Yes, there was stadium and arena news this week that was not related to Oakland A’s owner John Fisher’s attempt to get $500 million in tax kickbacks for a stadium in Las Vegas. (Still no sign of a vote on that, btw, with the legislative session set to end on Monday. [UPDATE: Gov. Lombardo vetoed the state budget bill late last night after it looked like there was an agreement, so everything may now be on hold until a special session in July.]) Let’s take a spin through what else is happening:
- The Arizona Coyotes! How are things going with the Arizona Coyotes? Are city officials in Scottsdale, where the Coyotes practice at the city’s Ice Den, interested in giving them a full-time home? They’re kind of meh on that! Are other East Valley cities interested in being the team’s new home? Nobody from the team has talked to them! This could still change, obviously, but it doesn’t seem like Alex Meruelo had a lot of Plan B’s lined up in case he lost his arena referendum in Tempe.
- Speaking of the state of Arizona, it just announced it will stop issuing new permits for some development around Phoenix, because the state is fast running out of water. This isn’t the long-predicted death knell of the Southwest thanks to climate change, but it certainly may be the first step in reversing the area’s explosive growth, which one would think sports teams and leagues would take into consideration before deciding where to locate teams, but long-term thinking has never been their forte.
- The first cable sports domino has fallen, with Diamond Sports Group officially using its bankruptcy filing to walk away from its San Diego Padres contract, leaving MLB.tv to produce and carry the games going forward. Right now Padres games will be available for $19.99 a month — yes, separate from any MLB.tv subscription for out-of-market games — as well as carried on local cable systems under new deals with no blackout provisions. While it hasn’t been made public exactly what the Padres owners will get from the new deal, it’s been indicated that the bulk of the proceeds will go to the team and not the league, so the potential NFLization of baseball move threats has likely been forestalled, at least.
- Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio’s request for $360 million in public stadium renovation funds may be spinning its wheels currently, but the business coalition backing it just added a brewery president, a bank VP, and a former sheriff, that’ll show ’em.
- Okay, there’s some A’s news: Oakland has updated its FAQ on the Howard Terminal project, noting that “with a willing negotiating partner equally committed to working collaboratively to find and implement ‘win-win’ solutions, Oakland’s leadership remains confident that a new Waterfront Ballpark District at Howard Terminal is well within reach,” which is a clear dig at Fisher for not being a “willing negotiating partner,” but also leaves the door open a crack if the Vegas stadium bill is rejected. Or maybe even a backhanded call for somebody else to buy the A’s and reopen talks, given that the FAQ then advises that “interested parties” should contact the city’s project lead, whose email address and phone number it then provides.
- Elsewhere in fallback plans, the head of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council says that if the A’s Vegas stadium bill doesn’t pass, Sacramento offers a “better financial deal” and can begin construction on a stadium almost immediately, which are big words from an unelected official in a city without even the beginnings of a stadium plan, but just saying stuff and not worrying ahout whether it’s true is very much the flavor of the month.
You know, I really enjoyed having a car, but after a couple months of not buying insurance, not buying gas, and not getting any parking tickets, I hardly missed it. I think Oakland is going to feel the same way about the A’s.
I think the citizens will come to this realization as well. The lack of investment in the team is certainly helping the cause.
Amen.
I feel for the fans… they supported the team when it was both good and bad. It is only since Gapman (and for a shorter term, Robbin’) attempted to sabotage their own business that fans have given up. And I can’t blame them. They have put up with treatment no other entertainment business would inflict upon them (even movie chains don’t double the admission price, triple the concession price and then show you a series of home security cam video instead of an actual movie…). Yes, airlines… but no-one would call them entertainment.
And while the fans and city will move on, they may not be without professional baseball for very long.
“And while the fans and city will move on, they may not be without professional baseball for very long.”
I’d love to think so, but wouldn’t the Giants just block us from getting another team via territorial rights? I’m not 100% sure how that works.
