Sports economist Victor Matheson and I were both on a radio show this week to discuss the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Royals and Chiefs stadium situations — you can listen to it here, but first check out the rest of this week’s stadium and arena news, it’ll be quick, I promise:
- There’s a “major economic boost” coming to Sacramento now that the Oakland A’s are relocating there temporarily, reports KCRA-TV: A new brunch-and-golf-simulators venue is opening across the street! (It was going to open there anyway, but now that the A’s are coming, the owner is trying to open it earlier.) Also, the mayor is “in discussions” with three new restaurants! Feel the excitement!
- There is no excitement in St. Louis, where the Cardinals are still technically in the playoff hunt, but fans in the best baseball city in the world don’t want to watch .500 baseball, it turns out, or even buy hot dogs. “I love being the hot dog lady,” says hot dog lady Karen Boschert. “I’ve cut my staff down. My prices are reasonable. You can take my food into the stadium.” Maybe she could pivot her sales pitch to point out that you can buy her food and not bring it into the stadium? Just an idea.
- Pollsters in Missouri decided to ask an unusual question of local voters: not whether taxpayers should pay toward new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, but how much. The average was two-thirds team, one-sixth state, one-sixth city and county, which is kind of arbitrary and doesn’t account for whether the public would get back any share of revenues or community benefits or anything, but sure it sounds fair. Ish. Time will tell if the team owners come back with “zero-thirds team, poke in the eye with a sharp stick public.”
- Most of the San Antonio residents who testified at a Wednesday hearing on a $160 million Missions minor-league baseball stadium “voiced concerns and skepticism,” according to Fox San Antonio. For actual quotes we have to turn to KSAT, which notes that a local arts and social justice activist said, “This project is all about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” while a resident of a housing complex that would be demolished to make way for the stadium said, “I would not be able to get somewhere else, and I would end up in the street yet again.”
- Chicago’s city budget is facing a $982.4 million shortfall, and Mayor Brandon Johnson says, “There are sacrifices that will be made,” but not new Bears and White Sox stadiums, those are important even if they would cost the city upwards of $1.2 billion and $2 billion respectively, sacrifices are for little people.
- Team-funded studies of a Philadelphia 76ers arena say it would be great, other studies show it would be a disaster; the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board says it’s up to the mayor and city council to figure out where the truth lies in the middle!
- Another group of developers unrelated to either the Royals or the city has come up with renderings for a new downtown baseball stadium, and guys, you should at least look up how many players are on the field for a baseball game.
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The 10th player in that sad rendering by the Royals is a backup catcher helping the left fielder warm up. I know this because that’s the only way I got on the field with my high school team.
Chicago can’t afford $25 million to buy the Greyhound station scheduled to close in a month so passengers don’t have to wait in the snow for the bus, but can afford billions for luxury suites in a football stadium use 10 times a year and the 31-104 White Sux. Brandon Johnson should go….to Phoenix in August without air-conditioning or a similar hot place.
Wouldn’t worry about it. The mayor doesn’t have the money or support for spending on the Bears. If the Bears get a new stadium, they’re using their own money or some gullible suburbs money.
Or wait until Pritzker is gone and then try again.
The “best fans in baseball” moniker is mostly down to the fact that the Cardinals basically went 25 years without giving the fanbase any reason to *not* be loyal to them. What we’re seeing there now is basically the same as any other city with a baseball team that’s going through a few down years. I don’t think it’ll ever get to “Astros games doing 0.0 ratings on TV” bad in STL, but the fanbase there isn’t any different from all the others in baseball.
My personal feeling is that Brewers fans are the best. I have seen a few games in Milwaukee, and they seem the most polite while also being knowledgeable. I credit that to listening to Bob Uecker for 54 years.
The BFIB began being applied, in part, not solely due to crowd sizes but general knowledge and appreciation of the game (cheering a grounder to right side to advance runner to third with less than two out, cheering opponents who make great plays) and not being total asshats like cities with some, um, more aggressive fanbases. Lower attendance this year could be ascribed to being quality fans as well. Personally, I noticed performance and expectations begin sliding during the Matheny era, especially the longtime hallmark defense. He was also extremely off-putting. Shildt restored the fundamentals, the team trajectory showed promise, and then they sacked him sans ceremony. Additionally, public statements by the front office and ownership have been insanely smug and tone deaf. We used to attend six games a year, which dropped to two in recent years. I really did not want to attend a single one last year or this year, but between my fan-girl wife, and my brother visiting from SoCal, I was bullied into it.
