Friday roundup: NY Gov. Hochul wants to skin puppies, sell their fur to build Bills stadium (maybe)

Another Friday, another week closer to the April 1 deadline by which New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to submit a Buffalo Bills public funding proposal, and another week where nothing of the sort has materialized. Since her plan here is almost certainly to stonewall until it’s too late for any more than a cursory debate about her proposal, what should responsible journalists do in this information vacuum? Not say anything until there’s something concrete to report on, and and risk playing right into Hochul’s hands? Speculate wildly about all the ways Hochul could be planning to fund a Bills stadium — direct grants, tax kickbacks, development funds, selling naming rights to Niagara Falls to a pharmaceutical company — and have Hochul and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tell you you’re wrong? Hire Anonymous to hack into the state’s email servers to see what Hochul is up to behind taxpayers’ backs? One hopes that news outlet editors are debating these issues right now, at least editors of news outlets whose publishers aren’t helping the Bills owners plot stadium campaign strategy.

On that cheery note, on with the week in news that isn’t state secrets:

• At least somebody is moving forward with a public vote on Bills stadium funding, but it’s the NFL, whose owners are expected today to approve $200 million in loans ($150 million of that forgivable, so really a grant) toward construction. The conditions of the league’s G-4 stadium funding program are that the team owners also kick in at least $200 million, and public funding cover some of the rest, so if we’re still talking a $1.4 billion stadium, that would leave, let’s see … up to $1 billion to be covered by the public. Don’t come at me, Gov. Hochul, it’s only math!
• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says he’s met with Tennessee Titans execs to discuss putting money toward a new stadium, because “we are always interested in investments that create economic activity in the state.” How much state money, and how expensive a stadium? “There’s a lot yet to be determined about who all the team players are and what those contributions will be.” Cut, that’s a wrap, plenty there for an article, no need for followup questions!
• Spending public money on a Titans stadium would be “a boondoggle,” writes one Tennessee economist in an op-ed, while the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes in an editorial that the same goes for a Chattanooga Lookouts stadium. The Times Free Press editorial board also calls Field of Schemes “a compelling critique of stadium subsidies,” but doesn’t go so far as to include a link to ordering information, let me help you with that.
• Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is tired of watching Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg attempt to play off her city and St. Petersburg in a stadium bidding war, and wants him to pick a side: “We just need to get moving on this.” The “shot clock is ticking,” said Castor, a turn of phrase that the Tampa Bay Times attempted to explain by noting that the mayor was a basketball player in college, and surely not because she can’t be bothered to pick the right sports metaphor. Clearly she loves and understands baseball, or else why would she own all those Rays jerseys?
• To the list of dubious items that states are using federal COVID relief money for, add “$15 million to try to lure 2026 World Cup games to New Jersey.” Hosting World Cup matches would “bring millions of dollars to New Jersey’s tourism and hospitality industries, two sectors that have faced significant impacts from the pandemic,” said a spokesperson for Gov. Tom Phil Murphy, carefully not mentioning that as New Jersey getting more games would just mean some other U.S. city getting less, the net tourism gain for the nation as a whole would be zero, so why should the federal government be interested in subsidizing this, exactly? The Treasury Department doesn’t seem to care, but maybe Congress would want to get involved? Just a thought, if they’re not too busy with other things.