This has been a long, busy week for a lot of reasons, so let me just thank those of you who re-upped your FoS memberships (your swag will be in the mail shortly!) and get straight to the news, of which there is a ton, because the stadium game doesn’t stop just because it’s summer or there’s other stuff vying for our attention:
- The Paris Olympics start tonight, and how’s that going? You say France is spending $3-5 billion on the Games in exchange for “uncertain” benefits, tourists are staying away because they don’t want to deal with all the Olympic disruptions and local museums and such are set to lose a ton of money, and Paris is forcibly relocating homeless people to make the city seem more attractive? Good, good, that’s what the Olympics are traditionally all about.
- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers owners aren’t asking for a new stadium, but that won’t stop the Tampa Bay Times from noting that the stadium is “aging” (aren’t we all, every day) and wondering if the Glazer family will want renovations or a whole new one. “Even after repeated requests from the [Tampa] Sports Authority for information, the Buccaneers have still not provided us with any renovation plans,” Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan told the paper, while Tampa spokesperson Adam Smith said the Bucs “haven’t approached the city about anything like that” and “we don’t expect them to.” But the Bucs’ lease runs out in 2028, and all the other kids are getting new and renovated stadiums, so Times sports reporter Rick Stroud still spends 2700 words speculating on what a new or renovated stadium could look like and how it would be paid for, it’s always a time saver when your marks take the initiative to extort themselves.
- Also in Tampa Bay, two Pinellas County commissioners are asking questions about the Rays stadium deal in advance of a Tuesday final vote, questions like “How much will this actually cost taxpayers?” (more than $1 billion, by best estimates) and “Will the public have to put in even more money to make sure affordable housing is built?” Unfortunately, it only takes four of seven commissioners to pass the deal, so there’s no guarantee the dissenters will get answers to their questions before Tuesday, though county officials said they’d ask.
- Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and the owners of the Blackhawks are planning a $7 billion mixed-use project around the United Center, no details provided on whether this would involve public money or tax breaks or anything, they didn’t mention it in their press release so it probably isn’t important.
- The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office did a study of the economic impact of the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates stadiums, both of which were built with public money, but unfortunately even though it spelled out that it was calculating spending by both “fans whose main reason for travel is a Phillies game and casual fans who attend games because they happen to be visiting the region,” the final numbers just added up all spending in and around the stadiums and assumed it wouldn’t happen without them, very disappointing.
- Not telling the Nevada Independent how to do its job, but if you’re going to roll with the headline “How Bally’s buyout might affect resort plans for A’s Vegas stadium site,” you might maybe want to include something about how it will affect that, you know?
- Oakland A’s owner John Fisher is laying off half the team’s non-baseball staff so he can make Sacramento River Cats employees do two jobs at once, this has been your weekly John Fisher Sucks post.
Matt Ishbia wants NHL in Phx. Just can’t hold it anymore. I’m so excited.
He’s starting the process of trying to replace his current arena. That will take 10 – 15 years, probably, which would be about the right time to try to get another NHL team.
Ryan Smith was just handed a billion dollars for bringing a hockey team to town, bringing one back might be worth at least a billion. The Footprint Center(and Barclays Center) proved that basketball arenas make lousy hockey arenas. Phoenix made a mistake in 2019, Phoenix should have locked in the Suns until 2042 instead of giving the Suns a 5 year option. The Suns will obviously ignore the 5 year option and demand another renovation or a new arena by 2037. Another issue involving a new arena is that downtown Phoenix is rapidly developing, even south of thr railroad tracks is starting to develop. It will also be an interesting debate where a new arena would be built in the 2030s.
Are there any other arenas that share both NHL and NBA?
Have they in the past?
Has it ever worked?
Just curious…..
The NBA was actually founded, in part, by NHL team owners who wanted something to occupy their arenas on nights the hockey team wasn’t playing. But a basketball court fits inside the space of a hockey rink, not the other way around. That’s why Madison Square Garden, Toronto, LA, Chicago, etc seem to work alright for hosting both, they were designed for both. Barclays in Brooklyn, for example, was designed only for basketball and had hockey wedged in after the fact, so it was a terrible rink.
There are lots of arenas that are shared by NBA and NHL, but all of them were designed to accommodate a hockey rink, which is over twice the size of a basketball court. I can’t think of any basketball specific arenas that successfully accommodated NHL hockey.
Thanks!
I saw on YouTube CBS ran a report that the Paris games were “only” a billion dollars or so over budget at this point and that part of the city’s appeal for selection by the Olympic board was that only three new venues would be constructed….still too much in my book for what little the Olympics actually provide, but at least it’s a slight sway in a better direction.
This has nothing to do with sports, but a California company is going to get hundreds of millions of dollars to build a “quantum campus” in Chicago on the polluted site of a former steel mill. This site has been proposed for a new Bears stadium, except it is 10 miles farther south than Soldier Field and, therefore, less convenient for most season ticket holders.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/technology/2024/07/25/psiquantum-steel-south-works-quantum-computer-johnson-darpa
Pretty shocking the bulls/blackhawks haven’t asked for a new stadium given their current stadium is getting up in age.
