Search Results for: manfred

Stop the presses: Rays stadium site search continues to search for stadium site

access_time personNeil deMause

Baseball’s winter meetings are on this week in Orlando, which means lots of opportunities for reporters to hobnob with team execs and fill column inches with whatever comes out of their mouths. So you probably could have predicted that Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, who has made an art form of this or at least a job description, would be on hand, in this case giving Rays co-owner Ken Babby 13 full paragraphs to explain that the ownership group’s plans for a new stadium by 2029 are making progress, even if not in any particularly definable way:

“We are exploring sites. We are meeting with architects. We are meeting with public officials,” Babby told the Tampa Bay Times at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings. “We are conducting a lot of analysis on how you go about building a development in a ballpark that meet the criteria that we talked about (including a plot of at least 100 acres). We’re visiting a lot of other parks, a lot of other stadiums, understanding what’s possible with different structures.”…

“We discussed what we thought a construct of a public-private partnership could look like. And have really enjoyed our conversations with folks both in the city and the county, both sides of the bay. We’ve been really focused on building those relationships.”…

“We believe that to build a state-of-the-art development, it’s going to require at least that kind of acreage [that the Atlanta Braves got for their Battery project] and it’s also going to require a great public-private partnership. We’re going to do our part. We’re not out there looking for anything that’s unfair or unjust. We want to build something that is truly a win for the community. And that’s building a district, building a community, driving jobs, creating billions of dollars of economic impact.”

That’s a lot of positivity — building relationships! a win for the community! — but no details at all, beyond that the Rays owners are considering sites throughout the Tampa Bay area (which we knew) and are “fully focused on opening a new ballpark in April of 2029” but know that’s “an ambitious timeline.” Even the requirement that any stadium site come with enough space for a Battery-style development came with a hedge: “While it’s not the only site and dynamic that we love, it’s certainly been a wonderful blueprint.”

All of which is fine and to be expected: When a friendly reporter sticks a microphone in front of you and presses record, it’s a team owner’s job to natter on about how much momentum their proposed stadium project has, even if it doesn’t have a site or any money identified to pay for it. It’s a bigger question whether Topkin is doing his job by letting Babby say all this stuff unchallenged — the only other quotes in the story are from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred — but now that the Times is letting other reporters actually report the news, it’s a bit less egregious.

The bigger problem here is letting team owners set the news agenda in the first place. Yes, the Rays’ lease at Tropicana Field runs out after the 2028 season (originally 2027, but it got automatically extended after a hurricane blew the roof off and sent the Rays to a minor-league stadium in Tampa for a year), but as we’ve seen before, leases can be extended — and in fact, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch has already expressed an interest in doing so for the Rays, saying “the bones of the Trop are super strong, so once we get the electronics and the roof done, the Rays could be there for a decade.” So there’s no real urgency here, especially when it’s not at all clear that a new stadium itself would do much for the Rays’ finances — a new stadium with a pile of public subsidies might, but then the problem you’re solving isn’t so much “Where can the Rays play?” as “How can the Rays owners increase their profits via taxpayer money?” For that, you might want to talk to some taxpayers, or at least some of their elected representatives, but none of those seemed to be hanging around the baseball Winter Meetings, so you’ll just have to guess what they think of all this, sorry!

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Friday roundup: Everybody needs a soccer stadium for a pillow

access_time personNeil deMause

Soccer! All the kids today are digging it! It’s the future! And also the past! Your city is nothing without a genuine, bona-fide, electrified, 10,000-seat soccer stadium, which is why Mesa is creating a “theme park district” to kick tax money back to a soccer stadium district that nobody wanted to give to the Arizona Coyotes but this is soccer, and Oklahoma City is spending $121 million on one so that Oklahomans can raise their fists to support of not nearly enough players spread out over way too much of the pitch, and MLS commissioner Don Garber says Vancouver had better give the Whitecaps a “better lease” or it’ll be “untenable” if you know what he means, and the co-chair of the Congressional Soccer Caucus — of course there’s a Congressional Soccer Caucus, get with the times, bruh — wants to allocate $50 million in federal tax money for cities to use for transit programs during big events like the (soccer) World Cup and the Olympics (one event: soccer)! Soccer!

