Yesterday was a rare off day in the Oakland A’s saga as we all looked for the long-awaited Las Vegas stadium legislation to drop — and it still hasn’t, and according to the Nevada Independent, there are reasons:
- According to the ever-popular “sources close to negotiations,” the reason there’s no A’s stadium legislation yet in the Nevada legislature, just five business days before the deadline for the session, is that state legislators are only willing to put up $150-195 million in transferable tax credits, with another $200-million-plus coming from Clark County super-TIF tax kickbacks. Whether the county can decide on how much it’s willing to kick in before next Friday is unclear, as is whether the Nevada legislature would vote on its share before the county does, as is whether the state would call a special session if needed — but at least we sort of know how much the total subsidy would be? Sort of? It sure would be nice to see the fine print, but it sounds like that won’t happen until the backroom dealing is complete, which is not how democracy is supposed to work but is 100% the way it often does.
- A’s officials also released the results of a poll that showed that Clark County registered voters mostly supported building a stadium for the A’s, so long as you didn’t tell them who would be paying for it.
- Finally from Vegas, the Bally’s Corporation has sent a memo to its employees saying it would build a new hotel next to an A’s stadium, which KNTV says would be “unique” but the stadium I’m going to tonight says otherwise.
- Washington Commanders execs believe Virginia “will offer the best incentive package — potentially up to $1.5 billion” to build a new stadium there once Josh Harris completes his purchase of the team, according to a prospectus prepared by Harris’s company and obtained by ESPN. The prospectus also projects the Commanders bringing in $959 million a year by 2032-33, or $1.05 billion with a new stadium, which raises questions of 1) why Harris can’t build a stadium with his own money if he wants to so bad and 2) why Harris really wants a new stadium if it’s only a matter of $100 million a year in revenue, but the headlines are all about which state will win the right to throw money at the team, go horsies!
- A bill to freeze property taxes on the Arlington Park racetrack site if the Chicago Bears owners build a stadium on it is on hold for now, and isn’t expected to be voted on this session. It could be brought up next session, though, by which time hopefully the Chicago media will actually report on how much of a tax expenditure that would amount to, no rush.
- New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is reportedly stalling on allowing NYC F.C. fans to park in his stadium parking lots (really the city’s parking lots, but Cohen controls them and gets all the revenue from them) in hopes of using it as leverage to get permission to build a casino there, according to “multiple people familiar with the negotiations,” which almost has to mean NYC F.C. or its political allies who are steamed at Cohen. There’s a town hall being held tonight to discuss the casino plans — it’ll be interesting to see if any NYC F.C. advocates turn out in force to either support Cohen or yell at him.
- Andy Zimbalist really wants you to know that whether the Worcester Red Sox deal was good like he originally reported or bad like a new paper he hasn’t read concluded, it was better than if he hadn’t been paid $225/hour for his services.
Okay, gotta get going to that baseball game. See you back here on Monday!
As a Virginia resident, I truly hope the Commonwealth doesn’t throw *any* money, much less $1.5B @ the Commanders for a new stadium. But I can’t say this prospectus is too far off. Unfortunately, neither my state delegate and senator, both of whom opposed public $ for a new Commanders stadium, are running for reelection this fall
I’m not sure why they’d put that figure in their prospectus. Is the ultimate plan to convince DC to give away more to get the RFK site? That’s what most of the fan base actually wants, as far as I can tell.
DC is going to be a hard to impossible lift. Most of the city council is dead set against it and even more dead set against subsides. And that is before the biggest problem, in that they don’t control the RFK site and likely won’t control it anytime soon (the lease expires in 2038 and the land reverts to the NPS) and trying to get it through Congress has gotten nowhere in the last 20 years of trying.
Maryland prefers the Ravens, so Youngkin in Virginia might be their best bet here.
That’s too bad. That’s an ideal location.
I’ve been to FedEx Field many times. Everyone hates it. It’s hard to get to from just about anywhere. Putting a new stadium in Prince William County or Loudon will just be more of the same.
RFK site is a horrible location. The neighborhood has been trying to get rid of it for years and foreclose any attempt to build a new one, because it cannot support the traffic for a football game and causes all sorts of problems during the football season.
That’s not how I remember it as a visitor.
But if that’s how the neighbors feel about it, then their opinion matters more.
Enjoy the concrete convertible, Neil (Even though they pretty much never open it… maybe 8 times a year… Money well spent!)
The news comes at you fast. During the day today, I saw Oakland once again prepping for a possible vote on the Howard terminal, to get the As to stay
And Hartford looking to lure the coyotes with all sorts of shiny objects.
So much stuff. So little time. Ha
And the Hartford Whalers v2.0 would set up shop in a 50-year-old arena that’s in serious need of a “no demo reno”.
There’s a good reason why the UConn Huskies (women) and the Connecticut Sun play in more modern arenas.
UConn Men’s and Women’s basketball play about half of their home games at the XL Center in Hartford, following the precedent to play in downtown arenas set forth by Dave Gavitt and his vision for the original Big East.
The XL is old but continues to function with a recent sports bar, new ice making machine and piping, some LOGE seating and soon. New sports betting facility on the Ann Ucello street side . It will still have a single cramped concourse and bathroom issues, but concession options are ok. Not modern but sightlines are still great due to the steep set of rows.
As for Gampel Pavillion, here’s the linked article has juice about upgrading or replacing it, although right now all the sports talk is about potential conference realignment.
https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/uconn/article/gampel-pavilion-huskies-18107399.php
Hartford is the longest of longshots. It’s just too close to four other NHL markets.
It is, I think, somewhat bigger than Quebec, but not by a lot and smaller than a number of western US markets that the owners would prefer.
Even as a die hard Whalers fan back in the day, I totally agree with you. The saturation of other teams in the vicinity, and two mega markets spells doom for the growth of the league even if fans support the team successfully. Hartford/New Haven is a decent sized market, and the largest without a major league franchise, but the geographical issues don’t serve the area well when playing with the monopolistic cartels that these entities really are. If we talk about Promotion/Relegation, then maybe there’s a system in which a very well run team and fan base have a chance in a demographically dense area, but North American pro sports are more about business for the elite than community and expansion fees are more important than equity of that kind.
That being said, it’s one reason why UConn has sustained humongous financial losses within the operation of the athletic department. They are the de facto point of interest that provides a similar experience and identity associated with the “Big Time” (cue Peter Gabriel). as they continue to pursue lucrative alliances within the musical chairs of conference realignment. I mean hooray for cute little Quinnipiac winning the NCAA hockey crown, but UConn has been extraordinarily successful running athletic programs and punch way above their weight, but my thought is that the financial losses are tolerated more because of the fact that Connecticut does not have that “coveted” major league team.
I heard Thao say she would welcome them back to the negotiating table if their LV plans did not proceed.
That’s hardly the same as being desperate to get the A’s to stay.
She said she thinks they are close to a deal. At $500m in welfare for billionaires, I would hope so. But it seems Fisher and Kaval think there’s another billion there to be farmed. I hope there isn’t.
And this wasn’t an off the cuff comment from the Mayor either… it was in response to a question on this:
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/nevada-lawmakers-balk-at-as-395m-price-tag-deal-dependent-on-county-funding
Oops.
A Bird in Hand, indeed.