We have a bunch of new followers here thanks largely to all the tumult over the Kansas City Chiefs stadium deal, so it’s worth another mention that Field of Schemes continues to exist after almost 28 years thanks to the kindness of its readers. If you have any money left after donating to help the families of government-kidnapped five-year-olds [UPDATE: Or all the other less adorable Minnesotans who can use help], you can chip in to support this site here — you’ll even get some amusing refrigerator magnets in appreciation, if we can still even be amused in 2026.
And speaking of trying to wring amusement from horror, here is your weekly dose of stadium and arena bullet points:
- Hillsborough County approved $250 million in arena renovations for the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a six-year lease extension, which at $41.7 million per year would be one of the priciest per-year lease extensions in sports history. Lightning owner Jeffrey Vinik could still request state sales tax money on top of this as well — if he does in exchange for no more years of lease extension, that would be a per-year cost of infinity, which would be an unbreakable record.
- Officials from Kansas City, Missouri and Jackson County traveled to meet with Gov. Mike Kehoe on Wednesday about the Royals stadium situation, and no you can’t know what they talked about, that’s for Royals owner John Sherman to find out and you not to find out until it’s all been hashed out. Both Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Interim Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota said they hope to strike a stadium deal with Sherman by the end of spring training; while we’re hoping things, let’s hope that this threesome focuses on getting a good deal, and not just a deal that is resolved quickly.
- An Indiana senate committee cast a vote on Wednesday that “establishes the necessary funding to pay for the construction of a new Chicago Bears stadium,” according to WGN, but actually just creates a stadium authority, as we discussed last week. Also the full Indiana state senate still has to vote on it, and then the state house has to, before even this can become law, but don’t let that stop reporters from calling this a “bidding war.”
- Dallas Mavericks execs have narrowed their arena site search to two locations, one an undisclosed one downtown and one at an abandoned mall site that, uh, is already getting redeveloped? Only having two prospective sites, both in the same city, wouldn’t bode super well for Mavs owners Patrick and Sivan Dumont’s leverage in demanding taxpayer money to build the thing, but they still have land in Irving they could consider using as a threat, as one does.
- The Buffalo Sabres owners have hired a lobbyist to seek state funding of a $400 million renovation of their arena, good thing New York state has plenty of money for that.
- The Sphere people want to build another Sphere, this time smaller and in the D.C. suburbs, using a tax increment financing district to siphon off property taxes to pay to build it. That’s okay, though, because Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore say a Sphere would generate $1 billion in economic impact [citation needed], so everything should be fine [citation needed].
“…let’s hope that this threesome focuses on getting a good deal…”
I think that by now we know that “we’re gonna buy our own land and pay for our own stadium” is too much to hope for. Anything less really isn’t “good”.
All the other bidders have pretty much dropped out, so there’s no pressing reason for the KCMO crew to offer Sherman a ton of public money. Of course, there was no reason for Kansas to offer the Chiefs $4B, either — clearly “reason” is way down the list of factors here.
as we all know, though, these types of people believe that a “good” deal is one that is wrapped up quickly, not one that benefits, say, the taxpayers.
Weren’t the Sphere people antagonists on one of the crappier Star Trek shows?
It was a good one!
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS5E06OfGodsAndAngles
also…isn’t the sphere losing money hand over fist?
I thought that it was in danger of going under.
Huh.
If they build enough spheres, they’ll make it up in volume.
The Wizard of Oz production has boosted revenues enough in Las Vegas that the Sphere executives figure that AI films will make the business work in smaller sized venues.
No, no, no, you can’t conflate reality with the hard economic data provided by the owners and beneficiaries of a true economic miracle like the Sphere ™.
Who you gonna believe, your lying eyes or me?
If these three MO “leaders” just told Sherman to pound sand the Royals would still be playing in Kauffman stadium for the next 20 years. Kansas doesn’t want them and there is no other city that can offer them anything better than what they have.
When will Indiana take the White Sox?
Hopefully very soon.
Kauffman is a great place to watch a game, at least it was in 2006. I remember plenty of parking too.
You’re right about the Indiana action. The Indiana senate committee approved a bill that essentially lists taxes that could be used to finance a Bears stadium. It doesn’t specify the actual taxes or the amount of tax increase required. It’s really embarrassingly devoid of specifics but we would expect nothing less (or more).