Currently the Giants only have territorial rights to San Francisco and the South Bay. What would happen to East Bay rights is extremely TBD, and basically up to whatever Manfred and other owners feel like doing.
John: they don’t have professional baseball now.
Badda Bing!
You aren’t wrong, but what a crappy approach to make the team so bad that fans don’t miss it.
That said more than a decade later, Sonics fans still miss the team in Seattle though casual basketball fans moved on in a couple of years. Not sure how people feel about the Raiders around here.
I live here, and I’ve been surprised to still see a good amount of people who have remained fans, including one of my older brothers. I’m no longer a fan, but I haven’t heard from many other Oaklanders/East Bay natives who have jumped ship. It’s true that Raider fans are loyal to a fault. The Raiders are sorely missed even though they burned this city not once, but twice, and even though they’ve had just two winning seasons since 2002.
Wouldn’t the same water issues impacting Phoenix affect Vegas? Ahh, silly me, worrying needlessly when there are subsidies to give out.
Yes and no- Phoenix’s water problems are exasperated because in Arizona water is distributed to municipalities and they decide how it’s used.
In Vegas- the southern Nevada water district has been managing the water for 30 years and has enacted watering rules, limited development etc etc. Vegas also benefits from the proximity to Lake Mead, it can recycle its own water thereby saving some of their allotment.
Question:
What exactly is the renovation that is needed on the Brewers stadium that it is going to cost $360 million?
Attanasio hasn’t figured that part out yet.
State secrets are best handled on a need to know basis.
It appears that the last-best hope for the Coyotes in Arizona is to convince the *new* Suns’ ownership to buy the team and put it in their arena.
Craig Morgan reported that Mat Ishbia has said he’s “open” to talking about it. But, of course he’d say that. As the new owner of the Suns trying to mend fences with fans and sponsors in the area, overtly snuffing out the local NHL team isn’t a good look even if, really, he’d be happy for them to leave the state.
Being “open” to talking about a deal is a long way from reaching a deal. I’m theoretically “open” to talking to those people that come around trying to sell me new windows, but I’m not at all interested in paying their quote, especially since I really don’t need new windows that badly, so is that really “open?”
The recently renovated Suns arena is not built to handle hockey. Before they moved to Glendale, the Coyotes played at the Suns arena with much criticized sight lines.
Yes, I’m well aware of that. That is why this concept could only work if Ishbia bought the team and renovated the arena *again* to make it more suitable for hockey. The previous reno that made it more hostile to hockey was lead by the previous Suns ownership.
It seems to me unlikely that Ishbia wants to do that on his own dime. It may not even be possible. But I’m sure the NHL will at least ask and that remote possibility is probably the last hope for keeping the Coyotes in the area.
Also, I just heard a long podcast interview on 32 Thoughts with Ryan Smith of SLC. He and his partners are 100% committed to putting an NHL team in Utah and I think he’d probably be good at it.
He wouldn’t say if he’d offered to buy the Coyotes, but reading between the lines, it’s clear that he’s put together some kind of offer. He’d probably prefer an expansion team but he avoided saying that he wouldn’t buy the Coyotes. He said he wants to “partner” with the NHL in whatever would be mutually beneficial.
Reed, do you think the NHL would want Salt Lake as a host city? I have no doubt they will listen to proposals from anyone (including a QC or Hartford delegation, for example), but does that really mean they consider SLC a suitable market?
At 1.2m it would be larger than only Buffalo (barely) and Winnipeg and would be about half the size of the other smallest US franchise homes. Buffalo draws heavily from SW Ontario (so it plays considerably bigger than the city it is) and Raleigh’s MSA is small, but the research triangle area is home to nearly 3M people.
Recent weather notwithstanding, the long term trend for the Great Salt Lake is not good… so population might be dropping rather than rising. I’m not suggesting the city will be abandoned, but (like many other areas) significant retreat may be necessary over the next few decades.
Kansas City has twice the population of SLC. San Diego has a little over 3m and Houston’s is significantly larger still. Potential ownership/venue issues aside, Salt Lake doesn’t seem to be that desirable a market to me (#46 nationally)
SLC isn’t desirable, but at least it’s not an embarrassment like Phoenix has been.
