Yes, yes, I’ve read that restaurant review, and it’s great, but is it really better than the classic of the genre? It’s hard to beat “tasted like chewy air,” is all I’m saying.
And speaking of things that are almost indescribably awful, on with the week’s stadium and arena news:
- Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg met on Tuesday morning to discuss a new stadium in Tampa, and then Castor said she will meet again with Sternberg “very soon” to discuss … specific financing ideas, I guess? It’s hard to focus when I’m distracted by this photo of Castor waving an enormous Lightning flag while standing on a boat next to some sort of body-horror bee mascot, what is it with the mayor of Tampa always trying to appear like an uber-fan?
- I am sad to inform you that Arizona Coyotes management has paid its delinquent $1.3 million tax bill, and the team is no longer in danger of being evicted on December 20. (Sad because that would have been great fun for anyone except for Coyotes fans.) However, they’re still late with almost a million dollars in lease payments and owe another $3.2 million by March 1, plus they got hilariously dragged by Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps, who said of the team’s “unfortunate human error” explanation: “There’s a very simple process. You go online, on your account, you plug in the numbers for the taxes that are due, and then there’s a gigantic button that says ‘REMIT PAYMENT’, And that’s done monthly. So, every month since June of 2020, somebody has filled that information and admitted the form, but forgot to submit payment along with it.” So still #LOLCoyotes, all is right with the world.
- MLS commissioner Don Garber says Las Vegas is the frontrunner for the league’s next expansion franchise, but Phoenix and San Diego are still in the mix as well. Given that MLS is also adding a new minor league next season (they don’t call them “minor leagues” in soccer, but that’s what it is) that is confusing even soccer fans, while the USL is talking about expanding like crazy to compete with MLS for dominance of the U.S. soccer world, it almost doesn’t matter who gets which team when, since every city, town, and hamlet will soon enough have a franchise, but that’s not gonna stop MLS from seeking a new stadium from Vegas, because you can’t get if you don’t ask.
- Also on the MLS front, Newsday asks, “Will MLS Cup appearance help NYCFC get its own stadium?“, to which Garber answers, “The situation in New York continues to evolve.” In other words, still nope, but they’ll keep on trying.
- “Stadium subsidies are just corporate welfare for sports moguls.” I may have been beating this drum for more than 20 years, but at least I’ve finally gotten through to (checks author bio) Nevada’s columnist/humorist/radio talk show host community! Step by step, the longest march.
- The Reading Fightin Phils have released renderings of their planned stadium renovation to be paid for with $13.5 million in public money, and for some reason all we get is an image of a couple of dudes in ties sitting on a bench in a bar? Also they’ve surrounded themselves with empty chairs for some reason? The inner lives of entourage are mysterious indeed.
Bettman on the Coyotes owing money: ‘It’s been taken care of’
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/bettman-coyotes-owing-money-taken-care/
Yet, Bettman added Glendale had “an agenda”?
The Arizona Department of Revenue would beg to differ.
Sure they do. Their agenda involves actually getting paid the money they are due under the current agreement.
I’m sure that seems terribly unfair to Mr. Bettman, past Coyotes owners having had such good luck failing to live up their agreements with the city.
Also this tweet from Katie Strang quoting Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps:
“If Mr. Bettman and others want to believe that not filing 17 monthly tax returns was due to human error, then so be it ..”
https://twitter.com/KatieJStrang/status/1469363953281208321
One more…this tweet from Diana Moskovitz:
“And now it’s back to me tweeting about sports! I couldn’t help myself so, after @KatieJStrang ‘s excellent report about the NHL’s Coyotes not paying their taxes, I downloaded their tax lien.
How does a hockey team end up owing $1.3 million in taxes?”
https://twitter.com/DianaMoskovitz/status/1469375426699018243
That was quite a restaurant review!
More MLS means more in the tv package. They lost national soccer so they have to add value elsewhere.
Their tv deal will be interesting to see. They have lots of teams, but not lots of viewers. Their 7 million viewer thanksgiving game was less than 2 million. Pretty good for soccer, but that was riding coattails of 25 million viewer football match.
The league will keep growing itself to prove it has worth, even if it is always losing money.
MLS. Money Losing Scheme. Nothing more need be said.
Clarification. If you’re the billionaire with the vain glory franchise. But hey, a few million flushed is pocket change especially when you can sell your overvalued franchise to the next sucker who comes along.
True. However, if you are a billionaire with significant income that can’t be otherwise tax sheltered each year (which I assume is quite a high percentage of them), then owning a money losing sports franchise that might appreciate in value over a decade or so allows you to effectively redirect your own tax dollars to fund that capital appreciation play.
Just like the Hollywood celebs who owned oil wells in the 1950s… putting money that would otherwise go to taxes to work for you. While also complaining that the rich don’t pay enough taxes…
Apologies John. The point you’re making, more eloquently written, was the very same I was making with my poor clarification comment.
poorly written – fixed
I really doubt that ESPN and Fox are going to pay more for MLS TV rights if they have 30 teams rather than 29.
Each team they add plays some number of games that they bring up when negotiating. Each league they create offers possibility for some stupid event. MLS Microstars Tournament of Stars Tournament on EPSN+ this July!
MLS has added 9 teams since its last TV deal. That is more soccer to televise, stream, and dump on RSNs between infomercials for magic cooktime sausage roasters.
The TV package needs to make up for loss of national team. More MLS does that while artificially boosting revenue through outrageous franchise fees for teams the buyer does not actually own.
Whatever incremental increase you get isn’t going to make up for losing 1/30th of the total to a new franchise, though. The real windfall is the expansion fees the new owners are paying for entry into an increasingly less and less exclusive club. (Not that they’re balking — rich people can be as dumb as the rest of us.)
Tell me more about these magic cooktime sausage roasters….
Garber is on tv right now speaking about how excited they are that their rights are “out there”.
In theory, the additional team (whether it is 1 of 10 or one of 32) will dilute the TV revenues in the short term… each team will likely get less money. Over the longer term, the hope is that more product means more content to sell to TV (or streaming) and thus bigger revenues. For MLS, that may or may not work.
Is every MLS game currently on TV somewhere? I certainly don’t have access to most of them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on some freakshow regional network that only plays in a small geographic area.
SUM handles soccer TV rights. MLS owns SUM. US national soccer teams got $30 million of the $90 million MLS received in TV money. That was one third of tv deal and awarded by no bid contract. Now national teams want bids on its kick a ball action. Good for it, but not for SUM. MLS wants SUM to control soccer rights. If you want to watch soccer, you gotta pay them.
MLS is not most popular soccer league in US. Liga Mx is. SUM has those rights too.
The difference between 1/29 and 1/30 is negligible. It is a worthwhile trade off when that pie is a lot bigger. Adding more junk is how tv works. They bundle in this extra stuff no one wants and the price rises. The teams will make more money even if they as getting negligibly smaller pieces of cake.
Right, the question is whether going from 29 to 30 teams makes the pie “a lot bigger” compared to what’s lost by giving up a share to a new franchise. It seems like at best a wash to me, but I guess we’ll see what happens when a new deal is cut.
Also this. USSF and SUM part ways starting in 2022.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4393273/us-soccer-mls-owned-soccer-united-marketing-parting-ways-after-nearly-20-years%3fplatform=amp
Does not appear there are any realistic options at all.
Exploring the Coyotes’ interim arena options
https://gophnx.com/2021/12/12/exploring-the-coyotes-interim-arena-options/