Before we get to the news: I hope that those of you who enjoy using dark mode are enjoying the new dark mode plugin I installed this week (DarkMySite, if anyone cares), which seems, unlike the old one, to actually mostly work. If you haven’t tried it out and want to, click the little moon symbol at bottom right and take a load off your eyes!
Also, a special shoutout to a couple of FoS readers (unnamed, but you know who you are) who either sent in a large lump sum of cash or upped their monthly Patreon pledge for no reason at all in the last week. As I forget if I explicitly mentioned, I quit my previous day job last month, which should give me more time to devote to this site; and while I do have a new regular gig that seems promising, every step towards making this site self-sustaining is hugely helpful, so a huge thanks to all you supporters, at any level. (And for those who haven’t yet taken the plunge: There are still about a dozen more Vaportecture art prints, get ’em before they’re gone!)
Okay, enough of that, time’s a-wasting and there’s a whole week of news remainders to dig through:
- The fallout continues from the Chicago Bears owners’ $2.6 billion stadium subsidy demand (see the updates for the math behind the updated figure), with so much more today that we’re going to have to break out the second level of bullet points:
- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says it’s no contradiction that he said during his mayoral race that the city shouldn’t spend billions of dollars on a Bears stadium when there were “dozens of other urgent needs” and now thinks this is a great idea, on the grounds that he, a “middle child” from a “working-class family,” got to talk to billionaires and make sure they put some “skin in the game” and also the stadium will be “transformational” and “the Bears are staying in Chicago” and “the type of economic development this project brings” and “14 more acres of space for our children in the city of Chicago to benefit from.” Is all that the best use of $2.6 billion? I’m sorry, we’re out of time for questions, thank you for coming.
- The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board did get a chance to ask Bears CEO Kevin Warren what would happen if the team got its $1.225 billion in taxpayer money for the stadium and nobody came up with another $1.175 billion to build new underground garages and park space, and Warren replied: “I’m not going to think negatively about that now. … If that’s the conclusion that … you want to reach now, then you can say that. I’m being positive about it … and being very transparent as far as what we need from the different three phases with this stadium project.” So, optional when projecting the city’s costs, not optional in the sense that you don’t want to go there in terms of what happens if the city doesn’t come up with another billion-plus dollars, got it.
- Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker reiterated yesterday that he’s agin’ the whole kit and kaboodle, saying: “I’m skeptical of the proposal that was put forward and I’m even more skeptical of the ability to get enough votes for it in the General Assembly.”
- Chicago Sun-Times columnist David Roeder suggests that if the Bears (and White Sox) want public money, they should give the public a cut of ownership of the team, though some stick-in-the-mud (okay, it’s me) points out that sports leagues love nothing more than to head off the possibility of public ownership, even blocking one-time San Diego Padres owner Joan Kroc from gifting her team to the city of San Diego on the grounds that that just isn’t done.
- Way back in 2019, the Indiana state legislature approved giving $112 million toward a new soccer stadium for the Indy Eleven soccer team, provided owner Ersal Ozdemir got his team promoted from the USL to MLS. At the time, this seemed like an easy enough lift, since all the other kids were doing it, but it hasn’t happened yet, and now apparently Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett has gotten tired of waiting, announcing that he’s putting in a bid with another ownership group to get an MLS expansion team, using the same tax kickbacks that Ozdemir was looking to get. Ozdemir, who already broke ground on his stadium site last year, though it’s unclear if he’s actually started construction, is naturally enough extremely unhappy with this latest news, accusing Hogsett of “preparing to walk away” from “years of good-faith negotiations” and instead give the public money to some other soccer guy instead of him. Will there be lawsuits? Stay tuned!
- A “hotel entrepreneur and former longtime Kansas City resident” got space on the Kansas City Star op-ed page to argue that Kansas Citians who voted against a tax subsidy for Royals and Chiefs stadiums missed an opportunity to become like Denver, where “the Coors Field development inspired a stunning downtown renaissance” where “dozens of restaurants, bars and clubs opened to serve crowds before and after the 81 hometown games each year.” I once again wish that I still had a copy of the chart someone once showed me that indicated that most of the development starts in Denver’s LoDo district actually preceded the construction of the Rockies stadium; if I can dig it up, I’ll post it here as an update.
- The Arizona state senate is considering a bill to allow the state to approve “theme park districts” like the one Alex Meruelo wants for a Coyotes 2.0 arena, without city governments weighing in. (It did so by virtue of hollowing out an already-state-house-approved bill to give first responders access to treatment for PTSD and inserting theme park district language instead, which Arizona calls a “strike everything amendment” but “zombie bill” is a much better name.) This could make it easier for Meruelo to have the state levy a sales tax surcharge in his arena district that would be kicked back to him for construction costs; we’ll have to wait and see what the state senate thinks of it.
- Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula may sell up to a quarter of their team to help raise money for their share of a new stadium, after construction costs have soared by a reported $600 million. In case you needed more evidence that many if not most stadiums are money losers that are only built so that team owners can cash subsidy checks, here’s your Exhibit A.
- Arlington, Texas is spending $4.2 million to upgrade the Texas Rangers‘ old stadium, which the team moved out of after 2019 into a new publicly funded one, because, according to Arlington Mayor Jim Ross, “it’s a regional injection of all economic development.” The stadium is currently home to the XFL Arlington Renegades and occasional concerts.