It was built by the teams. The Bulls and Blackhawks each own 50% of it so they keep all the revenues. They already sell out pretty much everything even with the Bulls and Blackhawks being terrible so a new stadium wouldn’t bring in any more revenue as it’s already the largest capacity for basketball and near the top for hockey. And they’ve renovated it a few times over the years so it really doesn’t look like it has aged much.
For the new project one article I read said “the ownership group said there’s no plan to request city funding or tax increment financing assistance.”
Oh, that’s good — do you have a link to that? The Sun-Times didn’t say either way.
This was the article I read: “https://www.wbez.org/real-estate-development/2024/07/23/united-center-reinsdorf-wirtz-1901-project-housing-entertainment-hall-retail-campus-arena”, in the 7th paragraph.
Here’s another one where it says in the press conference it would be privately financed: “We are not going to Springfield to ask for money as the White Sox have done,” Savarise said. “Or the [Chicago] Bears, by the way.” https://blockclubchicago.org/2024/07/23/united-center-owners-planning-7-billion-campus-around-arena-with-housing-music-hall-and-more/
Thanks. Only slightly weird that Savarise is effectively saying “We’re not going to ask for public money like my boss is for the White Sox.”
Neil, according to Mark P comment the same thing happened 30 years ago? Money for new Sox stadium, United Center no?
But these are super charged times for the grift…..
The White Sux could have moved to Addison, Schaumburg or downtown 30 years ago. They took public money (by way of Governor Thompson twisting legislators arms at midnight). Tough, enjoy Guaranteed Rate Field.
Da Bears could have had a dome adjacent to Mccormick Place 30 years ago. Da Bears took public money for another open air stadium on Lake Michigan. Tough, enjoy da wind, fog, snow and sub zero late season games.
Then the Bears acquired Arlington Park but won’t start construction because they’re not able to shake down the village of Arlington Heights over property taxes.
They have spent several times over what it initially cost in improvements and upgrades. You have no idea when you’re inside that the building is 30 years old.
I have a solution to the Oakland A’s mess. Each year, the A’s play in a different minor league ballpark. They could television an annual The Decision show on MLB network. For the 2025 season, the A’s could only consider a ballpark in AA, A, or Rookie because they would have played in AAA ballpark already. This process ensures Billings, MT, and San Antonio have equal chance to host the A’s for the season.
Is this the key item in that Nevada Indy article?
__________
“The company today has several growth opportunities ahead, including the permanent Chicago casino [and] optionality with the A’s site in Vegas,” Jonas wrote.
__________
“Optionality” = Cash-poor Bally’s has the option to try and squeeze a resort onto the same parcel as a ballpark, and compete with all the MGM casinos that are less than two blocks away, but why would they do that?
Looks like the person talking about “optionality” is a third-party analyst. And that’s not necessarily optimistic Wall Street speak, just a fancy synonym for opportunity.
I spent some time trying to figure out how this might be a positive development for the Vegas ballpark, based on the information on offer, and couldn’t find a way to spin it. Evidently accounting rules have changed such that a lease is no longer just an expense, it appears on the corporate balance sheet as both an asset (the leasehold) and a liability (the lease payments). The liability aspect should already be set in stone, I imagine. The asset side of the balance sheet is the only area where they have leeway to play around and try to make their finances look better, by choosing optimistic discount rates or valuation prospects on a new casino. But that’s not going to come close to overcoming the $3.7 billion in long-term debt that’s the big issue with Bally’s financial health.
In any event, I can’t see how this would magic up cash that would cover the A’s funding gap. After all, the stock buyback means cash is flowing out to compensate ex-shareholders! This is not typically something a private equity operator likes to see happening, they want cash to flow upwards to themselves. Also interesting that Standard General is keeping the company public; could mean they’re confident, especially since they’ve been pitching this buyout for two years, but it also means that their efforts will be continuously judged by the stock market. A typical private equity operation would be to hold private for a few years, let the MBAs run wild with hatchets and chainsaws, and then re-IPO. (This happened over the past few years with Safeway/Albertson’s supermarkets, for instance.) And clicking back into the Indy’s previous article about the buyout, it looks like that’s how Standard General’s previous casino flipping operation was successful, and it seems that Bally’s remaining public was not part of the original buyout plan. Not confidence-inspiring.
And even if the new Bally’s were willing to step up with ballpark funding, we are then crossing the Rubicon into a major-league sports team being directly financed by gambling interests. I don’t think that’s ever happened in the US, at least with the big 4 leagues?
MGM Resorts is the operator of T-Mobile arena. They own it alongside AEG and Bill Foley. That being said, they have no gaming inside the building, unlike a lot of facilities in these new sports gambling markets.
That’s the only example I can think of where a gambling corporation has crossed the rubicon, and they’ve handled their business in a way the NHL is ok with. Ballys straightup paying for a huge share of the A’s stadium for some kind of equity in the team would obviously be worse. As per the financing agreement though no gaming would be allowed on those 9 acres of land designated for the stadium
And here I thought one of the biggest benefits of these Vegas expeditions, for all teams concerned, was being able to generate revenue from in-stadium betting.
It’s one of the reasons the plan is so stupid. It’s too small of plot for a stadium village that could be a year round destination to help pay off the bonds and they also aren’t allowed to have any gaming at all on the land designated for the tiny stadium, that you would think would help pay off the debt as well. It’s literally just a stadium.