Last week I teased a big project of mine that would drop this week, and it went live yesterday morning: a 57-page report, commissioned by Los Angeles economic justice advocacy group Strategic Action for a Just Economy, on whether L.A. can or should be trying to extricate itself from its hosting obligations for the 2028 Summer Olympics — something some local critics have suggested, especially in the wake of the city’s wildfire crisis and budget crisis and immigration enforcement occupying force crisis. You can probably get a pretty good sense of the report’s findings from its title, “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t,” but if you want slightly more details, here’s the nut graf:
While there are numerous unknowns—the history of the Olympics shows that budget questions are never resolved until it’s far too late, a path that L.A. has headed down with its agreements for the 2028 Games as well—the available documentation and history of international event hosting shows: Yes, if Los Angeles officials, or voters, decided to withdraw from hosting the Olympics, they could do so. This would come at the risk of potentially billions of dollars in damages from a breach-of-contract lawsuit and losses from expenses already undertaken. However, continuing as host also comes with a potential risk of losses that, if history is any guide, could similarly amount to billions of dollars.
The report also contains a wealth of information about Olympic financial history, including other locales’ attempts to back out of hosting major international sporting events for fiscal reasons (the Denver 1976 Winter Olympics that never happened, plus the 2026 Commonwealth Games that the Australian state of Victoria bailed on in 2023 amid concerns about snowballing costs), as well as mention of my new favorite Olympic factoid: that time they held a Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and nobody knows how much it cost because the local organizing committee literally set fire to its financial records. It’s all here, dig in if you’re in the mood for a long, enraging read — or if not, you can instead read the excellent summaries in Torched (which includes a quote from me on this week’s revelations about L.A. Olympics chief Casey Wasserman’s history with Jeffrey Epstein) and LAist.
And now that that’s off my plate, I have plenty of time for stadium and arena bullet points, and good thing, too, because this week brought craploads of them:
- The Wyandotte County Commission followed suit with its neighbors in the city of Olathe and voted 7-3 to approve devoting local sales and hotel tax revenue to pay off part of the state’s $2.775 billion in bonds for a new Kansas City Chiefs stadium and surrounding development. The county, to be clear, gets absolutely nothing out of kicking in its own funding (total price tag still TBD), given that the state has indicated it will go ahead with the stadium deal regardless. Kansas City, Kansas mayor and county commission chair Christal Wilson, who didn’t vote because no ties needed to be broken, wrote on Facebook that she thinks kicking in county money is warranted because it gets the county “a seat at the table” — okay, though it’s questionable whether getting to sit at the table is worth having to split the check.
- Indiana state Rep. Earl Harris Jr. on his bill to create a sports authority to build a Chicago Bears stadium in northwest Indiana with money from (feigns coughing fit until you go away): “Indiana does sports things like this very well. When you look at the Pacers, the Colts, the Speedway, we’re very good at figuring out a good financial plan that does not hurt the taxpayer.” Um, about that…
- Will the Portland Trail Blazers move if the city and county decline to spend $600 million on upgrades to their arena? It’s an “urgent race against time” and “the clock continues to tick,” writes The Oregonian, citing a deadline of … huh, seems like they didn’t mention any deadline, must have run out of room. (Though there was room for “Are you ready for the Nashville or Kansas City Trail Blazers?” to cite two cities that are not particularly shopping around for NBA teams.)
- Tampa sports radio host JP Peterson insists that spending upwards of $2 billion on a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium is warranted because it “will produce millions in tax revenue and bring major events, Super Bowls, National Championship games, World Baseball Classic, MLB All-Star games” — [citation needed], my man. Also, I can save you some time: Even if a new baseball stadium does bring in millions in tax revenue, from hosting, uh, football games, when it costs hundreds of millions a year in tax expenditures, maybe that’s … not good?
- Speaking of the Rays, fresh Rays vaportecture! I’m sticking with my comment from yesterday: Glad to see the Rays acknowledge that even after a future stadium is built, fans still won’t buy jerseys with player names because they know they’ll be sold off as soon as they reach arbitration.
- And if you want still more Rays commentary from me, I spoke with both WMNF radio and Tampa Bay 28 TV about the ongoing dispute this week; the former is much longer, the latter offers a view of what I have on my living room walls, pick your poison.
- Just in time for the Super Bowl (what time does it start again?), here’s a Top 40 list of things the NFL demands from Super Bowl host cities. It’s impossible to pick just one favorite, but equally impossible to beat “three championship-level 18-hole golf courses and two top-quality bowling alleys, free of charge.”