Now to seamlessly tie vituperative rant back to this site’s purpose:
Stadiums.
LOL. Yes, the Cardinals definitely went “off brand” for several years. I suspect this has as much to do with the custody of the organization falling into failson hands (where have we seen this before?), but who knows.
Like many fan bases, I think Cardinal fans will put up with bad years or even stretches where the team lacks sufficient talent. That’s part of being a baseball fan.
What they won’t put up with is lazily played and incompetent baseball combined with a front office that treats them like they should consider themselves lucky they were allowed in to watch.
And really, no-one should put up with that.
Ryan Smith thinks he can be a “sports mogul” because he sold a tech company for billions. What is a sports mogul? Jerry Reinsdorf was considered a sports mogul until his White Sox fell 74 games under .500 last night. This is the 44th season nearly 90 year old Reinsdorf has owned the White Sox, so their should be no excuse for a team that was winning World Series 120 years ago to blow away the loss record of a 1962 expansion team composed of mostly minor league players. Reinsdorf has been cheap cheap cheap with his money and a fool with taxpayers money. He started by putting the Whie Sox on subscription TV in 1982 at today’s $75 a month and chased Harry Caray and half of White Sox fans away. Then, later in the 1980s, instead of reach reaching into his own pocket to pay for at least part of a new stadium in the suburbs, Reinsdorf kept threatening to move to Tampa Bay, and used his influence with Madigan to get Illinois taxpayers to pay for a new stadium in the same crappy location. Now the White Sux are poised to blow away the worst baseball record since the 1800s. So much for a sports mogul being a great leader. Reinsdorf expects to be rewarded with a free $2 billion stadium in the South Loop, give it to me or I’ll put out a White Sux team that will lose 162 games, and then move to Nashville.
Ryan Smith is even more clueless, along with the Utah politicians that are handing him a billion dollars to play with, along with control of the Salt Palace area. For everyone who has been living in a very deep cave for the last 100 years, Utah has a reputation of being ultra stodgy and controlled by the Mormon Church. A city 400 miles southwest of Salt Lake City has a reputation as the entertainment capital of the world. Spending a billion, or 3 billion on a 3 block area isn’t going to change any of that. The Wasatch Front isn’t really into professional sports, the Utes and Cougs are what counts. Adding another winter sports team to a metro area of 1.3 million is a formula for both teams to fail. Davis and Utah county don’t count, I-15 to Utah County is rapidly becoming a congested parking lot, and Davis County has zero corporations and few able to afford expensive tickets. Given the nation’s youngest demographic, and largest families to support, high Church tithing and a moderate household income, there are more reasons to expect having both the Jazz and NHL hockey to fail. Generating enough local revenue to support a combined payroll of nearly a quarter billion a year will be impossible, which is needed to reach the NHL salary floor and have a competitive Jazz team. Degrading basketball sightlines to accommodate hockey won’t go over well with Jazz fans. Kansas City lost the Kings and Scouts nearly 50 years ago, and still doesn’t have a NBA or NHL team. Don’t be surprised if the same thing happens in Utah. So much for the brilliance of “sports moguls”
Smith also hired a former agent Chris Armstrong to be President of the NHL team. 14 years of sports management and marketing will be fun to watch. I can certainly see the resignation of Bill Armstrong, no relation, coming in the next years. Due to Smith and C. Armstrong meddling in what BA has put together. At least A.M. left B.A. alone to turn the franchise around. I don’t see that with Smith and C.A. as no free agents want to come to SLC to live for half the year.
:… no free agents want to come to SLC to live for half the year…”
None? Has someone done a poll on this? Assuming you’re not a complete party animal or someone who demands to live outside the snow zone, seems like a pretty nice place to be.
If only Oakland had coughed up $12Bn for the Howard Terminal project/gift to Failson Fisher…
Then the people of Oakland could have had a brunch spot AND golf simulators.
Dammit all to hell….
QOTD!