That Arizona Coyotes news really laid waste to my planned writing schedule this morning, so I’m afraid the Friday roundup is going to be extra-brief and extra-late today:
- NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, clearly not satisfied with having twisted Buffalo Bills move-threat leverage into being a real threat, doubled down yesterday with a column saying the “clock is ticking” because the Bills’ lease is up in 2023 and if they start talking to other cities they won’t “want other cities to sense that they’re being used in an effort to get a better deal in Buffalo” but instead will only be seriously looking to move. Florio has been doing this for a long time and presumably is familiar with the history of team move threats, which have nothing to do with when leases expire or not wanting to toy with other cities’ emotions and everything to do with ego and the search for greater profits, but also Florio has been doing this for a long time and pretty much sees everything through NFL-ownership-colored glasses, so none of this is surprising, except maybe that NBC Sports continues to employ him.
- Speaking of the Bills, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared this week that he’s “confident the Bills will stay in Buffalo” now that the state has “a new governor from Western New York who’s a Bills fan” who can “work with the team” and the NFL on shoveling public money at a new stadium. He didn’t actually say that last part out loud, but what else could he mean, right? That Kathy Hochul will show up at negotiations in a Bills jersey and the NFL will say, “You’re our kind of people, forget that whole $1.4 billion thing”?
- The Regina Red Sox owners still want a new $20-25 million stadium, and still are willing to put up $5 million while “the rest would have to come from the city or other funds the city could access.” I, too, am willing to put up 20% of the cost of a new home; anyone who would like to cover the other 80%, I take Paypal.
- The Los Angeles Clippers‘ new arena in Inglewood could break ground this month, according to a Sports Illustrated article based on a Substack post by disgraced-for-plagiarism-and-cronyism former L.A. Times writer Arash Markazi, in turn based entirely on a statement by Inglewood Mayor James Butts that he “hopes” the team will break ground this month, never mind, nothing to see here, just another game of journalistic telephone.
- Speaking of lazy stenography journalism, here’s an entire Tampa Bay Times article on how Tampa city officials are convinced the Rays are going to build a stadium in their city, because, um, they just are, okay? The TB Times ran a great op-ed this week by a Covid expert laying out clearly and with simple math the risks of the Delta variant and the efficacy of vaccines, maybe go read that instead and skip their sports coverage.
- The Cleveland Plain Dealer wants you to subscribe to their newspaper in order to read their terrible article on how the NFL Draft supposedly brought in $42 million in economic activity to the city, based entirely on a press release by the local sports authority, don’t click on the PD at all, you’ll only encourage them.
Lifelong Bills fan and Buffalo area resident here. Pegula is worth $5.4 billion according to Google. Pay for your own stadium or GTFO, there’s no reason one cent of tax money should go to a stadium that will do NOTHING for the local economy. Especially when Highmark Stadium is a perfectly adequate place to see a game. Oh, it doesn’t have 350 luxury suites? Doesn’t matter, no one in Buffalo can afford tickets for them anyway.
Pegula and Goodell can go to hell. You wanna move to Austin or Greensboro? I’ll drive you to the airport.
The Coyotes seem to have hoovered up all the comments too…
Yup. Think the point of FoS story was the Yotes got the boot. Not where is their next destination.
I believe a rule of journalism should be:
“Don’t try to make the story more interesting than it really is.”
Florio is just trying to make the Bills situation seem more urgent than it really is because that will get more interest.
A story about how the Bills are in the early stages of what will be a long and complicated process isn’t as exciting.
How long before a baseball team threatens to move to Inglewood?