage to get into the NFL (at which he failed, like most of his other businesses), they could easily have continued as a spring league.
As the former league commissioner clearly stated, they could have built a working business model. ABC was still on board. Many believed they were no more than 2-3 years away from a sustainable model. MLS took two decades to become anything other than a financial sinkhole. It takes time to build new leagues into profitable entities.
Several of the franchises would have had to go (and some did before the league folded, of course), but if properly managed spring football (and the USFL specifically) could still be playing.
The problem is that people with no real money keep starting leagues and expecting them to be profitable right away. Lamar Hunt demonstrated the only possible way to build a new league in a crowded sporting marketplace (and he did it twice, of course).
You need owners willing and able to lose money for 5-10 years to build a following. You can’t do it with grifters and conmen like Trump looking for a quick score.
And there’s the problem; you need people with lots of money willing to invest in the long term.
Most rich rubes panic the instant losses happen cause they expect immediate & exponential profit, not understanding that if you want something to work, risk management is a factor (ironically, some people do spend tons of money on failed ideas cause of the sunk cost fallacy, but in general, backers pull funding the second their margins are threatened).
I do believe spring football can work. It has to be understood where you can put the teams (despite the media need, NY & LA are bad ideas, while St. Louis, Orlando, San Antonio, and Seattle loved their AAF and XFL teams), plus accepting ratings do go down due to the novelty factor wearing off, but if you are willing to stick at it, people will treat it seriously and start coming back.
Oh, and avoid the Donald Trumps and Reggie Fowlers of the world if possible.
This Village Voice article about the underhanded ways Trump used people to try & get a free NYC stadium- aka Trumpdome- built for his NJ Generals is incredibly well written & entertaining. Anti-Trumpian journalist Wayne Barrett pulled no punches here. As usual.
https://bit.ly/3uVGeIv
Donald Trump’s Political Football | The Village Voice
www.villagevoice.com › 2019/03/04 › d…
Great article, thanks!
“Those of us who lived through it.” Interesting word choices.
I can barely begin to fathom how deeply and emotionally scaring spring football must have been. I must commend you for your strength of character to live through and survive that troubling period in our nation’s history.
Thankfully (and fortunately) Donald Trump, being a man of great character, wisdom and insight, tried to right a wrong by putting football back where it belongs. In the fall. Where it may flourish and succeed as every other professional league, not the NFL, has done.
ACFL 1962-1973
SFL 1971-1974
WFL 1974–1975
USFL 1983-1985 (saved by the Donald)
WLAF 1991-1992
CFL (US franchises) 1993-1995
WLAF 1995-1997
NFL Europe 1998-2006
NFL Europa 2007
XFL I 2001
UFL 2009-2012
AAF 2019 (another spring league)
XFL II 2020
Phffft. What’s next? Football is an arena in the spring! Am I right?
“Who lived through it” obviously meaning those of us alive at the time. The internet contains a massive surplus of commentary from people without direct experience of the thing they are discussing. John’s correct, as – again- those of us alive at the time can verify, and writing in such books as Jeff Pearlman’s excellent account will underline: the USFL was losing money, and its marquee franchises had wildly overspent on big-name players, but it was doing very well in several cities and ratings were reasonable, and without the intervention of Donald Trump and others, could have cut spending and several teams and continued to play in the spring.
Your list of leagues helps underline the point. Without financial backing willing to lose money for 6-8+ years, these startups aren’t going to make it. I understand why they all take the chance, but had the backers of the AAF, new XFL, and this USFL all gotten together, their potential payoff would be smaller but the likelihood of seeing any return down the line seems like it would be that much larger. Dwayne Johnson, I’m not your finance adviser, but I hope you’re doing this.
The Denver Gold was the most successful of the USFL franchises (Pearlman’s book notes that the strong gate receipts had helped it turn a small profit in its second season). Early spring football here is chancy because we can get snow in April-May, but if this USFL puts a team here, the city’s football-mad enough that I think people will check it out.
“The internet contains a massive surplus of commentary from people without direct experience of the thing they are discussing.”
In this instance, that wouldn’t be applicable in my case.
My point. I consider a life event (birth of a child, death of an immediate family member, divorce, job loss, etc.) to be something you live through.
The USFL. Unless you were directly involved, you didn’t live through it. It was simply an event or an occurrence that happens during one’s lifetime.
I didn’t live through the RFK assignation. It was an event during my lifetime.
I thought JFK was the one with all the assignations.
I stand corrected.
Really need someone to proof my grammar/spelling.
That ‘Firefly’ reference is the first positive comment I have read about the canceled Joss Whedon in quite some time.
Ben is largely right, though I don’t believe the USFL HAD to move to the fall. (They were not successful in the spring, though I don’t know how they were going to be successful in the fall with no TV deal and basically they had pinned all their hopes on the lawsuit.)
Those of us who did live through it know that the culpability flow chart of the demise of the USFL is complicated. Trump’s bombast and disregard for the ethos of the collective did not help and he strongarmed things that ended up contributing to the cause of death.
But he had lots of help in that regard. Tollin’s documentary is interesting but far too simplified.
Also, now USL is a Ponzi scheme, too, Neil? You have been riding this horse for a while without the pigeons coming home to roost, to mix metaphors.
Neither is a Ponzi scheme, per se. But they are both trying to thrive on the “keep expanding so fast no one can tell if you’re making or losing money” model, which … I guess is working for Uber? Sorta maybe?
There has been a lot of failed franchises, abandoned expansion teams, and teams demoting themselves to lower levels in the past decade on the USL level. I’m an Indy Eleven fan, and while I got my own complaints like the mythical Eleven Park project that they refuse to talk about, calling it a Ponzi scheme is a bit much. I look at it more as a generic “get rich quick” scheme where people are convinced there’s profit everywhere and fans will magically show up with fistfuls of money if you plop down a team.
Moving to the fall was the single biggest contributor to the league’s failure. They were not financially successful in the spring and many markets (of the “peak 18”) were not salvageable. However, they were building a fan base in several markets… so the solution is to move into direct competition with the behemoth competitor while simultaneously launching an antitrust lawsuit that essentially admits you know you can’t compete against that competitor?
To take Trump himself out of the equation, lets assume I own a poorly supported hamburger restaurant. I’m building a customer base slowly but I’m losing money at a rate that isn’t sustainable for me. Is it logical for me to try to fix this by moving into a vacant commercial space located right between a McDonalds and a Wendy’s while simultaneously suing both chains for antitrust?
There were many business failings within the USFL ownership group, no question. But the decision that absolutely killed the league was pushed by Trump. Tollin got that part correct.
Ponzi scheme.
https://mlsmultiplex.com/2020/06/02/mls-looming-2023-tv-deal-vital-league-survival/
https://fortune.com/2020/02/17/mls-profits-american-soccer-revenue/ (behind paywall. Bring up, read article on Internet search)
Shouldn’t the Reading Fightin Phils actually be called the Reading Fightin Reads?
Asking for a friend…
Or the Readin Fightin Phils.
That Gateway Board Chairman is certainly a silly man. (Sorry, couldn’t resist)
Don’t. Since FoS skimped on the normal “clever repartee” and we’ll need something to get us through this weekend.
And there were so many possibilities for FoS to fulfill its journalistic duties with a degree of levity. I know I myself had to bite my fingers from keying at least 4!