Friday roundup: Fighting stadium ignorance is taking longer than we thought

And so this brings to an end another programming year, and what a year it was: The Buffalo Bills owners got more than $1 billion in public money by doing an end run around democracy, the Tennessee Titans owners went down the middle of the legislative process but are now in position to score their own billion-dollar-plus taxpayer-funded payday, the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles got over a billion dollars in state money parked in a slush fund that doesn’t have an easy football metaphor to go with it, and the owners of the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Royals, Philadelphia 76ers, NYC F.C. all launched campaigns for new buildings and the public checks that come with them. Sure, the Los Angeles Angels stadium deal fell apart after the mayor who negotiated it turned out to be under FBI investigation for fraud and bribery, but overall it’s still undeniably a great time to be a billionaire who owns a pro sports franchise, or, you know, owns pretty much anything else.

Oh yeah, and this happened:

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, just delivered a passionate defense of the Bills stadium deal.

Among many other things, she said it will benefit senior citizens because they will be able to shop in empty supermarkets when the games are on.

— Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellNY) April 9, 2022

As economist J.C. Bradbury said in May in an interview on this site — which I’ve just made free for all readers rather than a subscriber exclusive — “It is quite eye-opening to talk to … policymakers, elected officials, business executives. They absolutely do not want to hear that this is a bad idea. And they cling to it in ways that you cannot imagine: This has to be good because I want it to be good.” And as I said back to him: Even if fighting ignorance is taking longer than we thought, we can at least try to help readers laugh to keep from crying.

Here’s to another year of that ahead, and thanks in advance for your support of this site’s work. And now let’s wrap up the final news of 2022:

• The New Orleans Pelicans owners don’t plan to demand a new arena when their initial 25-year lease expires in 2024, but rather will just be asking for state-funded renovations in exchange for a five-year lease extension while considering a “long-term plan.” This is yet another reminder that owning a sports venue is seldom a good thing for the public unless they actually own the rights to the venue revenue — if that all goes to the team owner, you’re just setting yourself up for a subsidy that keeps on subsidizing.
• Dallas Cowboys fans are really upset that the team’s new-ish stadium lets the sun shine in the eyes of its players sometimes — and also opposing teams’ players, but nobody wants to mention that — but the most amusing part is how SB Nation reports that “designers essentially banked on AT&T Stadium leading to mass development in Arlington, with the belief that new construction would eventually be built up and block out the sun problem inside the stadium.” You’d think Jerry Jones of all people would have been around long enough to know that stadiums that only host eight or so football games a year aren’t going to do much to spur surrounding development, or at least could come up with a simpler solution.
• Somebody noticed that Phoenix city council members who voted for Suns arena renovations are now getting use of free luxury boxes in the arena, but the city says elected officials bringing business friends to NBA games for free is all part of standard “economic development” policy, which isn’t actually all that reassuring.
• The owners of the Kane County Cougars minor-league baseball team have been stiffing Kane County on rent and are now being threatened with eviction in 2024 if they don’t pay up; it is exceedingly unlikely that this will end up with a tractor being parked on home plate, but one can always hope.

Happy new year, and don’t forget to write off your ape NFTs as a business loss! Definitely a good time to be rich.