Long term SLC climate trends aren’t good, but I don’t think these leagues think about 50 years down the line anymore.
Smith would be a good owner- I think at this point the NHL would just be happy with that
Utah grew rapidly in the last decade. Mostly people moving there. It is also the youngest state by median age.
Unlike Houston ot Phoenix, it does not have an MLB or NFL team to compete with, but there is history of minor league hockey there.
It’s in the west. The NHL wants to balance the league on either side of the continent. The dividing line is roughly the Mississippi River.
There’s a billionaire-led major sports ownership group that wants to put a team there and has had meetings with Bettman. As far as I can tell, he won’t even take Quebec’s call.
There’s a plan for a new arena that might actually happen. That puts it ahead of Houston, KC, Portland, Sacramento and, probably, Phoenix.
Elliotte Friedman, who talks to relevant people, is convinced they’ll get a team.
I think it will depend on the arena deals, of course.
Phoenix might somehow pull victory from the jaws of defeat somehow or something might emerge out of nothing in Houston. And SLC only really works if they build a new arena. The current one is suboptimal for hockey.
“Phoenix might somehow pull victory from the jaws of defeat…”
If it involves paying money to keep the Coyotes, it would be the opposite.
I meant “Phoenix” as a market in general. The City of Phoenix doesn’t seem to be interested in helping the Coyotes at all and that’s fine.
WaPo is reporting that Manfred has guaranteed that any Diamond/Bally client who is not being paid their rights fee will get at least 80% of their contracted revenue from MLB if they agree to let MLB handle their broadcasts/streams.
It isn’t often that I side with MLB on anything… although I am glad Bowie Kuhn wrote a nasty letter to Jim Bouton because then Bouton could use it as the foreword (and yes, I did almost use forward…smfh) to his book… but in this case MLB is doing the right thing.
Bankruptcy courts are tricky to predict, but I hope they look at Diamond’s decision to ask for an ‘adjustment’ to their rights fees (and for the right to direct stream to customers… which, uh, no, not what you bought fellows…) as what it is: They outbid their competitors recklessly for these rights with the full intention of defaulting on their winning bid and retaining the rights through bankruptcy statutes.
The survival of Diamond’s RSN business should not be the primary concern of any bankruptcy court. They are supposed to act in the best interest of the bankrupt entity’s creditors, not it’s executives.
Diamond Sports Group didn’t “outbid their competitors recklessly” — it inherited those RSN contracts when Sinclair acquired the Fox RSNs. Remember, Disney had to sell the Fox RSNs as a condition of acquiring the 20th Century-Fox film studio and library.
Diamond didn’t inherit anything – it’s the Sinclair subsidiary that was formed when Sinclair outbid their competitors recklessly. Disney had to sell but Sinclair didn’t have to spend what they did to take on those contracts.
Sinclair should be on the hook for all this but reasons…..
LOL, and here comes the Bears clown show.
Chicago Bears hear plan to build a stadium in Naperville. Arlington Heights ‘no longer our singular focus,’ team says
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-naperville-chicago-bears-mayor-wehrli-st-0603-20230602-lukfvexmn5eetmvapyxncgkbxi-story.html
Bears are bluffing. Naperville has no plan. No available land. All they have is a gullible new mayor.
The Bears are emulating the A’s and their so-called “parallel paths”.
“a backhanded call for somebody else to buy the A’s and reopen talks”
We could only be so lucky.
FWIW, if Fisher was willing to sell there would be no shortage of potential buyers.
The Athletics are a historic franchise that regularly turn large profits, even in an antiquated stadium and a modest player payroll. And the city they call home has already offered more than enough money to fully refurbish the coliseum or replace it with a 30-35,000 seat facility on the coliseum property.
It’s a seriously underrated asset. The amount of money in the Bay Area is staggering and there’s a ton of rich people that want in on the sports ownership game. A good owner and the Howard Terminal stadium could turn things around rather quickly.
