The D.C. council’s verdict on the $6.6-billion-plus Washington Commanders stadium subsidy still seems to be up in the air at this time: The council now plans to vote today, giving councilmembers a whole 24 hours to read the final stadium bill, which was just released yesterday, after the council had concluded hearings about it without most councilmembers themselves being present, as one does. Councilmember Robert White has already said he plans to vote against the bill and hopes he can get four others to go along with him and block the needed two-thirds majority; council chair Phil Mendelson seems confident that he has the votes to pass the thing, but we’ll all find out together in a few hours.
Meanwhile, let’s pass the time by taking a spin through the other stadium and arena news that unfolded, or didn’t, this week while we were all waiting for the denouement to Bowser‘s Folly:
- The Cincinnati Bengals‘ new lease remains up in the air after Hamilton County commissioners yesterday approved it, but Bengals execs haven’t signed it yet because they’re still reading the final version. We’ll just have to wait and see whether team officials are willing to accept $700 million–plus in county stadium upgrade funding, or if they plan on asking for even more.
- The Las Vegas A’s stadium cost is still up in the air, with estimates now around $2 billion, up from $1.75 billion, according to owner John Fisher. Does Fisher have the money to pay to do more than move some dirt around? Did he before? Only he and his accountants, and maybe Rob Manfred, know.
- The legality of Missouri’s offer of state money for Kansas City Chiefs and Royals stadiums is up in the air, after two Republican Missouri state legislators and one citizen activist have sued to block it, arguing that it has too much stuff in it and is unconstitutionally targeted to benefit specific companies and is “a bribe” to keep the teams from moving to Kansas. Whether any of that is actually illegal, it’ll be up to the courts to decide.
- Denver Broncos stadium plans are still up in the air, but Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said yesterday, “We’re working hard on a deal, and I think we’re close.” Where the stadium would go and who would pay how much for it remains up in the air.
- The final city cost of repairing the Tampa Bay Rays‘ Tropicana Field is still up in the air, with current estimates standing at $59.7 million plus whatever it costs for new video production equipment, plus tariffs, plus any other sundries. Will the St. Petersburg city council keep approving additional costs? You already know the non-answer to that.
- The economic impact of a new San Antonio Spurs arena development remains up in the air after consultants said it would be worth $18.7 billion over 30 years, then it turned out they were only clown consultants. Whatever fools the San Antonio Express-News is good enough for government work!
There’s so much up in the air today, Ryan Bingham just arrived to fire a bunch of people.
The roof repair for the Trop cost increase (basically 5-6%) over 7-8 months isn’t that bad. Fisher’s non existent plaything has increased almost 30% in that same time… but then, the people he is dealing with will know a prime mark when they see one.
Trop repair costs could increase even more given tariff changes (which, no, people, the other countries DO NOT pay, any more than Mexico paid for the stupid wall…) and the falling job market/inflationary conditions. We are entering unknown territory on the badly mismanaged economy and I don’t think anyone can safely say what is coming (other than that the mirage won’t hold up for much longer… what replaces it? Who knows…)
I’m just disappointed that they didn’t work out a deal to just buy out the last year or two of the Rays’ lease. Looks like discussions were held, but it didn’t work out.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/st-petersburg/2025/08/01/tampa-bay-rays-tropicana-field-settlement-40-million-st-petersburg/
Interested to know what others think might have been a reasonable amount to buy out the remaining three years of the Rays lease at a stadium they kept telling people not to go to…
The Rays’ attendance this year is a little over half what it was at the Trop. Gate receipts are normally around $45m per Forbes, so even accounting for higher ticket prices at Steinbrenner, they’re likely still losing, I dunno, $10m playing in Tampa this year? Add in the $15m in rent they owe the Yankees, and that’s a ~$25m loss per year, meaning Sternberg probably wasn’t going to accept any buyout for less than the cost of a new roof, especially since there is zero chance that a new stadium gets completed before 2030 or so at this rate, so the Rays are going to need a place to play even after their lease runs out.
The Yanks are charging a fellow team in distress $15M/yr? It sounds high. How many teams pay that in rent or PILOTs?
It’s way high. The Tarpons avg less than 1,000 fans per game. Even if the Rays playing at Legends meant that Tarpons had to play in front of no fans at all at a rec field, that max loss to the Yankees in revenue would be under $1.5m total per year.
The real joke in all this is that the Rays “couldn’t possibly” pay that much to play in the Trop, nor could any other MLB team pay actual rent… unless that rent was going to another MLB team, not the entity that paid to build the stadium.
Why are the Yankees getting anything? Legends was largely funded by Hillsborough County (some $60m in 2025 dollars – even though the last major renovation didn’t require Hillsborough to pay anything toward it, they paid the lion’s share).
The facility is, I’m told, owned by the Tampa Sports Authority (wikipedia lists it as being owned by Yankee Global Enterprises, but that seems unlikely to me… who wants to own and pay property taxes on a stadium when you can offload all that to the public).
So…. why do the Yankees get anything for “allowing” the Rays to play in park funded almost entirely by and owned by public agencies?