We have a lot to cover today, but first I would like to encourage you to donate to Matthew Sweet’s GoFundMe for stroke recovery if you’re a fan of his music and haven’t yet — he sounds like he’s in a bad way, he couldn’t afford health insurance on a musician’s income (especially being off the road for much of the last four years thanks to the pandemic), and needing to have health insurance is still a thing in the U.S. for some reason. Here’s hoping that the money raised will help allow him to make a significant recovery, and that someday even people without hit songs will be able to afford medical care and the Pentagon will need to hold a bake sale.
But enough about the unfairness of the modern American economic system, on to … well, you know:
- With the city of Cleveland considering whether to file suit under the Art Modell Law to force Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam to offer the team for sale to local buyers before decamping to suburban Brook Park, the Haslams have taken the preemptive step of suing to block the Modell law on the grounds it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and is too vague and probably a bunch of other things, the typography on the PDF is really hard to read. “Today’s action for declaratory judgment was filed to take this matter out of the political domain and ensure we can move this transformative project forward to make a new domed Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park a reality,” said Browns COO Dave Jenkins, which is a nice way of saying, “These damn ‘laws’ and ‘democratic procedures’ were getting in the way of our stadium plans, that could not be allowed.”
- Speaking of things getting in the way of the Browns’ Brook Park dome plans, Cuyahoga County executive Chris Ronayne has reiterated that he doesn’t want Ohio taxpayers footing $1.2 billion of the stadium bill, saying, “We have looked at the facts, and the facts are that, and I said it before, that the Brook Park play just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work from a financial standpoint, and it’s frankly very detrimental to our future.” Added Cleveland city law director Mark Griffin: “I want to say this to our state legislature … and to this court system: If you make moves to try to gut this city of one of our key corporate partners and money maker, all of us will remember. You will be up for reelection. You would have to deal with the city of Cleveland in some way, shape, form, or fashion, and none of us will ever forget it.”
- John Fisher will not be presenting any financial details of his Las Vegas Athletics stadium plan at the Las Vegas Stadium Authority’s October 31 meeting, I’m sure you’re all shocked to hear. The authority will discuss his proposed lease agreement for the stadium, but the actual language doesn’t appear to have been posted yet on the authority’s website, guess it’ll be a surprise! Marc Normandin has more on the Vegas clown show at Baseball Prospectus.
- The Green Bay Packers have agreed to future rent increases at Lambeau Field after previously demanding a rent freeze so it could instead put the rent savings into paying for stadium upgrades. The Green Bay council unanimously rejected that proposal, and Packers execs agreed to annual 2.75% rent increases worth about $30 million in total present value — turns out sometimes pro sports franchise owners do take “no” for an answer, though obviously the Packers are a bit of a special case in terms of franchise ownership.
- WTOP-TV quotes University of Maryland business professor Michael Faulkender as saying a renovated Washington Capitals and Wizards arena could benefit the surrounding Chinatown because “Generally when people come down for an event, they’re not just going to go straight to the event. They’re also going to, perhaps, come in early, go to restaurants, maybe stay afterward, go to bars,” which 1) they really don’t that much, 2) those that do are already there, since the arena is already in place. Faulkender added, “It may, on the margin, attract people to live closer to it, if they’re regular fans of one of those teams,” and attracting new residents to displace existing ones is exactly why people say the arena has been bad for D.C.’s Chinatown, Faulkender can just stop now, I think.
- If you were wondering what former Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo was up to and had your money on asking for tax kickbacks for a proposed $1 billion minor-league and college hockey arena in Reno, Nevada, you’re a winner!
- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says her $1 billion Buffalo Bills stadium subsidy was necessary because five other cities were trying to steal the Bills otherwise. She didn’t name any of the cities, of course, but we know what one of them must have been.
- I wrote a long explainer for Defector this week on where the proposed Philadelphia 76ers arena deal falls on the bad-to-awful spectrum, if you’ve been wanting a long explainer on that. And I did an interview with ABC Tampa about where the Tampa Bay Rays might play next year with their stadium roof in tatters, if you want to hear me expound on that, or just missed seeing what I have on my living room walls.
Regarding fans “maybe” coming early or hanging around, incidents like this certainly don’t make that an attractive proposition.
https://youtu.be/DGGraASb-18?si=xcr6k2sXMByVurpq
(Raven fan assaults cardinals fans in an entertainment area after the game)
Lewis still in town, then?
Ooooooohhhhhh! :)
The idea of “five other cities trying to steal the Bills” is so funny to me. Maybe Toronto and London were two of the cities?
There’s a reason why the NFL is so laser-focused on expanding its international presence. The US is tapped out in terms of new fanbases it can create, and maybe in terms of cities that can (or are willing to) pay billions of dollars for a new or relocating NFL franchise.
If a game or event ends at 9PM or later, I’m not staying eat at overpriced restaurant near the venue.
I’ve been to a couple Angels game where I ate before but it’s so rare.
Also, when I’ve talked to restaurant owners, they’ve said the window of time in which people eat before or after the game is so small, they can’t seat a significant number of people during it. So it really doesn’t add much to their bottom line. (One guy near an NFL stadium said he closed on game days, to avoid all the traffic.)
