Sorry for the lateness of today’s roundup, but I had to get a haircut in advance of an interview about the Buffalo Bills stadium plans. (I mean, I needed a haircut anyway, but this made it important to do so on Roundup Friday. This is probably more than you wanted to know about my haircut.) Lots of news this week, let’s get to it!
- ESPN did what it does best yesterday, publishing a long fly-in-the-wall report on this week’s NFL meetings based on, you know what, who cares who its sources are when the resulting story includes Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke threatening to sue to get out of his promise to indemnify the NFL against lawsuits from St. Louis over the team’s move out of that city, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft griping that he wouldn’t have sat on the L.A. relocation committee if he’d known all the shit that would come with it, and Jerry Jones defending his pal (and stadium business partner) Kroenke and blaming the mess on one unnamed owner who gave a “shaky” deposition. This is way better than whatever that HBO show is about rich people that I won’t watch because it looks awful! Somebody greenlight Sunday Night Kroenke already, I’m out of stuff to hate-watch.
- The Cleveland Guardians owners are being sued by a men’s roller derby team that, whoops, is also called the Cleveland Guardians and has been since before the baseball team changed its name, maybe somebody should have checked that? You would think that the baseball team owners would have simply paid off the derby team, and it appears that’s what the derby team wanted, but the baseball team made an offer that was “four figures” and then “surreptitiously filed” a trademark application for the name in Mauritius. Actually, forget the Kroenke show, I want to watch Cleveland Trademark Law.
- The owners of the new KC NWSL women’s soccer team (catchy name) say they plan to build a “privately financed” $70 million, 11,000-seat stadium in downtown Kansas City, which sounds very promising, but we’ve certainly heard that before about stadiums that turned out to get tax breaks or free land or other under-the-table subsidies. So what’s the deal here? How much is KC NWSL paying to lease the land from Port KC, the local port authority? There are roughly a billion articles on the announcement, but none bother to go into specifics, so let’s file this one under TBD for the moment; in the meantime, here’s your requisite vaportecture of soccer fans watching, naturally, fireworks.
- Bronx businesses are less and less thrilled with NYC F.C.‘s proposed soccer stadium, and more and more interested in getting the New York Yankees to actually start paying property taxes. I wouldn’t count on the latter anytime soon since the whole Yankees deal was structured to allow the team owners to pay off their stadium bonds with fake property taxes, and having to pay real property taxes would mess that up, plus the Steinbrenners are not going to want to pay more taxes nohow; but also it doesn’t look real likely that the NYC F.C. stadium is getting built either, so glass half-full, maybe?
- There’s a new snag for the proposed Arizona Coyotes arena in Tempe, as the Phoenix Aviation Advisory Board has determined that arriving planes at nearby Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport would only pass “maybe 400 feet” above its roof when approaching to land. There are other airports with less headroom, but still the board’s deputy aviation manager noted that other projects have had to address issues around “the various building materials — the glare, the lighting, the way navigator equipment kind of would bound off surfaces. So it’s not as easy to just say, ‘Well, tell us your height and as long as you keep it under that we should be OK.'”
- Not really stadium news except the team in question just got a ton of public money for one, but MLB commissioner Rob Manfred came out in favor of the Atlanta Braves‘ name and fan practice of chanting vaguely Native American things while waving their hands in imitation of chopping someone with a tomahawk, justifying it by saying: “The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of the Braves program, including the Chop. For me, that’s kind of the end of the story.” The National Congress of American Indians begs to differ, as do some members of the same local tribe the team owners cite as supporting the name and the chop. Game 3 of the World Series is in Atlanta tonight, you can just feel the excitement!
St Louis should get some of the money the invested in the dome back. It doesnt need the nfl
I am assuming (I haven’t read their statement of claim, obviously) that this is mostly what they want… to be made whole on what is left of the stadium/renovation debts and associated costs related to attempts to induce the team to stay when it’s owner was clearly not going to stay yet telling the city that they could still “keep” the Rams if they came up with something ‘really great’ etc.
The ESPN article suggested (via Jones) that Kroenke had offerred “Billions” to settle.
That seems unlikely to me, given what STL would be due to receive if they actually win the lawsuit(s).
But sure, if they could get anywhere from $100m-$250m as a settlement, I’d argue they win. It covers their costs and leaves them with a building they have no legitimate use for on prime land in/near the city centre.
Prime land? St Louis is a cool place to visit and all but its not like there is an influx of cash for development going on there. Just look at aerial/street views of the dome and the surrounding area. Its not like there would be sky scrapers or 5 start housing going in if the dome wasn’t there
It’s a shame the Gateway Arch, the Hyatt Regency, the Hilton, the Convention Centre and the new Busch Stadium were all built in that same dumpy area then.
Downtown on the riverfront and it’s not prime land?
Weren’t you arguing that the working ports along Cleveland’s waterfront were a poor use of prime land not so long ago?
Well, the Coyotes could resolve all of the issues surrounding their proposed new arena (*NB: except who will pay for it and how) by becoming the first NHL team to construct an arena entirely underground.
Come on, you know you want one. So do all the other teams.
And it would save on air conditioning costs, as well as any costs associated with exterior cladding. Naming rights could be a more difficult sell, however.
Name me a hockey arena with windows in the seating bowl that allow you to see the city outside? See, nobody can do it…
Coming soon to a Tempe near you… the Arizona subterraneans….
They’d even have a built in tagline “ALWAYS take the Under”
The Nordiques already have a perfectly good arena, why are they trying to build a second one?
Same reason “they” built the first one… because they think they can get someone else to pay for it.
And maybe, just maybe, get someone to pay them to play in it as well.
At O’hare, runway 27c is closer to the Allstate Arena than it is to the terminal.
I’m guessing that Arena is Chicago’s NHL and NBA arena? The corporate names all just blend together, I don’t keep up.
Nope Allstate Arena is for minor league hockey, B list indoor concerts, and monster truck / demonlition derby shows.
The chop is so ingrained in Georgia, it’s truly amazing. Questioning the chop is like questioning capitalism. Even people who should know better get offended if you dare suggest that the chop might possibly maybe be racist.
You are of course forgiven for tardiness your majesty…..
Hold on, Neil. Are you talking SUCCESSION or THE WHITE LOTUS?
Yes.
I you think those two shows blow, then why subscribe to HBO at all?
I need the eggs.
Dammit. I had Avenue 5 in the pool….
Avenue 5 was good! Or, well, at least watchable.
Your majesty! (LOL)
I know it’s not part of your Friday roundup, but just curious:
The Las Vegas metro has a larger population than the following MLB markets (some that are home to other top-4 franchises as well).
Milwaukee
Kansas City
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Also pretty close in size to the Pittsburgh metro as well. Why exactly can’t MLB work in Sin City again?
Still don’t see Howard Terminal happening, even after yesterday’s “Earth shattering” development with AlCo.
No serious thoughts Kroenke? Just laugh it off I guess?