It is underrated. However, I disagree on the Howard Terminal site. The HT stadium is a non starter for a variety of reasons. It’s really just a commercial real estate play for Fisher (with someone else footing a huge part of the bill).
Plenty of room to build at the coliseum site – it’s 155 acres of mostly parking lot. Could either demolish or renovate the coliseum. It maybe cheaper to start fresh for a small stadium and implode the existing structure, hard to say.
IF I were a billionaire and the present owner had any interest in selling the asset he so clearly reminds us all he doesn’t want, I’d buy it.
Pretty much all the hard work has been done at HT already and the city seems to prefer it over the coliseum site.
Are the Las Vegas A’s destined to become the Washington Generals of Major League Baseball?
They’ll be playing in a much smaller media market in a smaller stadium with some chunk of that revenue going to pay for their new digs. I don’t see Fisher investing a lot of his own money in players. Not to mention that whatever AAAA team they manage to scrape together will be playing their home games in front of crowds that are largely made up of visiting fans.
I could see teams circling those dates on their calendar as they look forward to playing very winnable games in front of friendly crowds in an air-conditioned stadium and then having some time to enjoy sin city before they go off to battle real teams
Clock is ticking, albeit a somewhat artificial clock. Nevada politico reporters have said that no chance of a stadium deal until the budget is resolved and Lombardo vetoed a big chunk of the budget the other day.
Also lots of democrats have been turned off by Fisher and Kaval. Not much appetite to give them a handout, but they’ll go thru the motions to appease MLB, and then blame the clock if the A’s dela doesn’t get passed
The Generals are stooges & marks for The Globetrotters. So, the comparison is apt.
I feel like the dynamics are different in LV. Not saying any public costs. But anything advertised nationally about Vegas is advertising. It’s different than other markets of the same size. Say like Charlotte or Denver or San Antonio. It’s known worldwide. During the ECF Vegas was mentioned like 10 times in just a single broadcast without actually even participating in the game. Yeah I’m a homer, but they economics are certainly different. It’s a crappy spot for a stadium, but if it gets it done. It gets it done
If anything, though, that’s an argument against Las Vegas needing to spend yo lure the A’s – people are going to visit regardless, so it’s not like Vegas needs a baseball team to put it on the map.
Instead of 32 thoughts, how about four:
1) Ishbia is not buying the Coyotes.
2) Fiesta Mall location is dead.
3) Gila River at Wild Horse Pass is the last remaining (desperation) option.
4) Otherwise, it is Salt Lake City.
Are they seriously trying to get something at that wild horse pass casino? That’s an awful location.
It is what I heard, as the Gila River has been a sponsor of the Coyotes for a long time, and makes the most sense to continue that partnership.
From a revenue standpoint, I do not see it working, as the TED was said to be a ‘no-go’ without the residential component, which Mr Meruelo would not get at Wild Horse, as it is not permitted.
#4 is still my pick.
What you heard where, can you divulge?
Personal contact, relationship.
Permits can be changed.
“Get my lobbyists on the phone!”
I don’t think it’s likely that Ishbia buys the team, but a lot of the twists and turns of this long saga didn’t seem likely to happen before they happened.
And there’s a lot of reporting that the NHL are at least trying to talk to him about it.
Gila River at Wild Horse Pass sounds made-up, but I’ll take your word for it that it’s a real place.
The more pressing question for the league right now is what to say or do next. They will, understandably, not want to generate more headlines about this until after the Stanley Cup is awarded, but they need to make progress, one way or the other, before the next season begins. The other owners’ patience has to end at some point.
It’s real.
https://wildhorsepass.com/resorts/gila-river-resorts-casinos-wild-horse-pass/
And, Ishbia is not buying the Coyotes.
He reportedly said he’s at least “open to discussing” putting the Coyotes in his arena.
But, as of a few weeks ago, the Suns spokesperson said they hadn’t been asked.
I suspect both of those statements are false. Or soon will be.