It’s been a long and hectic week, so let’s let the chatbot take over writing the intro for this week’s roundup:
Write an introduction for a roundup of the week’s sports stadium news
Welcome to our weekly sports stadium news roundup. This week, we’ve gathered the biggest stories from around the world of sports stadiums, from new developments and construction projects to updates on some of your favorite teams’ home fields. Keep reading to stay up to date on all the latest happenings in the world of sports stadiums.
Mm, that’s not very good. Try again?
Write an introduction for a roundup of the week’s sports stadium news
Welcome to this week’s roundup of sports stadium news. From groundbreaking ceremonies to naming rights deals, we’ve got all the latest developments in the world of sports venues. Keep reading to stay up-to-date on the latest news and happenings in the world of sports stadiums.
Worse! Let’s try a slight reword of the prompt:
Write an introduction for everything that’s wrong with this week’s sports stadium news
Welcome to our weekly roundup of sports stadium news, where we take a critical look at the latest developments and trends in the industry. This week, we’ve uncovered a number of troubling issues and challenges facing sports stadiums, from safety concerns to financial struggles and more. Let’s dive into the details and explore what’s wrong with this week’s sports stadium news.
One last attempt:
Write an introduction for how this week’s stadium news shows that we are diving ever deeper into an undemocratic rich-get-richer hellscape from which there is no return.
Welcome to our weekly roundup of sports stadium news, where we explore the latest developments in the industry and how they reflect the state of our society. This week’s news is a disturbing reminder of the ever-widening divide between the rich and the rest of us, as we see more and more examples of undemocratic and unfair practices in the world of sports stadiums. Join us as we delve into the depths of this rich-get-richer hellscape and see how far we have fallen.
Amateurs borrow, bots steal. Let’s get on with the news:
- While the Nashville metro council debates whether it should spend $1.2 billion on a new Tennessee Titans stadium and how much it would cost to do renovations required in the team’s lease instead — the council almost voted on the Titans’ term sheet on Tuesday, then instead deferred a decision for two weeks — let’s all enjoy this time that the Tennessean newspaper apparently granted Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk anonymity over her purchase of some rural land for some reason. I guess when you have your head far enough up the butt of the local billionaire, it’s too dark to read ethics policies.
- That $435 million Cleveland Guardians stadium renovation that’s getting $285 million in public subsidies won’t start this winter after all, but instead will wait till after the 2023 season, because reasons. (High interest rates? Energy prices? Want to see the latest in their namesake movie series first? Your guess is as good as mine.) Or maybe will wait even longer than that — Cleveland doesn’t appear to have put any requirements on when the money has to be used … hmm, could the Guardians owners just take the money and never use it to build anything at all? That would be hilarious and very on point for a small-market MLB team, need to go look at the lease language to see if that’s actually possible, I’ll put it on the list for next week.
- The Tampa Bay Rays are without a spring training home since Hurricane Ira badly damaged their stadium in Port Charlotte, so Fort Myers is offering to “put some lipstick” on its stadium for a cost of $100,000 to $150,000 to play host for a spring. Rays management hasn’t replied yet, which either means they’re looking for other options, or trying to figure out the best way to say “more expensive lipstick, please.”
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has apparently dropped its opposition to a new Tempe arena after the Arizona Coyotes agreed to defend the airport in court against any lawsuits over excessive plane noise lawsuits, among other things. That’s big mostly because there’s a public vote coming up on the project in May, and the airport was the best bet for ad spending not to be hugely imbalanced in favor of the team.
- Here’s a longish article about Philadelphia politicians blaming each other for trying to sneak a street closure for a new 76ers arena into an unrelated bill, which doesn’t amount to much in the end but it is always nice to get a glimpse into how the sausages get made and then how everyone involved tries to throw each other under the bus for the resulting crappy sausages.
- The Baltimore Orioles got $600,000 off their rent from the state of Maryland to help pay for their new screwy left-field wall. The Baltimore Sun reports that the new stadium dimensions “cost the Orioles more home runs than it did their opponents” and without them “the Orioles might have won one more game,” so good use of public money there.
- The IOC has delayed a decision on the 2030 Winter Olympics host because it may never be winter again.
- The Oakland A’s just signed journeyman Aledmys Diaz for $14 million over two years, which makes no sense for a team that’s likely to lose 100 games with or without him, but maybe they’re afraid if they don’t spend any of their revenue-sharing money, they’ll get another grievance filed against them? I think we can all agree that this is definitely a team whose problems will be solved by a new stadium.
- The Vaportecture Instagram account is back today with an illustrated history of Cab-Hailing Purse Lady, which I am sure you will not want to miss.
- This is not “through Angel Stadium”! Where are those truth-in-YouTube-labeling laws when we need them?
I thought you would use the Friday roundup to discuss the citizens of Evanston’s clever name for their campaign opposing Northwestern building a new football stadium
https://www.google.com/amp/s/patch.com/illinois/evanston/amp/31074671/residents-launch-field-of-schemes-campaign-over-new-ryan-field-plans
You can’t copyright a title, so all good. They’re going to be sad when they go to register social media handles, though.
Great column today! Chat bots! Guardians sticky fingers! Empty 10 year old stadium just needs lipstick! Titans owner goes undercover! Police chase videos! YouTube lies again! A’s spend money on free agent! Winter canceled! There’s enough fat here to chew on all weekend!
Thanks Neil!
Omigod, it’s going to happen: a half-billion dollars to placate the owner of the Coyotes. Talk about a ten-dollar collar on a two-dollar dog…
I thought the best bit was Sky Harbour actually believing that this franchise will honour it’s commitments/agreements/obligations… I mean of all the gin joints in all the world….
Well, on the bright side Neil… your chat bot exercise did not return results that could best be described as genocidal racist chatbot comments… so a small victory there.
As for the A’s, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that they’ll sign several more middling major leaguers to contracts they are not worth. Nor can I rule out – if it looks like the team might actually not finish last – their sending down those same actual major leaguers and bringing up AA players (or popcorn vendors) as needed to ensure failure.
This is a team that is committed. Just not to what you might think they would be committed to.
Does anyone know why Tampa needs a “spring training” facility? I live here, and I can assure you that the sleet does not fall and the snow does not blow through the parking lots of Tropicana field.
Do the Rays need a separate facility simply so that they can try the Cuban sandwiches an 80-minute drive to the south?
I don’t know. One alternative use of spring training sites in Florida is they can host Florida State League teams as a means of justifying the expenses, but almost all of them have horrific attendance figures (since it’s Florida and most people tend to do other things in Florida) which make you wonder why you even have them in the state to begin with. Dunedin in particular struggles to get people to triple digits.
At least they won’t have to worry about the Charlotte Stone Crabs cause they killed that team off a few years back when they reorganized the minors.