It’s finally Bandcamp Friday again, which means I can purchase and listen to everything that’s been piling up in my shopping cart all summer. (If you’re wondering: Bad Moves, Imperial Teen, Quivers, and Verboten.) But first there’s a whole week’s worth of news to get to, so let’s get to it:
- Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker says keeping the 76ers in her city is “a priority,” but as far as a new arena goes, “we have a process here in the city of Philadelphia that we are following, and we will allow it to play itself out.” Philadelphians, meanwhile, told pollsters commissioned by the Save Chinatown Coalition that they overwhelmingly oppose the Sixers’ arena plans, by a 56-18% margin. The actual question was “Generally speaking, would you support or oppose a proposal to build a new 76ers arena in Center City, near Chinatown, or are you neutral about it?” which is a pretty neutrally worded question; after being read arguments in favor of and opposing the arena, opposition rose to a 69-15% margin, with increased traffic and congestion and fears it would hurt the neighboring Chinatown as the two main reasons. Also, only 12% said a new Sixers arena should be a priority, as opposed to more than three-quarters who listed addressing the opioid crisis, improving schools, building affordable housing, and getting homeless people off the streets as important — no one’s asked Mayor Parker yet to rank her top priorities, but maybe it’s about time someone does?
- The owners of the Philadelphia Flyers, meanwhile, Comcast Spectacor, who are also the Sixers’ current landlords, continue to make not having a new arena built be a priority, as you would expect. Their latest gambit is to present a competing developer who they say would build a biomedical “innovation hub” on the proposed arena site; the proposal included at least one rendering, but it didn’t feature any fireworks or lens flare, how’s that supposed to compete with an arena in politicians’ eyes?
- Chicago Bears CEO Kevin Warren, who just re-upped his team’s contract with stadium lobbyists for another $120,000 a year, says he would prefer to get a new stadium within Chicago city limits, and anyway Chicago needs one, because “we’re missing out on concerts, multiple megaevents, including Super Bowls, Final Fours” and “if we don’t wrap our arms around some of these construction projects, we’re going to fall behind as a city.” It will be left as an exercise for readers to calculate how many Super Bowls Chicago would have to host to earn back the $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion in tax money Warren is asking for, but suffice to say that it would be at least several per year.
- Elected officials in Indianapolis are debating whether paying for a retractable roof for the Colts stadium was a good idea, something complicated by the fact that nobody seems to know how much the retractable roof cost. (“A minimum, a minimum, at least $100 million,” says former Hamilton County council member Rick McKinney, but there was no actual line item for it in the $720 million stadium budget.) The best part of the Indianapolis Star article on this is that the “was too!” position is staked out by Steve Campbell, who when the stadium was approved in 2004 was an official in City Hall and who is now the Colts’ vice president of communications and external affairs, funny how that works out. Campbell says that city officials then wanted to make sure the stadium had every possible doodad because “we knew that the next stadium that came out would have something that we didn’t have”; presumably the only reason they didn’t add in holographic replay systems is that they didn’t know where to buy one.
- NFL owners are so rich that they’re having a hard time not paying taxes on all their wealth when they die. That’s it, that’s the whole story, Lucky Ducky wins again!
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/5Z3FVDYFI5GW5KNUAPLUVYEUTA.jpg){kind=link}
If the experiences of the Metrodome, Silver Dome, Ford Field and Lucas Oil Stadium are anything to go by, the number of Super Bowls Chicago is missing out on is 1. Each northern domed stadium is allowed to host 1 Super Bowl in during its lifespan. Except for St. Louis.
This year, Soldier Field has hosted 8 dates of concerts. In 2023, Soldier Field hosted 8 dates of concerts. I don’t think a new stadium is going to bring in many more events. There aren’t many acts that can sell out stadiums like that, and some (Springsteen, Green Day) choose to play Wrigley Field instead.
The Chicago lakefront is one of the nation’s most spectacular venues for concerts and events during the summer. Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago and more draw millions to the lakefront during the summer. Throw in world class museums, and Chicago’s lakefront is impossible to beat….4 or 5 months a year.
