Two headlines from today:
Pennsylvania governor to work with Eagles, Steelers on stadium needs
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro says there will be no state money for sports venues
Yeah, that’s not confusing at all. What did Shapiro actually say?
“I’m very worried about the overall budget,” Shapiro said Sunday ahead of the scheduled NASCAR Cup Series race at the track. “I’m very worried about the overall economic situation given the federal cuts. You want to balance investing in tourism, investing in sports, investing in great arenas and facilities, with making sure that you’re also investing those dollars in things that Pennsylvanians need most.
“I will tell you that we want to make sure the Steelers, we want to make sure the Eagles, and all of our pro teams have outstanding places to play. That are welcoming for fans. That generate revenue. We’re going to continue to dialog with them about what they need and what’s possible.”
That’s noncommittal in the extreme, and exactly the kind of middle-groundism that is de rigueur for elected officials when asked about their stadium subsidy plans: Of course we want to keep the team owners happy, but not if it means spending unnecessary taxpayer dollars. There’s still plenty of wiggle room there to endorse necessary taxpayer dollars, or tax breaks or whatever that can be waved off as not really public money — don’t forget that Pennsylvania was one of the first states to use tax-increment financing to fund stadiums (for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh’s NFL and MLB teams), leading to the memorable quote, “It’s not a grant. It’s not a loan. It’s a groan.”
The news coverage leaves unclear why Shapiro was even talking about the Eagles and Steelers — as noted, he was at a NASCAR event at Pocono Raceway, and was mostly talking about how to potentially bring NASCAR to Philadelphia without undermining the state’s existing NASCAR track before veering into NFL stadium talk. Regardless, he seems to have left at least some of the assembled reporters convinced that he is ruling out state money for football stadiums even while not actually committing to ruling it out, which is some boss level governoring right there.
UPDATE 4:38 pm ET: NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, who ran the article under the second headline above after reading the AP story under the first headline, has gone back and actually watched the video of Shapiro’s interview and realized that he got it completely wrong, though he’s blaming AP for the screwup. In any case, Florio has clarified that Shapiro was asked by a reporter about state money for the Steagles, and ducked the question. Further updates never, hopefully.
“NASCAR expressed at least a cursory interest in adding to its recent string of offbeat race locations … and floated the idea of holding a race inside a Philadelphia stadium, Franklin Field.”
I can’t imagine a more surreal sporting event than a NASCAR race at a 125+-year-old Gothic college football stadium.
Baseball and NASCAR being so into these gimmick events is really proof that they’re bottom of the barrel when it comes to what sports the general public cares about.
That does seem odd. Since Franklin Filed still has a 400 meter running track, I suppose has more room than the LA Coliseum, where they lowered the field and moved seats closer to the football field after 1984. But it does seem awfully small, and gimmicky.
NASCAR did a race at the LA Coliseum, and it was…interesting.
I can’t imagine that the circuit owner was all that thrilled that the gov was on hand and actively talking about other entertainment attractions, much less discussing the prospect of a competing NASCAR race in another (makeshift) venue.
It would be like Manfred rambling on about how he enjoyed the cricket world cup during a world series presser… which is completely in character, but not helpful.
Seems to me Shapiro did no-one any favours on this one (except his masters in the NFL owner’s club).
I wonder if he’s fishing around for a NASCAR street race. This is the third year for the Chicago race, which was a three year deal with two option years. Everyone seems indifferent to the race returning. People like the race, but don’t like the two weeks of road closures. Supposedly NASCAR is looking at San Diego or a return to Mexico City. So we may have to wait for a Cheese Steak 500.