No news worth reporting yesterday, but I instead spent my morning recording this interview about the Oakland A’s potential move to Las Vegas, which covered a lot of ground in just half an hour. Tune in to hear what Brodie Brazil and I discussed, or just to see what’s on my living room wall behind the other end of the sofa from where I usually sit for Zoom interviews!
And a few other things of note happened this week, let’s get to them:
- The newly formed Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard rallied yesterday at the site of the proposed $2 billion Washington Capitals and Wizards arena, with former Alexandria vice-mayor Andrew Macdonald saying, “We don’t need an arena to thrive,” and local resident Shannon Curtis saying the project would “create a traffic boondoggle.” In related news, apparently the Potomac Yard Metro station was set for possible closure until this project was proposed because nobody was using it, but now, as discussed before, it would need expansion to handle arena-sized crowds. Hmm, maybe that should be included in the already-$1.5 billion public price tag? Just a crazy notion.
- People in Southeast D.C., which is home to the new arena where the Washington Mystics play but which may lose the team to the current Capitals and Wizards arena if those teams relocate from D.C. to Virginia, are equally steamed about the whole thing. “I can’t stress enough that we’re not leaving; there’s still a commitment to the neighborhood,” promised Caps/Wizards senior VP John Thompson III, saying the team owners would work with the city to “bring other events” to the neighborhood “to help fill the void” — which sure sounds like leaving, though I guess keeping the arena open and every once in a while holding a concert there or something is technically just “moving out and promising to visit.”
- As if Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman didn’t have enough prospective stadium sites to play off against each other, now the owners of the old Kansas City Star printing plant site want back in the game. (No details on who would pay for a stadium at that location.) Meanwhile, residents packed the first public meeting by Jackson County yesterday on the Royals’ plans, with KMBC reporting that “many voiced their concern about continuing a tax when they didn’t know where the stadium would be or any specifics about how it would benefit low-wage earners.” The local food and retail workers union also demanded that the project include a community benefits agreement to require that stadium jobs be union, which is already part of the tax extension proposal, and anyway CBAs often don’t work out that well for many reasons. But sure, better-paying jobs are better than worse-paying jobs, can’t get if you don’t ask.
- The owners of the new Oakland Ballers minor-league baseball team say they signed a deal to rent out the Oakland Coliseum to host one game this summer, but A’s execs blocked them by enforcing their exclusive right to play baseball at the stadium. (Yes, the stadium that A’s owner John Fisher is trying to get out of as fast as possible. Irony is not his strong suit.) A fan group spokesperson said he figures it’s because Fisher was in “a position of embarrassment” because “I think we would have outdrawn them,” which is maybe wishful thinking but also maybe not.
- Wondering how the biggest sports subsidy deals compare to the biggest non-sports subsidy deals? Check out good Jobs First’s list of the top megadeals of 2023, headed by Ford getting $1.7 billion from Michigan for an electric car battery plant and Volkswagen getting $1.3 billion from South Carolina for its own EV battery plant. Nothing against electric car batteries any more than against sports, but at 6,500 jobs combined, that’s nearly half a million dollars per job, which is a sports-level awful ratio — good job, car companies, even if not good jobs!
Great appearance on Brodie Brazil’s show! I’ve been following him for a while.
I saw that Baylor University basketball teams just opened a new arena in Waco. The city paid $70+ million, but I also saw some finance guy gave $100 million to the project. Since that can be classified as a donation to a university, he is likely getting a large tax deduction.
Note to self: Start a university, right after starting a religion.
I considered the religion idea. I have the requisite academic background. I determined that it would not be too hard, but it would just be too unethical.
Then those “The Secret” people stole my idea.
Half a million dollars per job is chump change compared to those savvy negotiators in the self-proclaimed Sports City USA of Frisco, Texas. They pledged nearly $125 million of City and School District money PLUS another $60+ million from the State to bribe PGA of America away from Florida, whose economy will surely be left in tatters as a result. In exchange, PGA committed to adding all of 100 jobs with a “plan” to hire as many as 250.
Are those “PGA” jobs going to be in Texas or Saudi Arabia?
Hooooo boy! That’s one thing city officials have a reflex-like set of talking points for now. That the “PGA Tour” is the entity of touring professionals that is taking Saudi money to join LIV while “PGA of America” is a totally completely separate entity of country club pros and other domestic interests therefore they, and by extension the City, will remain absolutely positively 100% unaffected by anything that transpires between the PGA Tour and LIV.