- What more could happen to Montreal’s Olympic Stadium after costing $1 billion to build and hundreds of millions more to fix the roof on and now $870 million to fix the roof on again? How about catching fire and needing $40 million to fix the damage? You gotta wonder if the Big Owe is just trying to put itself out of its misery at this point, but Montreal officials aren’t getting the message.
I don’t understand the cost estimates to demolish Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Ok they can’t implode it. I get that. But both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium weren’t imploded. They didn’t cost 9-figures to dismantle
Yankee and Shea weren’t prestressed concrete, so it’s a little trickier. But yeah, no one understands how it could possibly cost that much.
If I remember correctly, though, it cost more to demolish yankee stadium precisely because the type of concrete the used to build it (based on an edison mixture or something like that).
Almost like when they built it, they expected it to withstand the test of time…
I am sure there are more complexities, especially since they can’t even have it collapse given what’s underneath. It’s more deconstructing than demolishing. But still the numbers make no sense.
Anchoring can work either in favour of a new stadium or against it.
It will cost a lot to demolish (and you don’t really get to reuse the site given what’s under it – at least not for “anything”). But there’s no way it will cost what was estimated.
Unless they hire the same companies that built it, which, well, it is Montreal, so…
I recall a quote from a Montreal outlet around the time of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, “…the Super Dome, is the most expensive stadium ever built. For what we spent on this stadium, we could have build 6 Super Domes.”
Wow. Kevin Warren is so good at not answering questions.
Master class…..
This was something.
PHNX Sports – An Open Letter To Alex Meruelo
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HGH5vtwL0o?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]
Link went wonky, try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HGH5vtwL0o
Wow, that video was something. I thought Steve Peters was going to cry AND throw his chair at the camera…..
A 180⁰ turnaround for PHNX, from praising Saint Alex to calling Meruelo Sparky 2.0 and his son Sparky 3.0. When the Coyotes introduced the Hispanic gang banger uniforms, I wondered where that brilliant idea came from, now I know it was a 20-something Cuban kid. Sicking Hyena Hallman on Phoenix and using Nixon tactics against Coyotes Tempe Arena opponents did alot of damage, creating additional political division when there is already so much. The quality of Coyots ownership was like the Titanic, a sinking ship with the next owner worse than the one before. Gary Bettman and the NHL Board of Governors deserve the blame, both Barroway and Meruelo had been rejected by the NBA, what did Bettman expect. Now Utah thinks they have a new Prophet, Saint Ryan. Utah might be in for an unpleasant surprise, Ryan Smith might be such an ineffective “sports mogul” that he might even destroy the Jazz. Austin Jazz has a “weird” ring to it. As for the Arizona land auction, if the State Trust Board of Appeals allows the auction to go forward, I hope there is a way to remove all of the fools who voted to play along with Meruelo in the first place.
Which uniforms are the Hispanic gang banger uniforms? Neil should write more about that.
I have no idea what he’s talking about. Anyway, that’s uni-watch.com’s territory. (I checked there and can’t find anything about this.)
It’s just a racist trope and should be treated as such.
Craig Morgan wants the Coyotes to stay, of course, but he is not a Meruelo supporter.
The uniforms Steve Peters said were designed for Meruelo’s son at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars were shown on TV commercials in Phoenix during the 2022-23 season. I can’t find them anywhere now, they’re probably something the Coyotes organization made sure dissappeared.
Don’t forget about the Dallas Jackals Major League Rugby team playing in the old(?) Texas Rangers ballpark, aka Choctaw Stadium.
That’s 8 more home games a year filling up the calendar!!!
And also there is minor league soccer being played there. Add in another dozen or so games.
That’s some heaping “regional injection of economic development”!!!
Marc Ganis who is the go to stadiums are great expert with some amazing quotes on the mayor:
“Ganis said what was extraordinary about this week’s stadium proposal was the fact that Johnson has enthusiastically signed on without hammering out lease terms or finalizing other important details.
“As a taxpayer, that wasn’t a good look. And I’m being charitable here because that’s the person who would set the negotiating tone. That’s the person who would be telling his staff to negotiate harder. Instead, he’s saying, `Don’t worry about it,’ “ Ganis said. “ I don’t really want to be insulting our mayor. But that was an odd, odd position for him to be expressing at that press conference.””
https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/bears-stadium/2024/04/26/chicago-bears-lakefront-stadium-proposal-price-tag-nearly-7-billion-pritzker-brandon-johnson
The Pegulas selling a percentage of their team to fund a stadium that for the most part they don’t seem to actually want… in a city where it’s hard to imagine that a new stadium can draw THAT much more money out of the local fans.
Fisher selling (probably greater than 100% if he can get away with it) equity in the A’s to fund a ballpark that no-one seems to want or think is a good idea…
Hey, if these are such a great opportunities, why don’t they just sell to each other?
KC Chiefs are apparently going to run a competition between the states of Kansas and Missouri to see who will give them the most free money for a new stadium.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40038997/chiefs-look-stadium-options-arrowhead
Great, if I lived in Missouri, it would be awesome if Kansas payed for a multi billion dollar Chiefs Stadium. That would be like having my cake and eating it too.
For once I actually agree with the reactionaries …
https://www.foxnews.com/media/chicago-bears-told-pay-damn-stadium-proposal-taxpayers-footing-2-billion
So the Bills’ owners are proposing what all teams wanting a new stadium should be required to do – sell a minority stake to finance the new stadium or upgrades. Good.
Well, except they cashed a $1 billion public check first.