We have made it to the end of another week, or will soon, anyway. Why not celebrate with a round of bullet points about ways in which pro sports team owners are seeking to extract money from the public purse to use to pad their own profits? No, no, that was a rhetorical question, I’m sure you have many good reasons why not, but you’re here now and it’s too late to go back. so:
- The owners of the Chicago Bears have officially purchased Arlington Park racetrack for $197.2 million, a move that the team said in a statement “does not guarantee the land will be developed,” because they’re still holding out for a heaping pile of tax kickbacks. Trying to build momentum for doing something while also threatening not to do it is a tricky business, and the Bears seem to be pulling it off as well as possible, but we’ll see how it all plays in the Illinois legislature and on the Arlington Heights village board.
- New Indy Eleven stadium renderings! Are there buildings that glow with a weird inner light while all around them appears dark and drab by comparison? Yes! People standing at a railing and ignoring the game while admiring the sky outside the stadium? You betcha! People ostentatiously raising their arms in the air? Again yes, and many of them are even pointing both index fingers at the sky for some reason. (Though to the renderers’ credit, the game action in the background is at least semi-realistic, with an Eleven player seemingly starting to celebrate after just having shot a goal past an inattentive keeper who failed to come off his line, though it’s also very possible it’s about to be called back by an offsides flag.) Weird crimes against physics and geometry? Definitely, until someone can explain how or why that stand at the far end is a perfect semicircle. The state of Indiana is putting $112 million into this USL facility, which sounded like a crazy amount when it was first approved in 2019 but now, well, still sounds crazy for a 20,000-seat facility in a league where no team averaged even 11,000 fans last season, maybe all those index fingers are for “We’re here for game #1, you’ll never see this place this packed again”?
- Also in USL news, Phoenix Rising‘s new stadium is, yes, rising, and how’s that going? Oh, I see. I’m sure it’ll look more impressive once the robot dog showroom is in place.
- A state senator from Queens thinks that as long as NYC F.C. is getting a new 25,000-seat stadium in his borough, why not expand it to 80,000 seats and bring back the New York Jets from New Jersey, where they have an opt-out in their lease? Is there room for a larger stadium? “The land is there,” said Sen. Joseph Addabbo. Is there money? (Crickets.)
- Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wants the state of Minnesota to pay off the city’s remaining debt on the Vikings stadium ($333 million in future payments over 23 years, no word on what that would amount to in a lump sum payment right now) because the state has money and “Minneapolis is part of the state.” He’s got you there, state, it’s just geography!
- Trying to get your arena’s operating permit renewed while fending off attempts to make your teams pay property taxes and also managing fallout from using facial recognition technology to ban lawyers for companies suing you from attending games? Invite the state assembly speaker to do the puck drop at a game, he’ll love it, no conflict of interest at all!
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Interesting read on the debt from the 2002 Soldier Field renovations.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/taxpayers-still-owe-640m-on-2002-soldier-field-renovation/2981068/
“Documents obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show the actual bond issue by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority came to $398 million. But today, more than 20 years after that money was borrowed, the ISFA still owes over $383 million in principal, and more than $256 million in interest.
That’s a total of over $640 million, $63 million more than was originally borrowed, even after making payments for more than 20 years.”
“The grand total for what the public was told would be $387 million in bonds? $1.19 billion.”
“The ISFA declined NBC 5’s request for an interview to discuss the looming debt which Soldier Field still faces. The repeated refinancing of the deal shows the agency has improved on the original plan, but that they still face a bill of $640 million to pay off the 2002 rehab. The total cost will be $1.13 billion.”
Although it meets the technical definition, I think the word “stadium” is a bit of a stretch for describing Phoenix’s new stadium.
Microstadium?
Tempium
No matter where it has been, it has always been an erector set. Not bad if you plan to get in and get out, but, yeah, in this day and age, it’s not what you would expect.
So… wait… the money for the new stadium was actually just meant to move the old one? Shouldn’t that have been, you know, cheaper?
I’m not against minor league teams using temporary or ‘erector set’ facilities. It saves money and, as often as not, provides all the legitimately necessary amenities that a minor league sports team really needs.
Did public money go towards moving this stadium from one part of the city to another? I know, it’s a dumb question… obviously it did but… isn’t that a lot like a city digging up a park, then buying up some warehouses, knocking them down and moving the park turf and trees to where the warehouses were under the guise of economic development? (But look! it frees up all the old park space for… errr.. old derelict warehouses!)