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For everyone else reading this via any and all communications media, here’s what all has been happening in stadium and arena news this week:
- Plans by Tennessee Titans owners the Adams family to demand $300 million in state sales-tax kickbacks to help fund a $600 million renovation of their 23-year-old stadium have hit a snag, which is that the projected cost is now expected to be nearly double that — thanks to things like “antiquated” windows and a concrete structural frame that “needs” to be replaced with steel, people sure didn’t know how to build things to last in 1999! Since the Titans have a dread state-of-the-art clause in their lease requiring the city of Nashville to keep the stadium in the same condition as other NFL facilities, which presumably includes the latest in window technology, Mayor John Cooper says he plans to “closely review whether a new stadium would be a better long-term financial decision.” Since the Titans’ lease expires in 2028, Cooper might also want to closely review whether a better financial decision would be to just inform the Adamses that if they want to stay in town they will not be offered a promise of continual publicly funded upgrades, but Axios Nashville, which reported this “scoop” (you can tell because it says “Scoop” right in the headline), doesn’t seem to have bothered to ask about that, guess “local coverage worthy of readers’ time” doesn’t include followup questions!
- The Oakland city council voted 6-2 to approve the final environmental impact report for a new Oakland A’s stadium at Howard Terminal, after a meeting that included construction workers demanding approval so that they can be hired to help build the thing. This isn’t actually the final vote that everyone is waiting on — that would be the final financing plan, which could cost taxpayers a billion dollars and still has about a half-billion-dollar hole in where the money would be raised, and which will be voted on someday, eventually.
- The Arizona Coyotes are officially moving for at least the next three years to Arizona State University’s new 5,000-seat arena (which looks like this currently, if you were wondering), but team CEO Xavier Gutierrez says he doesn’t expect a “material financial impact” because of “how difficult our current situation has been financially.” Yes, the Coyotes have been losing money, largely thanks to nobody showing up to games, but it’s hard to see how spending $20 million on new NHL-only locker rooms won’t have at least a $20 million financial impact, you know?
- The new owners of the USL’s Austin Bold F.C. are considering a move to Fort Worth now that Austin has its own MLS team, and are eyeing the construction of a 10,000-seat stadium to make it happen. The city would “support” construction of the stadium, and no total or public price tag has been provided, so in the meantime let’s just gaze upon this rendering and wonder what’s going on with that poorly synchronized flag display on the field, let alone why one entire end of the grandstand wouldn’t have a view of the game:
- We already covered at the time the sad story of how the city of Anaheim responded to the 2018 expiration of Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno’s lease opt-out clause by just handing him a lease extension with a new opt-out clause that allowed him to continue his stadium subsidy demands, but if you want a longer recap in full gruesome detail, the Orange County Register has that for you.
- Glendale, Arizona city manager Kevin Phelps is “very upset” that baseball spring training is being delayed by MLB owners’ lockout of players in a labor contract dispute, since he was counting on a stream of tourists to boost the local economy. Don’t worry, Kevin, spring training visitors don’t seem to provide any measurable economic boost anyway, so … yay?
- Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson says New York state and local elected officials are being held “hostage” by Bills team owners and succumbing to “Stockholm syndrome” because they … aren’t insisting on building a new publicly funded stadium in Buffalo instead of in the suburbs. Keep on speaking truth to power, Buffalo News.
Every time I think this nonsense can’t go on, elected officials keep on losing their minds. There really is no end to this whole phenomenon, is there?
It’s nonsense all the way down.
Seriously, count me among those who did not think we would still be having the exact same stadium subsidy battles going on in (checks calendar) 2022 as there were when Joanna and I first started writing about this in (checks archeological records) 1995. But given that the political dynamics haven’t changed any — billionaires still have pull, local elected officials still see their jobs as promoting “economic activity” at all costs, sports leagues are still monopolies, campaign finance reform is still but a dream — it kind of makes sense that we’re stuck in this eternal holding pattern.
I think of the Seattle Sonics leaving town, there was so much drama over how we would be perceived.
Since then Seattle has done pretty well, it’s grown, incomes have risen, we’ve gotten new residents, etc. No, it’s not perfect, we have our issues, but Seattle wasn’t devastated by the NBA leaving town.
Great solution. Just have the most successful company in human history be headquartered in your city.
The Dutch East India Company is based in Seattle?
Hilarious how Dave Kaval and many pro-Howard Terminal folk are claiming EIR approval as some major development for their boondoggle. EIR’s get approved all the time in California, whether they’re flawed or if a project never gets built. Actually PAYING ($$$!) for said boondoggle, especially in a (relatively) poor city like Oakland… (LOL!)
Why would Kaval care, since according to him the team is moving to Vegas anyway?
“Parallel paths”!
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/athletics/article/Kaval-A-s-Oakland-discussing-ballpark-16401917.php
(Parallel Paths would make a great name for a dating show, a la The Bachelor.)
I immediately thought Parallel Paths would be an interesting band name…
Or recovery/treatment center.
I am old enough (as I suspect are you…) to remember when “Parallel Lines” sat at the top of the charts…
Sigh.