This is all true.
The point is – how much more is spending a couple billion going to do?
Everyone loves walking down Michigan Avenue in February, wind gusting off the lake at 30mph, sub zero wind chills and snow blowing around. How many fans will spend a week in Chicago under those conditions? Maybe they could just stay in their hotel and complain that if the Superbowl was in Glendale they would be on a sunny golf course in Scottsdale. Da Bears need to wake up and realize that having the nation’s third largest city and metro to themselves, along with a rabid fan base, gives a threat to move anywhere zero credibility.
Brandon Johnson really needs to wake up and smell something really strong. The White Sux and da Bears have no good alternative other than staying in Chicago. Nashville is less than a quarter the size of Chicago. And the White Sux problems are 100% the fault of that 88 year old with a cigar stuck in his mouth. By the way Brandon, what are you going to do about CTA security after those shootings and stabbings? And the Greyhound station that will be closing in 2 weeks? You have a city to run with far more important issues to deal with than billionaires crying about stadiums that taxpayers are still paying for.
MetLife Stadium has hosted a Super Bowl and WrestleMania. Does it matter that MetLife Stadium is not located within the city of New York? Of course not!
AT&T Stadium has hosted a Super Bowl, WrestleMania, and the men’s Final Four. Does it matter that AT&T Stadium is not located within the city of Dallas? Of course not!
SoFi Stadium has hosted a Super Bowl, WrestleMania, and the men’s Final Four. Does it matter that SoFi Stadium is not located within the city of Los Angeles? Of course not!
The Chicago Bears have been told by their season ticket holders “we don’t want the new stadium in Chicago”, yet the club insists on “Chicago or nothing”. See how far that line of thinking gets you beyond Cook County.
And Phoenix could have had the Cardinals Stadium in Downtown, gobbling up entire neighborhoods with surface parking (like around State Farm Stadium in Glendale). Guess what Phoenix got instead? The ASU Downtown / Medical Campus. After 20 years, I still can’t get used to that flying saucer that crashed into Soldier Field. The McCaskeys are equally bad at designing football stadiums and running football teams. If I was mayor of Chicago, I would gladly watch da Bears move to Arlington Heights, just to get rid of the flying saucer. The next monstrosity to go would be McCormick Place East.
Phoenix is full of parking lots though.
I think the real issue behind the “Chicago or bust” approach is that villages like Arlington Heights aren’t going to be able to deliver the big subsidy. The governor has said it’s not a priority for the state. I don’t know enough about the Cook County Board of Commissioners, but it’s safe to assume most of them represent Chicago and probably aren’t keen on funding something in the suburbs far away from your constituents. The city of Chicago appears to be the only large entity in the region with a somewhat malleable decision maker.
Although if the Bears were smart- they’d be secretly lobbying down in Indianapolis for a Gary or Hammond stadium. Indiana loves subsidizing sports. They’re now throwing money at WWE for a bunch of shows at Lucas Oil. I’m pretty sure if the Bears grease enough palms they could get it done there.
Season ticket holders are unhappy with the idea of a new lakefront stadium but I think a stadium in Gary or Hammond would be the only thing that could piss them off more.
Probably true- but it’s not really that far away when compared to where other stadiums sit within their metro areas.
Glendale, Inglewood, Arlington, Miami Gardens, foxboro, East Rutherford, Santa Clara aren’t the easiest places to get to. If the team is good the fanbase will suck it up and go. It’s 8-9 games a year.
So sportsball palaces should be built only within the city limits of a principal city? That line of thinking was discredited when the Dallas Cowboys opened Texas Stadium in the suburb of Irving.
Texas Stadium is now ancient history, but the main goal has been established — easy access via expressway and/or tollway. Arlington Heights fits that criteria. The Chicago lakefront does not.
I think it definitely matters to the people of Inglewood that it’s not located in LA. I still can’t believe they got away with doing that to the residents of a notoriously disadvantaged city.