Speaking of relatively novice governors and NFL stadiums, newly elected Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took time out from trying to ban critical race theory to endorse the Washington Football Team‘s proposal to turn the state’s baseball stadium authority into a football stadium authority that could fund a new WFT stadium. (The Washington Post noted that Youngkin “did not mention the team by name,” which if intentional is some awesome shade given the team still doesn’t have a real name yet.) In fact, Youngkin did so while openly expressing his intent to throw money at corporate subsidies to lure companies from other states:
We’re going to repeal needless regulations. We’re going to invest in job training. We’re going to foster innovation. And we’re going to win the competition for jobs and corporate re-locations.
I support a significant investment in mega-sites.
To make sure we don’t lose the next advanced battery manufacturing plant after seeing several go to Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.
And while we’re at it let’s broaden the baseball stadium authority to include football. And perhaps we’ll get one of those too.
So, yeah, those electric-car battery plants: The one in Tennessee is getting at least $500 million in state cash, plus possibly more than $1 billion in discounted electricity, according to Good Jobs First. Since Ford’s battery plant is expected to employ 5,800 people, that’s going to be around $200,000 in state money per job created, which is the kind of ratio that gets economists recommending throwing money out a helicopter window instead.
As for the football stadium plans, Virginia state Sen. Jeremy McPike also told Fox 5 DC that talks of building a stadium in northern Virginia are “very serious,” though he acknowledged that “the construction of a stadium takes years and years.”
And then there’s Youngkin’s vow: “The message is clear, if your cargo container ships is stuck off the coast of another state come to Virginia.” Is this a reference to Big Boat? Does it mean anything at all? Virginia is going to be creating some Youngkin-to-English translator jobs, that much is certain.
You have to admit it’s pretty damn funny that Virginia Dems lost the state because they couldn’t tell teachers to stop being racist against straight white men.
Nothing funny about White supremacy, bro.
This was posted as a now-deleted comment along with something that was a personal attack and was omitted:
“Does the ‘no personal attacks’ rule apply to statements that are a blanket attack on any of us who have at least a scintilla of basic decency?”
Answer: Sadly, no, because “decency” is too hard to strictly define. But yeah, calling the idea that structural racism exists “racist against straight white men” is above and beyond anything even Youngkin would say, and feels like an attempt at straight-up trolling. (Also, does this imply that Margaret Thatcher and Roy Cohn, for starters, were not responsible for structural racism? Discuss.)
Although Snyder has long said he wanted to be back in DC, I suspect Northern Virginia Sprawl would be a better fit for him. I suspect it’s closer to more or their actual fanbase than their current location, and some politicians in Fairfax County/Loudoun County has a bit of the Jacksonville disease of believing a major league team will compel the rest of the world to treat it like it’s a Real Place and maybe a World Class City.
So they might be more amenable to throwing money at a stadium than DC, which, I’d think, is feeling pretty burned out on free stadium deals for the time being. Although I wouldn’t be shocked if DC’s leadership could be “persuaded” to replace RFK with a new NFL stadium.
And the Ravens would be happy to help get them out of Maryland.
I’ve read that Washington Commanders is the favorite to be the new team name. That will play well with a lot of people in Nova. I think they should honor America’s favorite designated losers by calling themselves the Washington Generals.
I don’t get how cities and states can’t wait to find ways to spend public money for billionaire owners to have their palaces which they don’t use most of the year,
bEcAuSe JoBs AnD dEvElOpMeNt!!!
Philip: I think it’s part of the same failed thought process which leads to elected officials calling foul at a few hundred billion designated for poor people who are literally starving and about to lose their homes while hastily approving $1-2Tr in bailout money for corporations owned by the wealthiest 1-3% of the nation.
In simpler terms… welfare for people who aren’t short of money is good. Welfare for the poor and struggling – bad?
“Do we have to remind you poor people again about the bootstraps?”
Reed: Since most of the money will be provided by appropriating money from other (mainly middle and lower income earners) people, I am hoping they will be calling themselves the Washington Communists.
If the Va stadium comes to pass, how long will it take for the people of Virginia to hate Snyder as much as most of DC does?
Taking money from middle and low earners and giving it to the rich is communism now? You kids today with your lingo…
Confiscation of wealth (however modest) to benefit the upper class was not part of Marx & Engels vision, but it is certainly how communism was practiced in both the Soviet Union and China.
We call it something else here, but we are doing very much the same thing.
Four legs good, two legs better!
I think the people of Virginia already hate Snyder as much as they’re ever going to. The R******* were traditionally the most popular team across the whole state (indeed, in the 50s and 60s, they were the team for the whole southeast), so football fans there are very familiar with Snyder’s record.
But FedEx Field is surprisingly difficult to get to from Virginia, even the Northern Virginia suburbs. Or, at least, it’s harder to reach than RFK, even though it’s not very far from there. The traffic getting in and out is slow, public transit options are slim, and parking is expensive and not convenient.
That, along with the crapitude on the field, is a major reason why their attendance has dwindled over the years. Everyone hates that stadium.
The only fans that seem to like FedEx Field are fans from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
IDK the obsession with “public transportation” as a factor in stadium location; the two functions would be to (a) serve urban locals that ALREADY made use of buses/light rail in lieu of automobiles, for which garaging costs have likely become a factor; and (b) if viable “park-n-ride” options exist. This MIGHT work for a new football stadium on the site of RFK; and would actually bring the ‘Skins (sorry, but WTF for WFT? At least a name like “Commanders” or “Generals” might be more fitting than, say, “Guardians” in Cleveland) back to DC proper. There’s also be a financial advantage over most any NoVA location; land is ALREADY “in the bank” and would have little other purpose.
Methinks, though, Northam et al., VA residents, would be better served to propose a common SE VA relocation, say, near Williamsburg, to take in Richmond and Tidewater regions, and possibly even draw from Raleigh-Durham, NC. The NFL is more a TV-dependent game, and what’s killing the Jaguars is, they can fill the re-vamp Gator Bowl to the brim, and they still are in, what, the 36thTV market? With Tampa having beat them to capture Central FL (whoda thunk Orlando would grow to its present size, never mind the Cape Coast and Volusia county), they’re also competing with the Falcons up in ATL and even two huge college programs (FL Gators in Gainesville and FL ST Seminoles in Tallahassee). While certainly SE VA isn’t the only option for a Jags relocation, from a media market standpoint, it’s got JAX beat.