It’s been quite a week: In case you missed it, I spent much of it keeping up with the comment storm after this Q&A about a paper on housing policy published on Monday. (Turns out people have very many feels about housing policy.) Add in a busy week of stadium news, and I should probably take the day off from typing to avoid a repetitive stress injury — but not before taking a run through the week’s additional stadium and arena news, that’s more important than my wrist tendons.
- To all the other costs of hosting the NFL Draft, add in running public schools remotely for three days to avoid the presumed traffic that will accompany it, as Pittsburgh is planning to do next month. (Kansas City did the same in 2023, though only for two days.) Economist J.C. Bradbury: “Even if the asserted influx of visitors was accurate (it’s not) closing schools so shirtless bros can scream ‘GO TEAM!’ in a local bar district is indefensible public policy.”
- Speaking of the unanticipated costs of hosting big events, it’s understandable that this story on parking for World Cup games at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey focuses on the only available parking costing $200 a car, but I would also like to know how much the state-owned New Jersey Transit is spending to build a new bus terminal at the stadium. Looks like maybe $10 million, as part of $100 million in federal transportation spending to go along with $625 million in federal FEMA spending on “security and preparedness.” (Not enough security for the Iranian team, though, which is appealing to FIFA to move all its matches to Mexico after Donald Trump warned that he couldn’t guarantee the team’s safety.)
- Among the new amenities the Baltimore Orioles owners bought for themselves with this winter’s installment of the at least $600 million they got from the Maryland legislature in 2023 are a “first-ever premium” club and a “larger-than-life scoreboard.” Assuming that means a video board, aren’t they all larger-than-life? An actual-size video board would seem like not much of an improvement over, you know, watching the actual game.
- The Hillsborough County Commission and the Tampa city council will not rush into voting on a proposed $2.25 billion Tampa Bay Rays stadium subsidy on April 1 and 2 as previously announced, but may well rush into voting on April 15 and 16.
- The tourism director for Boston, which is spending $135 million to rebuild a city soccer stadium for Boston Legacy F.C., is quitting to take an executive position with the women’s soccer team? Cool.
- The Minnesota sports authority that built and maintains the Minnesota Vikings stadium at a total cost of around $1.4 billion has released an economic impact report claiming that it’s all cool, because the stadium is generating $1.63 billion in state tax revenue over 30 years. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but insisting that it avoids the substitution effect of cannibalizing existing spending because it “only counts spending from visitors traveling into the State and City” is a very bad start.
- For all you commenters writing that there’s no way the Chicago White Sox owners will try to build a stadium at The 78 after the Fire are already building one there, White Sox execs insist they’re still considering it.
- There are designs for keeping the Bears in Chicago by adding a roof to Soldier Field and building an entertainment district on a deck over Lake Shore Drive and nobody knows how much it would cost or who paid for the designs? Cool.
- Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, it was only a matter of time.
That Bears proposal seems fanciful. The reason Soldier Field is so small is because they were constrained to fit it within the existing stadium site. If they could have had more seats, they would have. The new Soldier Field has 4,000 fewer seats than the old one. And I’m not sure the city even wants an entertainment district in Grant Park, next to the museum campus.
I am waiting for a floating Soldier field idea to gain traction. I mean on the lake, not floating over Lakeshore Dr.
I mean winter schminter, yeah?
The “entertainment district” strikes me as similar to the “One Central” development that resurfaced last week. I wonder if the Soldier Field proposal is related?
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics-policy/ccb-one-central-bob-dunn-bears-20260309/
Um.
If the alleged leader of one of the host nations for this summer’s world cup cannot guarantee the safety of a participating nation, s/he is effectively admitting they cannot guarantee the safety of ANY participating nation.
You would think FIFA would feel the need to take action on this – much as they did in 1986 when the existing host (more or less) admitted it could not guarantee the safety of WC participants for the scheduled tournament in Colombia.
Maybe they are planning on awarding a “Lifetime” peace prize in 2026?? Would that do it?
FIFA moved the World Cup in 1983. You can’t move the tournament this late. Canada and Mexico don’t have enough stadiums big enough for the games. Canada only has 2 stadiums over 50K, none over 60K. Mexico only has 4 stadiums over 50K, only one over 60K.
The games will go on. Maybe some people who were planning to travel to the US will resell their tickets to Americans, but that’s about it.
In fact, they could do anything they want. There’s nothing saying they can’t declare Force Majeure if need be.
They won’t (for financial, not contractual or safety reasons). But they certainly could. Being unable to guarantee the safety of participants is a problem. Assuming the president wasn’t just lying again, of course.
It’s not about the legality. It’s about the logistics. You’re talking about moving 104 matches with 5 million fans expected to attend on 4 months’ notice. Then factor in all the ancillary events around the matches. So even if some places have the venues that can accommodate 104 matches and 5 million fans, they can’t block out all the hotel rooms and set up all the other events on short notice.
With the NCAA tournament back in St. Louis for the first time in a decade, the local Fox affiliate felt compelled to run a story on the positive economic impact of it. Host venue Enterprise Center is 32 years old, so look for their hands out for upgrade money soon.
Is the new bus terminal at Met Life Stadium specifically for the World Cup or is the World Cup an excuse to build it? The parking lot has been used as a park-and-ride during the week for decades
You don’t need a dedicated bus terminal to accommodate park-and-ride. It’s part of a “transitway” (like a pretend rail line, only with buses) that NJ Transit is setting up for stadium events — it’s hard to tell how much this was motivated by the World Cup or whether this would have been approved anyway.
Finally found a report: The new NJ Transit bus terminal is being built specifically for the World Cup, though it may be kept in use afterwards for Giants and Jets games if it works well:
https://giantswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/giants/2026/03/24/world-cup-may-change-how-new-york-giants-fans-attend-games-metlife-stadium/89283105007/
The Haslams, owners of the Columbus Crew, are pushing to get an NWSL franchise for Ohio’s largest city. Naturally they want a government-funded venue and that is getting major pushback from the president of Columbus City Council:
“Anything that takes away from our ability to build rec centers and fire stations and gives it to a billionaire-owned team is a nonstarter for me.”
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2026/03/24/haslams-ginther-seek-50m-in-city-county-money-for-nwsl-facilities/89287650007/
(link may be paywalled)