Happy Friday of another week where the Oakland A’s did not move to Las Vegas! There are going to be a lot of these, either an infinite number of them (my guess) or a very large number (if the game of chicken drags on a while but is not a total bluff), so get accustomed to them.
In other news:
- On top of $71-84 million in construction costs, a new New Mexico United stadium would require buying out “a lot of property” currently owned by private landholders, which would cost … want to give us a guesstimate, KRQE? No? Okay, then. At last word Mayor Tim Keller was going to present his stadium resolution to the city council by today, so maybe we’ll learn more soon.
- Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wants to use part of a $450 million infrastructure bond to pay for a new $160 million, 10,000-seat arena at the National Western Center, where it would host, you know, stuff? The National Western Center is described on its website as “a future place where heritage of the Old West meets progress of the New West, a space where school children can cultivate food systems while researchers discover food security solutions that will change the world,” so just use your imagination. It’s infrastructure, anyway, what could be wrong with that?
- Still not sure if the Minor League Baseball Relief Act is going anywhere or not, but its sponsors sure are firing all the publicity guns: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) declared this week that minor-league baseball teams “are on the brink of financial catastrophe,” citing … absolutely nothing, though the CBS News article reporting this (and putting “financial catastrophe” in its headline) quoted Chattanooga Lookouts owner Jason Freier as saying that without federal help it’s “going to take us 8 to 10 years to get our balance sheet in the state it was back in 2019,” citing … absolutely nothing again. Freier, for the record, already got $668,000 in PPP money, but if he can get as much as $10 million more from the new bill, he’d be crazy not to ask for it, right?
- The Charlotte Convention Center Fund only has about $250 million remaining under its debt cap, which could complicate plans for the city to help build a stadium for Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, who has hinted he’ll be seeking $500 million-ish in public funds. Or, you know, not, given that the city could just give him $500 million in tax breaks or free land or something. Money is fungible, which is great if you’re trying to extract it from the public treasury, for good or ill.
- Speaking of Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf said she’s “excited that we are going to resume our talks with the A’s,” while an A’s spokesperson said team execs are waiting for direction from MLB on how to proceed, ha ha, as if the MLB offices tell team owners what to do and not the other way around, that’s a good one.
- Modesto, California, which spent $4.2 million on a <strike>new</strike> rehabbed stadium for its minor-league baseball team the Modesto A’s (now the Modesto Nuts) in 1997, is “having conversations” with the Seattle Mariners about a new stadium, according to City Manager Joe Lopez. No details on how much it would cost or who would pay for it.
- Here’s a whole New York Post article about Staten Island’s new indy-league baseball team that never mentions how much the city will be spending to upgrade Staten Island’s stadium to make it happen. (Spoiler: $8 million, thanks, The City.)
- Developers are still interested in building on the Ybor City site in Tampa that Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg had been considering for a stadium, just without a stadium, which makes sense because those things are damned expensive and don’t bring in much in the way of revenue if you can’t get massive public subsidies for them, amirite? Anyway, the developers are thinking of calling the site the Gas Worx, so there’s still something to be outraged about, at least.
- When watching the Tokyo Olympics, remember that they have the biggest cost overruns in Olympic history. “At least until the next Olympics,” writes Patrick Hruby, and man, is he ever not wrong about that one.
The Mariners are moving to Modesto!!!
Well, alllllright. Take that, Fisher and co.
Take that, Stockton, Fresno, Sacramento, San Jose, Visalia and Carson City.
They’ve obviously been working on this for a very long time… I am expecting an announcement any day now.
Seattle blew it with the Mariners by letting in soccer and hockey teams. I mean there’s only so much goodwill a baseball owner can offer. The city has no-one to blame but themselves.
Lol hockey. Seattle will pretend to love hockey for a few years and then go back to being the weak market for the sport it’s always been.
The NHL chased potential dollars over proven fanbases in places like Quebec City. Idiotic.
Seattle will be a successful hockey market. Maybe the Coyotes, Panthers ,and Hurricanes should relocate to places that actually give a shit.
Lol sure they will.
