Today’s main event will be the liveblog of day two of the sports economics conference at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, which tons of presentations on stadiums and stadium-adjacent topics, but first here’s the regular Friday weekly news r0undup, written entirely on Thursday! If anyone’s roof blew off this morning, it’ll just have to wait till Monday.
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Joel Glazer wants a “major renovation” of his stadium once the Bucs’ lease expires in 2028, funded by, uh: “We’re going through a phase right now where we’re assessing the stadium and what might be needed. And I know [Hillsborough County and the Tampa Sports Authority are] assessing the stadium and what might be needed, and once both of us are done with our assessments, then we come together and go talk about it, work through things.” Asked last summer about Bucs stadium funding, Tampa city spokesperson Adam Smith said team execs “haven’t approached the city about anything like that” and “we don’t expect them to”; either that was code for “paying for this is the county’s problem” or Smith really believes in the power of positive thinking.
- Unlike the [Sacramento] Athletics, the Tampa Bay Rays have managed to sell out their 10,000-seat minor-league stadium in their opening series, even at prices running more than $100 for every seat that comes with an actual seat. Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano blames this on the Rays needing to make up for “a potential loss of revenue from ticket sales, concessions, luxury boxes and the associated costs of relocating for a year,” not the desire to capitalize on artificial ticket scarcity. It’ll be interesting to see if those high prices hold up once the Florida summer heat hits — for what it’s worth, there are still plenty of seats available for next week’s series against the Angels.
- Speaking of the Rays, the clock officially ran out on their St. Petersburg stadium deal on Tuesday, and now owner Stu Sternberg is free to shop around for another city that wants to give him a billion dollars. Anyone? You in the back? You were just stretching your arms? I see.
- Cincinnati Bengals VP Katie Blackburn was asked what’s up with the team’s lease that’s set to expire in 2026, and replied, “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the up option up. So, you know, we’ll see.” NFL move-threat stan Mike Florio of NBC Sports called this “a powerful, loaded comment“; one might also argue that it’s exactly the kind of vague non-threat threat that you issue when you don’t actually want anyone noting that no cities have newer stadiums ready to offer. Potato, potahto!
- The Jacksonville Jaguars need a place to play for two years while the city of Jacksonville is paying for stadium upgrades, so they’re asking Orlando to play them to play there, cool, cool.
- A Massachusetts judge ruled that the demolition and reconstruction of White Stadium for the Boston Legacy F.C. can move forward, though opponents say they’ll continue to fight against it. (Boston Legacy, btw, is the new name for the much-derided BOS Nation F.C. women’s soccer team, presumably meant to honor the easiest way to get into Northeastern.)
- Chicago Bears president Kevin Warren says the team is now focused on building a stadium in Arlington Heights, except for the portion of its focus that is on the Chicago lakefront. More news as actual news comes in, not just attempts at leverage plays.
- Los Angeles elected officials are finally starting to get steamed about how the 2028 Olympics are being planned in a city that is recovering from disastrous fires, though so far it seems to be mostly about where the sailing competition will be held. If history is any guide, the real outrage won’t come until the Games actually begin.
- Wondering how the affordable housing promises attached to the Brooklyn Nets arena are going? Does “Empire State Development (ESD), the gubernatorially controlled authority that oversees/shepherds the project, says it might enforce the $2,000 a month penalties for each unbuilt apartment, though that process may be fraught” answer that question? If you’re wondering why ESD only “might” enforce the penalty clause that was designed to make sure developers actually build what they promised, ESD VP Arden Sokolow says that if the state fined them, “you wouldn’t be getting any housing there,” whereas this way … oh, would you look at the time, we’ll have to cut off questions there!
- Former Anaheim mayor and illegal helicopter registrant Harry Sidhu was sentenced to jail time for deleting emails to hide them from an FBI investigation into soliciting bribes related to a proposed Los Angeles Angels stadium deal — if you had “two months in federal prison plus a $55,000 fine” in the betting pool, you’re a winner!
