New Memphis mayor: Thanks for $350m in state cash for Grizzlies renovations, please send more

The city of Memphis has formally accepted $350 million in state money, first announced back in February, that will go toward $500 million in renovations to the Grizzlies‘ arena and $220 million for the Liberty Bowl, after a brief interruption involving Memphis legislators kicked out of the state house who were then re-elected. We can now move on from this, noting only that $720 million is a lot of money to spend on upgrading two sports venues, one of which isn’t even 20 years old yet, but at least Memphis is now set [screeee]

Unfortunately, Memphis has to go back to the state for more money, as $600 million still won’t be enough…

“We want to makes sure the Grizzlies stay in Memphis, and we want to make sure that the University of Memphis is able to move to a bigger conference,” [mayor-elect Paul] Young said. “And you know we have a limited amount of funds to achieve those goals. I want to work with them to figure out how can we get the capital stack such that both projects can be executed.”

That’s from the TV station ABC24, which also reports (according to Jon Styf at Center Square, I can’t find the original) that money from a hotel/motel tax, a county car rental tax and kickbacks of all sales taxes at the arena to paying for arena upgrades will provide $250 million on top of the $350 million in cash from the current state budget. But still, Grizzlies season ticket holder Young wants more for team owner Robert Pera. Which means the total cost of the two stadium renovations counting city spending would now be more than $720 million.

More than $720 million is even more than $720 million, obviously, but there’s another concern here, which is: “make sure the Grizzlies stay in Memphis,” really? You mean the city went and approved half a billion dollars in renovations to the team’s arena and didn’t even get a commitment from the team’s owner that it’ll stay in exchange past the lease extension to 2029 that it agreed to last year? Or is Young’s claim here that the city doesn’t know if it can fulfill its share of the promised renovation funding — the city and team are supposed to put up $334 million collectively, but still nobody seems to be reporting the breakdown, almost a year since it was first announced — so without more state cash, the whole deal will fall apart?

I’ve been reporting here on how the record for per-year cost of paying teams to extend their leases keeps getting broken, but giving the Grizzlies $500 million in exchange for no lease extension at all would be, let’s see, get out the calculator, an infinite amount of money per year of new lease. That’s a record that’s going to be tough to beat — though I suppose paying a team owner to actually make his lease shorter would top it, and you just know some mayor will figure out a way to do that eventually.

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13 comments on “New Memphis mayor: Thanks for $350m in state cash for Grizzlies renovations, please send more

  1. What amount of free no-strings-attached money will make billionaires happy? How many dump trucks will be required to deliver it?

    Also, did you just start/revive the “Grizzlies to Seattle or Vegas or wherever” rumor mill, Neil…? Your answer here will help us all respond more accurately to the two questions above.

    1. I think the NBA, like the other leagues, would rather have expansion than move a team. More money for the owners.

      Listening to NBA media people talk, they seem to resent the small markets in a way that I don’t hear from NFL or NHL people. They seem to think that stars’ star power is wasted if they play anywhere but LA, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia or Miami.

        1. I didn’t say there were no stars on other teams. I said that the prevailing narrative is that those other teams don’t matter.

          Although I should have included the Warriors in that list of “Teams that matter.” And probably Dallas, Houston and maybe Phoenix too.

    2. >What amount of free no-strings-attached money will
      >make billionaires happy?
      >
      All of it.

      >How many dump trucks will be required to deliver it?
      >
      All of them.

  2. Just couldn’t resist commenting on this bit from the mayor: “…we want to make sure that the University of Memphis is able to move to a bigger conference”

    Wouldn’t having a recognizable football brand — or maybe more so, your city being at least a mid-size market — be more crucial in being invited to a bigger conference at this point?

    UCF plays in an erector set (albeit a modern one), but that didn’t stop them from getting a Big 12 invite. We’ll see what that ultimately means for every other sport under UCF’s umbrella, but it’s clear what the driver was for that move.

    1. If the BigXII, ACC or SEC wanted Memphis, they’d have asked by now.

      They’ve had some good teams, conferences don’t really care about that. They want teams that will bring more eyeballs to the TV package.

      Fixing up the stadium isn’t going to help that much. In all of the conference realignment chaos over the past 10 years, not once have I heard anyone say that such-and-such school is attractive because it renovated it’s stadium (or vice versa).

      And, in any event, it is not the Mayor of Memphis’ job to boost the university’s athletic programs.

      1. Conferences tend to look for “new” eyeballs. The SEC probably feels they already enough Tennessee and Arkansas eyeballs. Not sure what the other conference needs are. Memphis has always been an odd fit for conferences. They want the basketball program, but are less interested in the football program.

        1. I should have said that conferences want new eyeballs while holding onto the ones it already has.

          The SEC would not add Memphis. It adds few eyeballs and would be a net drag on per-team revenue. It would be expansion for expansion’s sake and the SEC does not need that.

          The Big XII could conceivably add Memphis. It would bring them into another fairly big market and be another school a bit closer to UC and WVU. The Big XII has also shown more interest in enhancing their basketball brand – hence that serious-but-absurd effort to add UConn.

          But they just went through a big expansion and I can’t recall anyone suggesting they wanted Memphis.

          The ACC might consider them if and only if they took the SMU deal and didn’t ask for a piece of the TV deal.

          Most universities would say that defeats the purpose of being in a major conference – or, indeed, the purpose of having a D1 football program at all – but SMU is different.

    2. Good point. More than likely, this was just an outright fib to get support for fixing up the Liberty Bowl. Oregon State just unveiled a massive renovation of their stadium, has a super competitive football team this year, and still can’t get an invitation to a new conference (as the PAC 12 dissolves). Not a chance Memphis is moving up anywhere.

  3. WOW, giving these teams $720 million for upgrades? In Seattle we make the owners pay!

    Memphis, being such a crime ridden city, that money should be going elsewhere.

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