All kinds of news for you this week! If you don’t like any of this news, you just don’t like any news at all!
- Cleveland Guardians management has released some details of how they plan to spend their new $435 million renovation fund ($285 million of it from city, county, and state taxpayers), and the answer is: on $202.5 million of renovations now, then bank the rest for future maintenance and upgrades. Progressive Field Reimagined is focused on creating new “social spaces,” which from the looks of things include some kind of seating terrace where fans will sit on sofas, some of them facing away from the game, plus, if you look real fast at WKYC’s video, turning much of the outfield upper deck into a giant sun-shaded outdoor concessions plaza that you can’t actually see the game from. (Right now much of that area is currently taken up by giant shipping containers that serve as ad boards because nobody wants to sit there, so maybe this isn’t too much of a loss.) It’s also amusing to see that some of the “Terrace Hub” weird-facing sofas will be behind, yes, pillars, that favorite bugaboo of stadium designers that many a team owner has declared to be the reason they need to replace existing stadiums, but apparently set to make a comeback now that a team owner realizes they need them to hold the upper deck up, physics FTW!
- Turns out when sports economist Geoffrey Propheter estimated that NYC F.C.‘s full property tax break on its new stadium would cost taxpayers between $132.5 million and $197 million, he was lowballing a bit; his former colleagues at the New York City Independent Budget Office have now crunched the numbers and come up with a total tax-break cost of $516 million in present value. Add in city infrastructure costs that will likely top $100 million and whatever the benefits are of getting the use of city land for 49 years for just $30 million in rent, and we’re looking at well over $600 million in subsidies for a stadium that Mayor Eric Adams touted as “100% privately financed.” But then, that’s kind of a tradition in New York.
- An Illinois state bill to create a $400 million “large business attraction fund” has had an amendment added to bar any of the money from going to “a professional sports organization that moves its operations from one location in the state to another location in the state,” which it doesn’t take a lot of reading between the lines to see means the Chicago Bears. A Bears stadium in Arlington Heights could still receive other state subsidies, as well as local subsidies like the property-tax kickbacks they’re reportedly considering, but at least it’s an indication that Illinois state legislators aren’t quite so dumb that they think paying a sports team to relocate from one part of the state to another is good policy. (Them thinking that paying other businesses $400 million to relocate to Illinois is anything other than wasted money is another story, but one baby step at a time.)
- What should Miami Heat fans call their arena now that their crypto naming-rights partner is going out of business and its founder is in jail? The Arena, says a spokesperson for Miami Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, “with a capital A.” No, I don’t know how one pronounces a capital A differently either, but I guess this counts as Branding™, whereas just letting people call it “the arena” would be a failure of leadership or something.
- What do you do when a local sports team owner, in this case the Detroit Red Wings‘ Ilitch family, gets $400 million in public money to build a new neighborhood and then just doesn’t? Why, give them another $797 million to not build more development, of course! Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan must figure he doesn’t have much choice, given that the rest of his city is just a blank gray void.
- Opposition continues to build to the Philadelphia 76ers owners building a new arena right next to the city’s Chinatown, with 87 of around 100 local business owners signing a petition opposing the plan, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund looking into legal action. “This is something that will destroy Chinatown,” said Steven Zhu, head of the Philadelphia Chinese Restaurant Association, and given what happened with Washington, D.C.’s arena, he may have a point.
- Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin says he’s ready to talk about building the Washington Commanders a new stadium in Virginia as soon as Daniel Snyder sells the team, because doing so while Snyder still owned the team turned out to be a non-starter.
- Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis is reportedly “embarrassed” that so many visiting-team fans are flying in to Vegas to watch Raiders games, which, has he forgotten that the whole pitch for Nevada building him a stadium was so that it would bring more tourists to town? Or, now that Davis has his $750 million in state cash in hand, he just doesn’t care about economics and only wants to see more fans rooting for his team? Almost certainly one of those.
I’ll be traveling the next two weeks, so if posts here are a little irregular or appear at weird hours of the day, don’t worry yourself over it. Have a good long (if you’re in the U.S.) weekend, and see you back here on Tuesday or thereabouts!
There was an arena in St. Louis called “The Arena” then it was called “The Checkerdome” then “The Arena” again… we used to go there with onions tied to our belts, which was the style in them days…
The notion of “the Arena” is amusing. But of course they won’t change any logos or other identifiers before the heat season ends in June or whatever.
So it’s “the ex-FTX Arena” or perhaps “the bankrupt man freed of FTX Arena” or something.
Since the Heat play there, they should call it The Oven.
Air Fryer Arena?
The draft wording for the Coyotes Arena vote in Tempe is out and basically asks “do you agree with your city council’s decisions or are all 7 of them complete idiots”. Then Tempe asks you to pay $100 to call them complete idiots. The 7 game losing streak Coyotes appear to be struggling to sell 4,000 seats on their couch at ASU. Once, big IF EVER, the Coyotes move into their own arena will fans take Orbit Jupiter or Orbit Saturn shuttles from Downtown Tempe parking garages or pay a fortune for parking near the arena, or just forget about the Coyotes just like they have for 27 years.
Wait…. you have to pay to register a “disagree” on this motion???
If they get enough no votes to fully fund the arena (and I could see where they might – especially if people can vote more than once), can they use the money for that???
It is $100.00 whether you are “for” or “against”.
Pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes (” A.R.S. “) § 35-454, the City is accepting arguments “for” or “against” the Tempe Entertainment District elements outlined in the three Referenda Propositions, beginning Fri., Jan. 13, 2023 through Wed., Feb. 15, 2023, at 5:00 p.m.
Each argument is limited to no more than 300 words and each sponsor is required to provide an original, notarized signature.
If the argument is sponsored by an organization, the original, notarized signatures of two executive officers are required.
If the argument is sponsored by a political committee, the original, notarized signature of the committee’s chair or treasurer is required.
Each person signing the argument is required to provide their residence or post office address and a phone number, but this information is not printed in the informational pamphlet.
A deposit of one hundred dollars ($100.00) is required with the filing of each argument with the City Clerk’s Office to offset a portion of the proportionate cost of paper and printing the argument in the informational pamphlet.
And, this is currently the ‘draft’ language for the three ballot propositions:
https://www.tempe.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/100187/638090273814730000
The upper deck improvements in right field at Progressive Field will be a huge improvement over the shipping containers.
I think it is in upper left field (new ‘beer garden’ area) where there will be a bunch of sitting / standing public areas where you can’t see the field.
Regarding the posts or pillars in the ‘Terrace Hub’, those already exist. They are just ‘hidden’ from the outside by the current Terrace Club windows. The plan is to remove the windows.
I was on some of the surveys the Guardians sent out about proposed renovation choices.
Money aside, I like what they are going to do here.
So the “Terrace Hub” idea is to turn an indoor table seating area into an outdoor sofa seating area? I guess that makes a kind of sense, but I’m still not exactly sure who would want to sit there, or for how long.
Yes. Terrace Club currently being underused (per the team). Trying to rejuvenate the area by turning it into an outdoor seating area.
This was part of the surveys the Guardians sent out. Keep as is; keep indoors but change up the food / dining options; turn into an outdoor seating area.
Politicians suck. Sigh…..
Davis and the Raiders also sold PSLs, most of them to Southern California ticket brokers.
For Vegas locals, there’s no reason to become Raiders fans. For Raiders fans in California, there’s no reason to take the trip to watch a bad team.
Davis should just be quiet and count his money.