So, the baseball lockout is over. A bunch of things changed (universal DH, two extra playoff teams, bigger bases and, apparently, thumbs), but most of the basic economics of the game like revenue-sharing didn’t, so there’s probably no major impact on stadium subsidy incentives. If I notice any exceptions, you’ll be the first to know.
Meanwhile, back in the same old, same old:
- A vote of the Miami City Commission on Inter Miami’s stadium plan at Melreese golf course has been delayed for the third time in a month, ostensibly because of issues with placing a public notice in the newspaper, but more likely because it doesn’t have the needed four out of five votes. As a reminder, the Inter Miami soccer stadium plan wouldn’t require any public money but would require selling public parkland, and also is cursed, probably because David Beckham once opened a mummy’s tomb or something.
- The Calgary city council responded to the rising cost overruns that caused the Flames owners to walk away from their arena subsidy deal by appointing a committee to try to find a third party to try to find a fourth party to come up with the missing money, in exchange for the people’s ovation and fame forever, or something. “I think it is not if the event centre gets built, it is when the event centre gets built,” said councillor Sonya Sharp, which has a famous last words feel about it, yes, but also it seems like the Calgary council is determined to find a way to give the Flames $300 million, so we may be here a while.
- Oh, here’s some relevant baseball lockout news, sort of: It’s been reported that the Tampa Bay Rays, famed payroll cheapskates (and successful at winning in spite of it), made a contract offer to top free agent Freddie Freeman before the lockout began. Is this a sign that the Rays aren’t in as dire financial shape as team owner Stuart Sternberg insists? That Sternberg figures a marquee player will help their campaign to get massive stadium subsidies from Tampa or St. Petersburg? Or, given that the report is from never-met-an-owner-he-didn’t-like baseball reporter Jon Heyman, that Sternberg figures it’ll help their stadium campaign for people to think he was thinking of signing Freeman, whether he was or not? Now that the lockout is over and spring training about to start, Freeman could sign somewhere any minute now, so we’ll see how real that rumor was, maybe.
- Buffalo’s Investigative Post has sued Erie County to get hold of that engineering study of the Bills‘ current stadium that shows how much it would actually cost to maintain it instead of building a $1.4 billion new one, and which the county refuses to make public because “safety” something something. Odds that the study is made public before the state legislature has to vote on a stadium funding bill later this month: pretty much zero, but if nothing else we may have some fodder for I-told-you-sos.
- Jacksonville Jaguars president Mark Lamping says he’ll be watching the Bills talks carefully, as his team is seeking renovation money for its 26-year-old stadium: “It’ll be very interesting to see what happens with the Bills’ stadium. Certainly, when you think of Buffalo and Jacksonville, the comparisons are valid in terms of the emotional ties the NFL franchises have to their city and region.” Anchoring!
- Rock Hill, South Carolina’s plan to sell $225 million in bonds to fund a practice facility for the Carolina Panthers has apparently hit a snag — can’t imagine why, given that the start of this sentence isn’t completely insane at all — and York County may have to step in to borrow the money instead. I wonder what I said back when this was first announced two years ago, let’s see: “it’s tough to come up with new ways to laugh to keep from crying.” Yep, still valid!
How are the emotional ties of the Jags to Jacksonville and the Bills to Buffalo even in the same universe? Bills leaving Buffalo would be the equivalent of the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn. People would be bemoaning that for decades. The Jags leaving Jacksonville would be like the Clippers leaving San Diego or the Scouts leaving Kansas City. People won’t even remember they were ever there.
“If we’d had a new stadium plan in place, we could have signed Freddie Freeman,” is a quote I expect to see next week.
As you noted in the linked article, the melreese golf course for Beckham stadium is a superfund site. Which Beckham and his partners agreed to pay to cleanup. How much that will cost or whether there are other hurdles that come up (and surely given the curse and all, there will be) remains to be seen.
And how did Miami build a golf course on a potential super fund site and NOBODY NOTICED!!??
Like many things in Miami, the history is a bit sordid. There was an incinerator on the site, and years after it closed, they hauled away tons of material and decided that was good enough.
And then sometime after that, pretending to be mindful of the past in a way, they built the golf course over it by “engineering a solution” and thought that was good enough. Because it would always be a golf course.
Beckham and his group say it won’t cost *that much* to clean it up. But there are several environmental engineering types who think otherwise. One suggested the “cost would be astronomical”
So if the city does vote to lease him the land, they really need to think about the language so that they don’t wind up on the hook for the cleanup.
Some details on its history here.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/david-beckhams-new-stadium-site-at-melreese-golf-course-sits-on-a-huge-toxic-waste-pile-10516843
There are various levels of remediation required depending on the ultimate end use of any parcel of contaminated land.
I don’t pretend to know the full extent of the contamination on this parcel (it was a waste incinerator site, if I recall correctly), but what degree of ‘cleanup’ is required will depend on the end use the developer seeks.
Simply put, if the developer intends to construct residences or commercial office space on the parcel (IE: indoor space that would be occupied by humans for 8-24 hours a day), the standard of remediation is much higher than if it were to be reconfigured as a parking garage or drive in etc.
I don’t know enough about Florida development law to know how the construction of a (presumably mainly open air) sports stadium would or could impact the remediation requirements, or what those standards are in the state.
As for the golf course, so long as fresh fill was brought in to cover the contaminated land (possibly with a barrier in between, who really knows), the actual risk to players and the public could be quite small. Playing golf on the surface does not disturb the feet or yards deep contaminated soil, so no contaminants are released. I would assume water sampling and monitoring was a requirement of the course’s lease, but not being from Florida…
Where I live a developer can often work with the authority to minimize potential exposure… say you want to build a hotel on a contaminated site. That would require true “clean” (human occupation) status. But maybe you can build a hotel with a three storey parking garage below ground and have all three storeys fully vented to atmosphere (naturally vented, no fans or other mechanical equipment required)… and in doing so the actual human occupied space is 1.5 storeys above ground level or more… meaning it MIGHT pass muster as there is no way for contaminants to build up in the basement sections and filter into the occupied space.
Many ways to skin a cat.
BTW, just outside suburban Denver, I understand you can now buy residential lots on the (former) site of Rocky Flats nuclear reservation. I’m not saying anyone should, mind you, but you could if you wanted to….
Oh yeah right, Team Beckham is cursed. Becks refused to admit a goat even though it had a ticket on opening night, he traded away Babe Ruth for magic beans, and he permitted a game winning goal to go between his legs. All on the same day!
Dang do only American teams have curses? I never hear about Newcastle having anything like that though they never win