As an Orlando resident, this city has everything going for it to be a temporary home of an NFL franchise:
Prior history of hosting NFL events (e.g. the Pro Bowl)
More than enough accommodations and facilities for NFL teams, both home and away
Fewer scheduling conflicts at the would-be host stadium compared to UF
A much closer drive for all the transplant NFL fans/fanbases within Florida
A terminal, borderline crippling obsession with being seen as a big-time city hosting major events
I can’t say I blame the local sports bureau for making this pitch to the Jaguars — and since we’re on the topic, I can see them making the same sales calls for the Bucs if their stadium renovations end up displacing them, as well.
That’s why for all those reasons Orlando shouldn’t pay the Jags. It’s easily their best option and way less disruptive to the team and its players/staff. If Khan wants to be a cheapskate and chase dollars for an inferior experience for his fans and employees, let him.
Forbes estimates the Bengals as being the least valuable NFL team, so they could move anywhere and possibly be better off financially.
Rays are going to host the Braves, Red Sox, and Yankees before April ends. Those will definitely be sell outs. After that, it will be interesting to see what kind of crowds they get.
I am curious if the Olympics will even be in LA in 2028. I wonder if other countries will decide to split hosting duties on an alternate Olympiad. There are plenty of facilities available in Paris, Tokyo, and London. What would FIFA do if countries insisted on only playing in Canada and Mexico for next year’s World Cup?
The problem is that FIFA has the hammer, and no one can really successfully go against FIFA unless they ALL do. (And they won’t.)
Nice, in theory, but not realistic. FIFA can just say, “Great, your players are outlaws, you can’t participate in any FIFA event, kthxbye.”
The last two World Cups were held in Russia and Qatar. The upcoming one featuring the US in a prominent role won’t be that much of a departure from those.
Good point. And 2034 will be in Saudi Arabia.
USA/Canada/Mexico 2026 could easily be on the level of Italy 1934 or Argentina 1978. That interwar World Cup glorified Benito Mussolini. The Carter-era World Cup was window dressing for a brutal military dictatorship.
The only way a move increases the Bengal’s value is if it’s to a larger market. And there aren’t that many large non-NFL cities left. Lots of lateral moves, like to STL, OKC, SLC, San Diego. But you’d still be lobbying for a new stadium. Toronto, London and Mexico are your only (slightly) viable threats. Might as well shake down your own city, and save on moving boxes.
I don’t think any domestic US market is on the prowl to lure an existing NFL team.
Markets are like fish tanks with sports teams being various sizes of fish. No US market wants a huge new “fish” with a voracious appetite for public funds.
Let’s play NFL Franchise Roulette, shall we?
Stateside we have one city twice burned, a second that’s hardcore college football, a third with religious issues (similar to BYU), a fourth that’s learned to live with its former team on TV.
And no NFL club will dare relocate outside the US given the current political climate.
And the one NFL franchise that everybody swore up and down was destined for relocation wound up staying in the fourth-smallest market in the league, in large part because the local government there wanted to keep its team far more than any city in the US without a team wanted to take one from an existing market.
The Bengals don’t have a stadium problem, or even a revenue problem — or any problem, really. Even the point about franchise valuations is largely moot; somebody has to bring up the rear in any league, and being at the bottom with a franchise valued at north of $5 billion is hardly the end of the world.
The Olympics will be in Los Angeles in 2028 unless the city itself cancels the deal. The games have been held in way sketchier political situations in the past, plus there’s SLC in 2034 for the Winter Olympiad. Tough to back out of one but not the other, and finding suitable and willing Winter Olympic cities is way harder. Ditching SLC for it to be in longtime bidder Baku (with an extremely high probability Azerbaijan will be at war with Armenia again by then and the…problematic human rights issues that arise when those two start shooting) would be self-defeating.
The Bengals won’t go anywhere while Mike Brown is alive. He had the chance to go to Baltimore before the old Browns went there but he wanted to wait to give Cinci a chance to make a deal. He also had a chance to become the new Browns but kept the team in Cinci. The Browns are trying to get $600 million in the budget. I assume this is posturing by the Bengals to get a similar amount.