I know it’s a U.S. holiday and I usually take those off, but I’m going to make an exception given that the weekend started with the Friday news dump to end all news dumps. Starting Friday morning, it was revealed that:
- The Cleveland Browns owners want at least $500 million in public money toward a $1 billion stadium renovation.
- The Chicago White Sox owners want at least $1 billion in public money toward a new stadium, on top of $700 million in property tax kickbacks already attached to the proposed site.
- A proposed stadium for a proposed MLB team in Salt Lake City would cost more than $1 billion in public money.
- Alexandria released an economic impact study of a proposed Washington Capitals and Wizards arena that would cost upwards of $1 billion in public money, claiming that the state and city would still make money on the deal (but wait till you see who produced the numbers).
The whole purpose of a Friday news dump is to avoid scrutiny: By loosing your announcement upon the public at a time when no one is available to provide any criticism, the hope is that your spin will end up taking root before anyone can assess whether you’re actually wearing new clothes. So, we’re going to dive into these stories one at a time starting today — we probably won’t finish until tomorrow, but at least it’s a bit of a head start.
First up, the Browns:
Last October, in a round of meetings at Browns headquarters in Berea, the team pitched City Council on a ballpark figure: $500 million to $600 million from the public, according to two members who attended. They asked not to be identified because they were sharing details from a private meeting.
That represents half of the $1 billion to $1.2 billion that a stadium overhaul might cost, the members said. The Haslam Sports Group proposed picking up the other half.
Talk of renovating or replacing the Browns stadium that was built with public money just 25 years ago has been kicking around for a couple of years now, but this is the first time an actual taxpayer price tag has been attached. Signal Cleveland reports that team representatives “met with council members in small groups” last fall to get around public meeting disclosure laws, a variation on Cobb County’s old have-some-legislators-wait-in-the-hallway trick; apparently two members got annoyed enough with the gambit that they decided to reveal what was discussed anyway. The councilmembers also said they saw a video rendering of what a renovated stadium would look like — including a “land bridge” to connect it with downtown, something else that’s been rumored for a while, with a price tag upwards of $200 million.
As for how the $500-600 million in public money would be raised, nobody’s talking there. It’s possible Cuyahoga County could extend the cigarette and alcohol taxes that were used to pay for the current stadium once they expire in 2035, and state and city money would likely be involved as well.
WKYC-TV, meanwhile, reports — citing “Cuyahoga County sources” — that Browns owners the Haslam family have also pitched a new stadium outside downtown Cleveland with a price tag of $2 billion, half of which would be paid for by the public. The NEOtrans blog, which has been first to report most of the Browns stadium rumors, says the Haslams have already “reached a purchase agreement” for 176 acres of land in Brook Park adjacent to the airport, though we’ve seen that gambit used to shake loose stadium money downtown in other cities as well.
Even if true, needless to say, all of this is just asks by the Haslams, and there have been no reports on how amenable elected officials are to actually coughing up the dough. If nothing else, though, getting “$1 billion renovation or $2 billion new stadium” and “public to pay half” out into the discourse is valuable anchoring — if the Browns owners eventually agree to pay, say, 55% of the costs, it can be presented as a bargain for the public by comparison. Not that that’s necessarily or even likely why the two unnamed councilmembers went public with this four-month-old news now, but any leverage in a storm when you’re a sports team owner.
17,000 new permanent jobs in Northern Virginia if the arena is built? So moving restaurant and entertainment business from downtown Alexandria to Potomac Yards creats jobs? Shuffling business from downtown DC to Northern Virginia or Maryland to DC or Virginia just fattens the pockets of contractors and drives up construction costs. Period.
The land bridge connecting the area where the stadium is with downtown would be needed with or without a stadium (probably even more so if the stadium wasn’t there). The downtown core is disconnected from the lakefront. In part because of the stupid elevated highway, which Cleveland has been talking about getting rid of for well over 20 years, and due to a steep bluff between downtown and the lake. They actually would be better off if the Browns moved from the lake and they sold the land to developers.