Just like San Francisco will support the Warriors ;)
Fans and a relationship with the sport and community of enthusiasts for the sport is what makes a successful market, not tech dollars and fickle hipsters.
Modesto didn’t build a new ballpark in 1997. John Thurman Field was built in 1954.
Sorry, correct — the $4.2 million was a rehab, not a new stadium.
The Las Vegas A’s drama will not be resolved until the A’s come up with a site and funding plan that is credible and a willingness to execute it. Then Oakland will either counter offer and gets done or off to Vegas they go.
I think the only thing we can say about the land assembly cost at NMU’s prospective new stadium is that it will be 4-10x the price it would have been BEFORE they announced the project.
Chalk up another one for politicians and strategy failures.
So… the Denver Coliseum ain’t good enough to host small-time events anymore? We gotta build another arena in the city that’s just going to sit empty most of the time instead of giving a proper renovation to that facility?
I was going to request a tack-on rider mandating Lookouts home games on MILB.tv, but the Lookouts finally added those this season.
If I have the right National Western Center (I haven’t lived in Denver for a while now), it’s where they host the National Western Stock Show every January, which includes a rodeo, livestock auctions, city slickers buying hats and belt buckles, etc.
After the Stock Show threatened to decamp for Wyoming or elsewhere a few years ago, the city decided that its economic and cultural value was worth some new facilities… so this sounds like “infrastructure” that was, at least, already part of the agenda. http://denvernwc.wpengine.com/about/what-is-the-nwc/history-about-the-site/
I’m amazed a city like Denver still has that. Must drive the hipsters into a tizzy.
Denver and Albuquerque are run by fake woke idiots, just like Oakland. I find it really odd that areas that are either heavily black (Oakland) or Hispanic/Latino (Albuquerque) are run by white transplants.
They virtue signal but always show their true colors with moves like this.
Oakland will never build a new stadium for the A’s unless the extreme far left is dealt with there. The riots and protests and vandalism in an attempt to stop the construction will never stop, and honestly the A’s shouldn’t commit to a city that can’t keep its citizens safe or stop rampant crime. I foresee them moving to Vegas or some other city before eventually moving on when they realize Vegas or that other city doesn’t have a market for the MLB.
This is why you don’t allow gentrifiers and other transplants to take over your city. They always push idiotic ideas based on their vision for a place they aren’t even from.
Even considering your gross exaggerations (all of Oakland does not have rampant crime), the main misstatement you have is “Oakland will never build a new stadium for the A’s”. It’s not up to the city – it’s up to the team. If the team wants financial support for the project, come back with a reasonable plan for both sides.
Lol the “where I live is fine so there’s nothing wrong with the city” response.
Nothing I said was an exaggeration or misstatement. I’m not the least bit surprised at your reaction though as it’s one I get often from Philly transplants as well.
Oakland has had high crime for many years, and the “social justice” policies will help that crime continue to spread from the hood where it’s been out of sight for many Oakland boosters for years. Denying this is denying reality.
Actual Oakland natives don’t seem to care much about a stadium for the A’s, and I don’t blame them. The people pretending to act on their behalf though are the very ones gentrifying them out, and these entitled transplants will not stop this virtue until they’re voted out and put in their place about their own role in things. That means that they will continue to enact virtue signaling policies and will squeeze any entity they can portray as evil or against “the people”. These two things will combine to drive the A’s away, especially when the fake “proletariat” YLF gets involved. It’s a compulsion for these virtue signaling gentrifiers. It’s like a drug. They will never give it up, and it will cost the city its last major sports team.
That’s a fact. It doesn’t matter what agreements are in place or understandings there are. That city is now run by spoiled overgrown children like the transplant mayor and will do everything it can to drive away the A’s and consider it a victory.
“do everything it can to drive away the A’s and consider it a victory”- it will be a victory if they don’t surrender to the extortionist demands of the billionaire team owners, and instead do literally anything else with that money.
The rest of your rant isn’t terribly relevant, or accurate.
Tepper needs public money to build a new stadium despite having a perfectly good one already? Really?
God I hate tech owners. They pretend to be such good samaritans but they’re really no different than any other owner. They also think they know how to run their teams better than anybody else based on literally nothing but their inflated ego.