Referring to his tweet “Boom! Yes Vote! Big step closer blah blah blah…”. Certified EIR’s are a dime a dozen in California, even for projects that never got built.
BTW Neil: with inflation, rising construction costs and potential rise in interest rates, any chance we haven’t seen the final price tag on the Howard Terminal boondoggle?
Inflation should come down by the time this breaks ground, and interest rates won’t change the construction cost, just the annual financing payments. That said, initial cost estimates are pretty much always lowballed, so wouldn’t be surprised to see the cost go up.
I hope Nashville gives the Adams Family [enter music: “da, da, da, da……da, da, da, da”] the same treatment that Houston gave them back in the 90’s:
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
It was a pretty full Friday recap, but I thought you should know that it’s begun in Denver again. https://www.denverpost.com/2022/02/18/denver-broncos-new-stadium/
Old NFL owner dies, team for sale, new owner will want our tax dollars.
I am puzzled why Nashville would give them any money. They have a great entertainment scene already. Who would visit Nashville to watch a Titans’ game? They are a lot of better options. It’s like going to Vegas to watch a Raiders’ game.
They got the NHL, they got MLS, NASCAR’s back in town at the speedway… Vanderbilt… exists?
Sure, the Titans had that one miracle run to the Super Bowl all those years ago, but in the “what have you done for me lately” department, all they’ve managed are an endless series of agonizing Thursday Night Football dates with the Jacksonville Jaguars. And the Adams family suddenly wants a brand-new stadium?
Based on the mush-mouthed statements from pretty much all the Tempe city council hopefuls, I’d say the Coyotes are well on their way to yet another free arena. Anyone who thinks the team’s owners will be out a nickel when it’s all done is dreaming.
As a Scottsdale resident, I’m happier to see Tempe skroo its citizens than take the chance that my city would be next to jump in line. The pols here are no smarter than Tempe’s, and our operating city motto is “If a developer wants, he gets it.”
There’s no team I want to see fail miserably and finally face their day of reckoning more than the Coyotes, and I’m just gonna be forever unhappy, aren’t I?
My favourite part of the latest announcement is the club saying – in response to PA concerns about HRR – effectively that they “don’t expect that playing in the sub 5,000 seat arena will significantly impact their hockey related revenue”.
Yeah. That.
I think Tempe will continue, where Glendale left off.
Learned nothing, forgotten everything.
And 10-15 years from now, Tempe will kick them out, and the Coyotes will go to Scottsdale and go “Can you build us an arena?”
Next step for the A’s is the litigation. They are going to get sued by those wanting to block the project. Who know what happens after that
Of course they wouldn’t! Let’s not confuse the Soft Power Billionaire Industrial Complex SAYING people would visit Vegas just for the Raiders, (which of course happens all the time!) with That Actually Happening, which happens with a rarity that would round to zero.
Is there anyway this group can get traction?
Neil when you and Joanna did the book you probably thought it may make a difference.
It was a different world back then. Checks those archeological records. Was that the Netscape/Explorer wars on the internet?
I’m thinking that this group can come up with an awesome viral take.
We have our work cut out for us since it’s been a late night TV subject.
Or at least give them quotes/stats.
In terms of handouts why stop at a billion?
Think of how much our municipality would gain if we spent a trillion?!?!
Not only do we make a bold statement but then we become market leaders.
We will be the bestest destination in America. Please, billionaire tell me how I can get you this money you deserve fastest.
Oh and it goes without saying you will invite me for the unveiling of the 17th Wonder of the world.
I would love this to go viral.
Let’s try to start a city/state/borough/county who didn’t want to do any of the library/school/parkrec type of stuff but only wants to get a SPORTS TEAM!!!
Neil I don’t know if you edit but I would this wad tl:dr
Axios is a good source for balanced news. You want to have them ask a leading question like “why don’t you Mayor Cooper have the team hit the road?”
It’s not their job to create the news, it’s to report it!
I live in Austin. Who are the Austin Bold?
Are they that ghost team that played at the F1 racetrack?
That traffic nightmare?
Go boldly into that great good night…..
MLB to Glendale: pound sand (like Steve Carlton), we be working on important stuff here…..
You’d think econ profs would get the hint that their research is faulty, when people who actually live and work in a city tell them that Spring Training is an economic boon.
If you can’t trust random people on the street for your peer-reviewed economic analysis, who can you trust?
I know when I feel the need for financial advice, I’d much rather have random sports fans who’s tickets are being subsidized by taxpayers who can’t afford the tickets give me their insight than trained financial professionals.
All that book learnin’ and they can’t even get jobs with Mnuchin’s fraudulent foreclosure machine, UBS or Goldman Sachs???
Seems like a waste of 4-8 years to me.
Gotta have street smarts… like Don Jr. and Eric.
I’m thinking that there may be something here….
Why do academic institutions give out economic degrees as well as have professors who teach the black art that is economics?
People whose feet are on the ground and are experiencing spring training should really be the one’s that should be making billion dollar decisions for municipalities.
Explain to me what is wrong with Gila River Arena? The team sucks. That seems to be the problem.Too many Pa