- Plans to build an Indy Eleven a soccer stadium for a new MLS team on Indianapolis’s former heliport are on hold because something about not rewarding a city that “continues to thumb its nose” at ICE; the FAA will soon be weighing in on the matter.
- Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson has met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, though not in the sense of actually meeting meeting like in person, and “offered to be helpful in bringing back the Sonics” as an NBA expansion team. Seattle already has a practically brand new arena, though by the time the NBA is ready to expand it could be pushing 10 years old, is that too soon to ask for upgrades?
- San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones says Spurs owner Michael Dell donating $6 billion to Donald Trump’s “Trump accounts” savings plan “really pissed me off” because “if you can give $6 billion for these accounts, you could have paid for your own arena.” But then Dell wouldn’t have those billions he saved by getting taxpayers to build his arena! Sounds like somebody doesn’t understand what the whole point of being a billionaire is. (Hint: It’s getting billions of dollars, not spending it.)
- And finally on the Rays front, Frank Nockels of Land O’ Lakes, Florida asks: “If we pay for half of the Rays’ new stadium, can we get free tickets?” Ian Betteridge has some bad news, Frank.
I believe there will come a time when literally no one will be interested in hosting the Olympics. I believe that time is not terribly far off.
I do not believe LA will back out, but, boy would it be epic if they did.
Also, it is not surprising a sports radio host would not understand all these concepts (Tampa actually DOES get to host Super Bowls now, among other things). Especially that particular host.
I thought that about the Olympics a few years ago after Sochi and some other epic scandals, but then more cities came out of the woodwork, so I dunno. Greater fool theory seems to hold a lot of sway when it comes to sports megaevents.
When the Bears get their 1 Super Bowl in 2033, do they still have to provide the championship golf courses? Would love to see a charity golf outing at Medinah CC in the middle of February
It’s so funny that MLB and now NBA are talking openly about expansion when both leagues have a stable of teams with stadium “issues” that “must” be resolved. The NBA is likely only pretending to be serious about expansion, and would rather hold off indefinitely on putting teams in Seattle and Vegas until they can drum up enough interest in both towns — knowing full well that there will never be a time when every single franchise has a venue that’s up to “modern” standards.
Baseball barely has enough big-league ballplayers to fill 30 big-league ballclubs. With the union contract expiring in December, thus resulting in a lockout, could the Lords of Baseball plot to carry out contraction for real?
No. With team values high, the cost of buying out a couple of owners would be way higher than the value of getting back 1/15th of the TV money to split among the survivors.
And I’ve never understood the “there aren’t enough big league ballplayers” argument. MLB hasn’t expanded in almost 30 years while the U.S. population has soared and more countries are producing ballplayers, so if anything there should be a surplus of major league quality players. Sure, it may not look like it if you watch the Rockies or the White Sox, but look at some of the guys filling out the back ends of rosters in, say, 1977 and by comparison today we’re drowning in talent.
If Wyandotte County had not voted to give the Chiefs sales tax revenue the politicians would probably not get a free suite. Jackson County politicians have had a free suite and dozens of free baseball tickets forever.
When a Seattle team, be it the Kraken or the FutureSonics, wants a new arena, they will claim 1962 as Climate Pledge Arena’s origin. Even though only the roof remains from the original facility. “Our arena is nearly 70 years old!”
KC being used a a move threat in 2026 is quite a stretch – the arena opened nearly 20 years ago and if they’d ever gotten a tenant, said tenant would already be threatening to move without a new arena.
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry sometimes.
The Olympics are a fine opportunity for young people to show some athletic skills and that part is okay by me. But the money “required” to host these games is absurd.
And on that topic, I was reading about one Olympian who is a contender in her sport, and stands to make a little money if she wins gold – but it doesn’t really matter because she makes millions in endorsements anyway. So maybe it’s not necessary for these kids anyway?
On the NFL demands, I seem to recall it being many pages of demands some years ago. I’m supposing this list is abbreviated and only covers the big ticket items?
Not to be that guy, but Indianapolis won’t build a stadium for the Indy Eleven. Instead, it’s for a hypothetical MLS expansion team.
A Fort Wayne billionaire that is obsessed with helicopters decided to get involved in saving the heliport just so he can use it (even though it’s not like the state cannot build private helicopter spaces, like the one for the governor) and Todd Rokita is coming to the rescue for him because Rokita has always has had a vendetta against the city of Indianapolis for never voting in favor of Republican interests.
Indiana state policy is always “what can we do to punish Indianapolis?”, a real cut the nose off to spite the face philosophy.
