One of several remaining shoes dropped in the Portland Trail Blazers arena renovation saga yesterday, as Multnomah County commissioners voted 4-1 to approve team owner Tom Dundon’s term sheet for $100 million in county funding for the project. Or maybe just half a shoe, as three of the five commissioners voted not to use $35 million in county taxes from the sale of the Blazers to Dundon to pay for the county’s costs, and the commission doesn’t have a substitute source of those funds. “How real is this commitment for money, if we can’t agree on a way to fund it?” asked commissioner Meghan Moyer, the only no vote. Next up is the Portland city council, which yesterday debated its own term sheet and failed to come to any agreement; several councilors said the term sheet needs more revenue going to the city and more costs being paid by the team, with councilor Angelita Morillo (last seen during Wednesday’s stadium economics webinar, a recording of which is now available online) arguing: “We are not in a negotiation, we are in a hostage situation. How does adding amendments to this term sheet make it worse?”
And in this week’s non-Portland news:
- San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones wants city residents to get to vote this November on whether to spend $489 million in city funds on a new Spurs arena; councilmember Marina Alderete Gavito argues that a majority of city residents already voted in favor of a Spurs arena funding referendum last year; sports economist Geoff Propheter says that’s “silly” reasoning given that that vote was on county spending on the arena, not the city’s larger share. Voters are split on whether to vote, reports KSAT, or at least whichever voters were at yesterday’s public listening session were split. Maybe there should be a city vote on whether to take a city vote? Somebody should vote on that.
- The Kansas City Planning Commission unanimously approved zoning changes for a new Royals stadium. The plan must next go to the city council, which also has to find $600 million in city funds to help pay for the public’s $1.35 billion share of a $1.9 billion stadium — details!
- The owners of the Orlando Dreamers (note: not actually owners, because the Dreamers aren’t an actual team yet) are still asking Orange County to approve using $975 million in tourist tax dollars to build their non-team a new stadium. “Investing $975 million and getting $32 million a year, we lose money in that investment as a return,” replied Michael Poole of the county’s Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force. “Where can you help us make up that loss?” An excellent question, but I have another one: Do the Dreamers really plan to build their lineup around a 52-year-old Johnny Damon?
- The Cleveland Guardians‘ stadium needs repairs to its elevators and hot water tanks, and its public owner doesn’t have the tax money to spend on them. If only there were someone around who’d already received at least $300 million in public money to help build and improve the stadium and could be asked to help chip in, hmm.
- FIFA management told World Cup 2026 host cities that they’d get $1 million in payments to spend on soccer infrastructure and other “legacy” projects, but has so far stiffed them. Can you really say you’re surprised?
- The latest Denver Broncos stadium renderings are all of people out and about enjoying new neighborhoods while the stadium itself is just a shapeless egg — seems like somebody’s got the message that people would rather their tax dollars go to things that they don’t have to buy PSLs to access, even if the lesson they’ve learned is “Shhh, ixnay on the uxury-boxes-lay.” Denver Gazette sports columnist Mark Kiszla is eager to lend a hand, with a long column saying it would be a “grave mistake” not to give Broncos owner Greg Penner what he wants, in which Kiszla calls the stadium’s proposed Burnham Yard site “blighted,” “dusty,” “a dump,” and “dilapidated” — everybody drink, several times!
- Vancouver is “ready to build [a] new ballpark” for an MLB expansion team, according to a talkSport article that is actually about how the city authorized a local real estate developer to try to propose a way to do so, which isn’t the same thing at all.
I don’t know if this has been covered here, but the Blackhawks and Bulls received $55 million from the city to help pay for the build-up near the United Center. Part of Phase 1 of the plan was to be a parking garage topped by a public park. After the city council voted to approve the tax break, the teams filed a construction permit that removed the public park and added an extra level of parking to the garage.
https://chicagoyimby.com/2026/07/the-tower-crane-is-in-the-ground-for-the-1901-projects-first-phase.html
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/provdrs/ec_dev/news/2026/may/property-tax-incentive-will-support-phase-one-of-1901-project.html
Whee! Thanks, I’d missed that, since my RSS news feeds all use “arena” as a search term and the United Center doesn’t have that in its name.
The ghost of Bill Wirtz lives!!! Or, you know, whatever it is that ghosts do… which is still syphon off public money by the looks of things…
“The Dreamers shared updated economic data from JLL, a third-party consulting firm, that said the stadium would create more than 38,000 jobs during construction, more than 52,000 permanent jobs and $72 billion in economic impact over 30 years.”
Bearing in mind this is supposedly for what boils down to another entertainment complex in a city that already has a gazillion of them, including ones just north and south of where this stadium would be located… for a prospective franchise in a city/metro that’s been at the bottom of every mean and median income ranking in the US… in a market that hasn’t even hosted *minor league* baseball in years, and whose population tends to get bored very easily and is forever chasing the next shiniest thing it can find.
I’ve said this before: all of America is just one gigantic real estate hustle with a pyramid scheme for an economy. Florida in particular, and Orlando specifically, is the doughy mush making up the very bottom tier of that pyramid.
45,000 seats and 52,000 permanent jobs. And they got paid for this study
I think each seat gets its own usher, plus 7,000 extra ushers on standby.
They’re certainly living up to their name as “the dreamers.”
Hey, who can put a price on a stadium with what looks like a Time Tunnel built right in? Maybe they can have Johnny Damon leading off in 2040… that’s the genius of the whole project. Next up, sign Ruth & Walter Johnson.
“another entertainment complex in a city that already has a gazillion of them, including ones just north and south of where this stadium would be located… ”
That description applies just as well to the under-construction Vegas ballpark.
In “Other Portland News,” I’m waiting for you to weigh in on the Portland Hearts of Pine’s new 50 Million Dollar, 12,000 seat stadium with no parking. Y’know, just in case you’re tired of talking about that other Portland.
Just think, if that penny toss went the other way, you’d be asking Neil to talk about the $135 million overhaul of Boston’s White Stadium that eats into Franklin Park: https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/portland_penny/
Thanks Councillor Morillo.
Now repeat after me: “We do not negotiate with terrorists – even the economic ones”.
I won’t lie… “time tunnel” feels like a very charitable interpretation of the proposed design. Going off of the bird’s eye view, I was thinking more like the paraphernalia that some folks use to smoke illicit, majorly illegal substances.
(This was meant for the Dreamers comment above lol)
I was taught to clean my pipe if I got Johnny Damon in it.
The only way Orlando gets a team in the next 30 years is if the Tampa deal falls apart, which I believe will get approved. There is no way MLB will put a team just 76 miles away given the way the two Florida teams that have been around for decades have been colossal failures at drawing fans.
The shapeless egg in Denver is probably meant to signal that the new stadium will have a roof. Hopefully it won’t end up looking like that egg.