ESPN’s Andscape had a write up about the intuit dome earlier this week and discussed some of the nearby businesses and how the intuit dome affects them. For most bars and restaurants the effect was highly negative. With $70 parking and terrible traffic the regulars don’t bother to show up and most folks are there to attend the event and the intuit dome wants them to eat inside and not at nearby eateries. Intuit dome also seems to not be allowing local businesses to be represented inside the intuit dome (this is something the warriors have really done welll at chase center, with a huge representation of local businesses at the food booths which is really great)
That is consistent with what I’ve learned about a couple of “new” facilities near me Ken. The TIF/CRL zone encompasses dozens of businesses in the area which must pay the tax and compete with similar businesses which are actually inside the arena/stadium development. Their costs increase while their business tends to drop off.
In a couple of cases these businesses were big boosters of the new arena during the (laughable) public debate about funding it, and are now crying the blues as their ‘expected’ 40% business bump turned into a 20-25% drop and they would like someone else to make them whole again.
Stupid is as stupid does.
This is in Edmonton, John? If you can direct me to the names of some of those businesses, I’d love to talk to them.
Except in the case of the Chase Center there is no TIF/CRL as the building was privately financed. They did put a stop on the T-3rd muni line but that is above ground so relatively inexpensive if the warriors didn’t chip in
Chase Center has billions and billions of economic impact even though there was a pandemic right after they opened!
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/chase-center-arena-thrive-city-19858599.php?utm_content=hed&sid=5fbc67d6c8f1d11c5c56c5c1&ss=P&st_rid=8c5f6882-c6ab-4e98-b02f-23e832a73fd9&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=headlines&utm_campaign=sfc_morningfix
At least they did ask an actual economist for a rebuttal.
One thing to note here is the Chase Centerwas privately financed so this study is Nora study to try and justify spending public money
Nora should be “not a”
The “people go to restaurants on game days” argument has been used as a reason to build a new White Sox stadium. My feeling is that if people in the neighborhood go to restaurants, then housing should be built instead of a stadium because people in the neighborhood will also go to restaurants the 250 days a year that aren’t game days.
Love this response!
I am so pleased to hear the Browns want to “take this matter out of the political domain”. I am certain this will include eliminating the public funding as well, as these are clearly in the political domain. Further,since the commerce clause has been invoked and clearly applies to efforts such as one government within a defined area attempting to use it’s powers of taxation to induce a business to move out of another government’s district and into it’s own, I would expect that a blanket ban on any Ohio state or municipal agency offering to provide any type of funding (including public borrowing pass throughs), in kind contribution or other inducement to relocate will certainly be agreed to swiftly.
Thank you for helping spread the unfortunate news about Matthew Sweet. I’ve been a fan since the first time I heard ‘Girlfriend’ 34 years ago.
For me the gateway album was “100% Fun,” which remains my favorite. I saw him play this past April, and he was just starting to shake the rust off after being pretty much in hiding since 2020 since he had underlying conditions that made him especially COVID-averse — not that there’s ever a good time to have a major stroke, but the timing here is extra-awful.
I’d like to second that thanks- I ‘discovered’ Matthew (as well as Syd Straw) when he was practically a child playing with The Golden Palaminos at Rick’s American Cafe in Ann Arbor (1987). Been a fan ever since.
How did I not know that Matthew played with the Golden Palominos? I mean, the list of people who haven’t played with them is shorter than the list that have, but still.
Michael Corleone in the Godfather Part 2: “My offer is nothing”.
That’s what Ohio should say to Haslam.
When asking for taxpayer stadium money, owners are always talking about creating new opportunities for local bars and restaurants. Then they build stadiums that includes plenty of in-stadium bars and restaurants.
I had not paid close attention to the Modell Law before, but it seems ripe for constitutional challenge on a number of grounds.
If I were representing the Browns, I’d argue it represents an end-run around eminent domain law. Requiring that the team be sold to the relevant municipality is effectively an eminent domain taking, but most state eminent domain laws offer a lot more in terms of substantive and procedural defenses than the Modell Law’s “give us six months notice and we either approve the move in our discretion or we get to buy the team”.
Bringing in an equal protection angle, I’d query why these relocation restrictions and what amounts to a kind of expedited-eminent-domain procedure are only made applicable to professional sports teams.
On its face, it’s odd that someone could own something like a tax-supported defense production facility that employs thousands of people and relocate it out of the region or, if the state were to attempt to expropriate it, avail themselves of a lot of really robust defenses, but pro sports teams are subject to a much more punitive regime.
I know. It’s Sunday now, not Friday.
But I just saw this article that gushes over the still-just-starting-construction of freedom park in Miami (the future home of Beckham’s interMIAMI)
It’s really not noteworthy except that it’s written by a non native English speaker and contains a phrase that made me laugh out loud:
“… for the occupation and exploitation of these public lands”
Which is pretty on point for all the stadium grifting.
https://www.lavanguardia.com/mediterranean/20241025/10051042/new-inter-miami-home-350-million-stadium-messi-busquets-alba-suarez-florida-freedom-park-2026-soccer.amp.html