No, you are totally correct — I blanked on the plans switching from “Indy Eleven joins MLS” to “a new team joins MLS and Indy Eleven gets hosed,” even though I wrote about it at the time. Will fix.
Somewhere there is an open strikethrough tag that is making everything following it strikethrough text (at least for me), unless you’re getting into redacting as well. :)
The entire website has officially been redacted.
And fixed, thanks for everyone’s patience. Weirdly, WordPress had decided on its own to turn my take into a tag, which may have had something to do with it.
Yeah everyone got that. I just assumed that the entire earth had adopted a global redaction policy in light of Epstein’s emails etc.
It’s just how humans roll these days.
I see it, can’t fix it from my phone. Will be back at my computer in an hour and will fix then.
My favorite indicator of economic health of a city is airport traffic. How much have the Thunder helped Oklahoma City? Despite becoming a “major league city”, traffic at OKC has only risen from 3,737,000 to 4,602,000, or 23% over the 18 years since the Thunder arrived. Other variables, such as the price of natural gas in Oklahoma City’s case, are what actually count. Major league sports are purely a local entertainment product that does nothing to boost a City’s economy. When the ANA held it’s annual convention in Oklahoma City instead of Chicago last year, many regular participants didn’t go, and a competing event was held in Chicago. Who is going to Oklahoma City from outside Oklahoma to watch a basketball game? Good luck with your multi billion dollar “investment ” Kansas, when you get your one Superbowl, all visitors will be talking about is how lousy the February weather and everything else is in Kansas City is, and looking forward to the following Superbowl in Scottsdale (where everyone actually stays) or Miami.
Airport traffic at OKC has barely kept up with population growth over that same period… both are in the 22-23%.
If professional sports made a city Green Bay would have more people an a bigger economy than Milwaukee does.
Without the Packers, Green Bay would probably be a barely populated former industrial town like so many other small cities.
Really not the best example to use.
“Would be”?
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rb1ruwzjah91dbansie1l/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-3.05.34-PM.png?rlkey=693o4a6ym9pte4v0lnhg1yazg&dl=0
I feel like you haven’t spent much time in many former industrial towns.
The history of sports is littered with them. How many people do they have now compared to Green Bay? Yet at one point they were equals.
The Packers have been a bonanza for Green Bay? First of all, if you live to 200, therea a chance of landing season tickets. Unless you have access to season tickets, forget going to a Packers game at Lambeau. Since the Packers returned to Lambeau Field full time from Milwaukee in 1995, Green Bay’s population and economy have been stagnant. Appleton actually dominates the Fox Valley economy, and ATW has twice the traffic of GRB. Green Bay’s reputation as a frozen wasteland is accentuated by the Packers. Thousands of former Wisconsin residents are not fleeing Arizona because the Packers are still in Green Bay, they just take over State Farm Stadium when the Packers play there.
Um, really THE best example to use… unless you want to opt for St. Pauli maybe…
It’s the best example of a city that would be just another vacant former industrial town without the Packers, sure.
Have you ever visited or lived there?
Note that Wyandotte County only pledged increment revenue based on a much smaller area (essentially the new development only) and references to shrinking the state district as well. Will be interesting to see where that lands for state and local interactions.
Wyandotte’s stadium district was always just for the development itself, same as Olathe’s. But neither of those are just the increment — they are for *all* taxes within the respective districts.
Now that Ghislaine Maxwell has taken the Fifth Amendment before Congress — going so as angling for a pardon from the Trump regime — her friend Casey Wasserman has little choice but to resign from the LA28 organizing committee.
There is no need for the Trail Blazers to threaten a franchise move. A local columnist has sent out that bat signal on his own. Keep in mind, the new owner isn’t even the new owner yet. But said columnist refuses to take the new owner’s word about relocation, because reasons (usually starting and ending with Seattle either being a cautionary tale or a likely suspect for poachery).
Yes, the assembly of local journos is certainly doing the not-yet-owners bidding for him.
So far it seems like “they” will agree to give Dundon everything (even things he hasn’t even asked for) and receive nothing in return (other than the joy of keeping the, um, Trailblazers…) and paying all sorts of ‘future revenues’ directly to Dundon (maybe even if those revenues never materialize).
You wonder whether this is an effort to push/assist Dundon’s bid over the finish line with the NBA?
Not sure how the NBA owners will view his candidacy. He won’t be the first “subprime” predatory lender in the owner’s club, obviously.
I guess his high bid for the epitome of an average/anonymous NBA franchise helps them all… but the question isn’t just is he overpaying, it’s would anyone else be willing to overpay as much or more?