Nothing to see here. Please keep moving.
I suspect the “ballers” (really?) would have outdrawn the A’s.
But Fisher’s effort likely has more to do with hoping he could extract some sort of compensation out of the city (or the indy team…) for “graciously allowing” the team to play at the stadium he said is unfit to play in.
If Fisher were at all concerned about embarrassment he wouldn’t be running his businesses the way he has been, nor would he have hired Kaval the failed negotiator and ex-GBL owner to ‘represent’ his interests.
There may be much about Fisher we don’t know… but we can certainly gauge his level of incompetence (pretty much “utter”) and that he has a staggeringly high tolerance for embarrassment (public or otherwise).
I suspect when you’re clinging to the billionaire bracket by the skin of your teeth, the cost of public embarrassment ends up vastly outweighed by the slightest glimmer of prospective cashflow.
Perhaps so, Ian. I find Forbes to be something of a confusing source… though it may be the only “public” source of info regarding billionaires we have (I mean apart from the Enquirer… oh, wait..)
They lopped Fisher off the 400 two years ago. Fair enough, his businesses have been struggling.
In 2014 he was listed at just under $3bn. In 2022 they had him down at $2.2Bn. Again, can’t really argue. At the beginning of 2023 they listed him at $2.3Bn (of which the A’s – $1.2bn – would have been about half) and now, they list him as being worth $3Bn. So as of last year his no sports interests (GAP and timber business) were worth approx $1bn. And being a private person/corporation, we don’t have a clear picture of what debt he holds either.
What magic has he worked other than a questionable deal for a new ballpark in a small market that he has not yet managed to consummate? Did issuing a press release for a franchise move to a stadium that has not yet been built nor even funded somehow increase his wealth by $700m?
It’s a bit like Mark Davis having his franchise increased in “notional value” by $4bn (300%) by moving from a crappy old stadium in Oakland to a shiny new one in Vegas (a market about 1/3rd the size) and on which he carries more than $1bn in debt. His net operating income did increase, but not THAT much….
An astute skepticism towards the questionable art of putting a price tag on assets that so rarely change hands, John. Our society would do well to place much less weight on illiquid wealth, as it has a way of declining in value once it has to be liquidated rapidly. For another example, surely Elon Musk is no longer “the world’s richest man” after the Twitter debacle? Vast swathes of the press haven’t bothered to catch up to that one yet.
Forbes seems to have permanently impaired their credibility, since I’m given to understand their website is now a semi-open platform for any “contributor” who can come along writing stories with a vaguely financial bent. Great for extra clicks during the cryptocurrency bubble, but unhelpful long-term. People have been slow to catch on, but that willingness to mortgage the name will probably catch up with the print publication eventually.
Forbes offered me the chance to become a “contributor” early on, for no pay but all the exposure I could eat. I impolitely declined.
Fisher should buy the OYO hotel, it would fit perfectly into his portfolio of slums and crap business.
While Fisher is buying luxury hotels along Tropicana, the Motel 6 would be the cherry on top of his Las Vegas empire
I’m not 100% sure local resident Shannon Curtis knows what “boondoggle” really means.
They would’ve outdrawn them.
nice interview. Sounds like Fisher does not have a plan to get the money needed to build the stadium which he also does not have a plan for. Otherwise, he’s in good shape.
I still think the best plan is to build it in the parking lot next to the current stadium because: it’s doable, unlike the Las Vegas site, no infrastructure needed to get the site suitable for a stadium, it’s the cheapest solution, and you remain in a large market.
It’s really not doable. There’s minimal parking compared to other football stadiums. That doesn’t mean the Tropicana site is any more ideal.
Davis also detests Fisher from the years sharing the Coliseum. Raiders wouldn’t do anything to help the A’s.
I think Tom is talking about the Oakland Coliseum site?
A bit off topic, and I don’t want to start the new year off on digression…
BUT!
Forbes says that 21 of the world’s 2,640 Billionaires (reported – I’m sure there are some on the list who are lying about their wealth and also some not on the list only because we have no idea who they are or how much money they have nor how they made it, and neither does Forbes…) died in 2023.
So, the hopeful reframe on this is that there is at least a chance that at this rate all the billionaires will have expired before the stadium bonds – and their forthcoming refinance efforts – are retired.
Admittedly, this is slow progress. But as Dr. King said, the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. He didn’t say it would be quick.