There are only a limited number of soccer teams, though (a number that is thought to exceed the number of Planck volumes in the observable universe), so some cities still must, sadly, spend public money on pro teams in other sports instead. Not that elected officials are sad, they seem downright psyched:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have gone from thinking about maybe asking for public arena renovation money from the state now that the Browns and Bengals are getting it to receiving $200 million in state money plus $25 million each from the city and county, all in the course of less than five months. “I think this is an incredibly important community asset, and we have an opportunity to advance this …. and ensure the future of the facility for the next 30 years,” arena authority director Ken Paul said; if you think the Blue Jackets owners are going to wait 30 years for their next grab at the brass subsidy ring, you can place your prop bet at the arena’s gambling kiosks.
  • Cleveland Browns fans are not psyched about having to pay personal seat license fees for tickets at the new Browns stadium. Many say they’ll give up their season tickets before paying for PSLs, and yeah, that’s what Bills fans said too, and now the Bills PSLs have almost sold out, though to be fair things may be different once Browns fans realize that buying Browns tickets obligates them to actually watch Browns games.
  • YouTube channel entrepreneur (?) Ashkan Karbasfrooshan says he has a plan for bringing the Expos back to Montreal, and “money is not the constraint.” Rather, doing so “requires capital, political alignment, real estate vision, a winning outlook, patience, and a lot of humility.” Note to Karbasfrooshan: “Capital” is another word for “money.” (You can look up “humility” while you have your dictionary open.) Rob Manfred did say recently that he might like a second Canadian team, but reportedly he meant Vancouver and not Montreal, if baseball is even going to expand at all, maybe Karbasfrooshan meant that money is not the only constraint, that tracks.
  • The Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers owners are still planning on building a new arena … maybe? They’re not saying anything publicly about any moves to get legislative approval, what on earth could they be waiting fo — “[Governor’s office spokesperson Kayla Anderson] didn’t address questions regarding the state’s role in the project and whether incentives or tax breaks will be involved,” oh I see, never mind then.
  • The Tampa Bay Rays‘ Tropicana Field is starting to look more like itself again, which is, to be clear, to be taken as a good thing. The brown and white alternating roof panels are expected to be all bleached white by the sun by opening day, at least, so it will still look like the dome that Rays fans have come to know and, I’m going to go with “love.”
  • No disrespect to sports barons, but they still can’t hold a candle to Amazon when it comes to wielding monopoly power to get rich at someone else’s expense. This week: Forcing school systems to use dynamic pricing solely so Amazon can charge the public more for supplies, presumably only because the infinity gauntlet is no longer available.
  • The Athletics of Nowhere In Particular have opened a new Las Vegas “interactive space” (read: room) where fans can view a scale model of their planned stadium, plus also enter an “Immersive Cube” (read: room with lots of video screens on the walls) where they can view what it will look like from the inside, if it’s ever finished, and it will be, team execs swear. Early reviews on social media from fans who probably didn’t get personally immersed are that the design is “garbage” and an “abomination” and “the f*** is this ugly thing?” Me, I’m wondering how the A’s architects managed such a distant upper deck at a stadium with only 33,000 seats, plus whether at the real stadium everyone who enters will have to remove their shoes like in the simulation.
  • Sad, soft caves for indoor sportsmen, check.
  • Ex-AEG/Oak View Group stadium developer Tim Leiweke won’t be going to jail for bid rigging after all — no, not because he’s necessarily not guilty, the other reason this happens these days.
  • New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is getting his stadium-side casino, saw that coming.
  • The 2026 Winter Olympics hockey arena in Milan is running behind schedule and has the wrong rink dimensions for international standards. Defector doesn’t report whether this will lead to it going over budget, but c’mon, you know how this movie ends.
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Friday roundup: Denver mayor says he’ll fight to the death to give George Lucas’s wife $170m for a soccer stadium

access_time personNeil deMause

I had a birthday this week, and nothing says “Yes, you’ve been writing this blog since you were 32 years old and you’re apparently going to have to keep at it well into old age, you got a problem with that?” than becoming a Field of Schemes supporter! There are both one-time and recurring payment options, many of which give you the chance to get one of just ten remaining copies of this Vaportecture art print before they’re gone forever, so act now!

Or just keep on reading and commenting, honestly, that at least makes me feel like this entire project has been worth something, even if the central problem it has detailed shows no sign of slowing down. I remain inspired by the Straight Dope‘s tagline “Fighting Ignorance Since 1973 (It’s Taking Longer Than We Thought),” though the fact that the Straight Dope stopped publishing in 2018 without declaring victory over ignorance is sobering, admittedly.

Anyway, onward!

  • Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has heard the NWSL expansion Denver Summit owners’ threat to pursue a “parallel path” in unspecified neighboring cities at the same time as trying to win over a city council not crazy about handing them maybe $170 million in cash and tax breaks, and he knows just how to respond: by offering to do whatever it takes to get Summit co-owner (and Broncos co-owner, and wife of billionaire George Lucas) Mellody Hobson to build in his city. “Over my dead body will I let the Broncos stadium leave Denver,” said Johnston on Wednesday. “Over my dead body am I going to let the Summit stadium leave Denver. We want that site to be here.” Noooooo, that’s not at all how you haggle, you’re doing it all wrong! It remains to be seen whether the Denver city council will take up Johnston on his “dead body” offer.
  • Residents of Kansas’s Johnson County are “seething” over the possibility of the Kansas City Royals building a stadium there, according to the Kansas City Star, though the Star also reports that a poll found 53% of residents support the idea and 40% oppose it. But also 40% of respondents said the Royals should stay put at Kauffman Stadium vs. 26% who wanted them to move to Kansas, a good seethe is so hard to find these days.
  • How did New York Mets owner Steve Cohen take his plans to build a casino next to his stadium from distant longshot to likely winner? One part, two local anti-casino activists write in the New York Daily News, involved hiring two community board members (one now the councilmember-elect for the district) as consultants, while also holding fundraisers for the local state assemblymember. The main reason for Cohen’s success may still be that the state senator who was his main opponent also turned out to be the most disliked person in Albany, but throwing money around to local officials couldn’t have hurt, either.
  • Buffalo Bills fans appear to have given up and bought the hated personal seat licenses required to get tickets at the new publicly funded stadium scheduled to open next year, with nearly 90% of the PSLs reportedly having sold. All of the $250 million in proceeds so far will go toward paying Bills owner and superyacht captain Terry Pegula’s $1 billion in stadium expenses, none of it toward paying New York state and Erie County taxpayers’ $1 billion in stadium expenses, because standard business practice something something.
  • It’s still not clear where Athletics owner John Fisher will find the $1.4 billion he needs to build an entire ballpark in Las Vegas, but he’s certainly building something: Construction crews started pouring concrete for the lower deck this week. There’s been no word when he’ll hit the $100 million spending mark that will allow him to access $380 million in public money, let alone what he’ll do once that money runs out as well, but if nothing else Fisher is committing to the bit.
  • The owners of Sacramento Republic F.C. have only just started building their new soccer stadium, and they’re already seeking permission to expand it from 12,000 to 20,000 seats, just in case they ever want to.
  • Asked how new Tampa Bay Rays owner Patrick Zalupski is doing at coming up with plans for a new stadium, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred somehow managed to say, “With respect to the go-forward issue, Patrick and his group are hard at work getting the lay of the land in the Tampa Bay region to find out what their options are.” Language is always evolving, and Manfred is truly an inspiration in breaking new ground about where it will go in the future, or as he would say, the go-forward time.
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Friday roundup: Fire stadium wins Chicago approval, A’s set MLB record for alienating all their new fans already

access_time personNeil deMause

With all the ginormous stadium and arena wrassles like the Washington Commanders stadium and the San Antonio Spurs arena project and the never-ending Tampa Bay Rays saga, it’s sometimes easy to forget about all the other deals that are somewhere in the vicinity of the back burner. Let’s check in on some of those this week, along with some old favorites:

  • The Chicago city council voted yesterday to approve the Chicago Fire‘s plans for a new stadium at the The 78 site, which since Fire owner Joe Mansueto says he’ll build with his own money, so there should be no public funding involved. The Chicago Tribune, though, notes that “some details still need to be ironed out” for the larger redevelopment, including what to do about a new Red Line CTA station and relocating Metra train tracks after developer Related declared the original plan too costly. And what about the rumored parking garage that would, like the now-scrapped transit improvements, possibly use kicked-back property taxes via a TIF? Maybe it’s best to say there probably won’t be any public funding involved, fingers crossed, knock wood.
  • Sacramento Athletics fans are already fast on their way to being non-Athletics fans, reports ESPN, with one season ticket holder writing to the team: “Being a season ticket holder for the Athletics is embarrassing to the point that I regret telling my friends or coworkers. I cannot give away tickets, I cannot easily sell games I can’t make it to (at market rate-especially on SeatGeek), and I feel ignored by the team sales staff.” (The team responded by giving him a plastic bag of leftover giveaways that he already had.) SFGate, meanwhile, reports that an A’s fan this summer summed things up by declaring, “Fuck John Fisher. John Fisher’s a piece of shit,” while wearing a “Sacramento hates you too” cap. Things will surely improve once the team starts playing in Las Vegas in 2028, theoretically.
  • The San Francisco 49ers owners are supposed to cover the $6.4 million cost of hosting the 2026 Super Bowl, but the team’s nonprofit that is on the hook for the costs has no money, which is maybe a problem? Sports economist Geoffrey Propheter says he is “particularly concerned about the statement that the 49ers will reimburse the city for ‘approved expenses,’ with the 49ers seemingly being the judge of what is approved,” and sports economist Michael Leeds agrees, warning that “mega-events such as the Super Bowl almost invariably have costs that are higher than predicted and local impacts that are lower than predicted.”
  • A downtown site targeted for a possible new Kansas City Royals stadium was just sold to a Wichita developer, decreasing the chances that it will end up used for a ballpark. Not that Royals owner John Sherman has said much about where he might want to build a stadium as a December deadline approaches for accepting around $700 million in tax money from Kansas if he moves there, shh, he’s trying to get city or county money to go with his state money from either Kansas or Missouri, don’t bother daddy while he’s trying to concentrate.
  • Going with the headline “Brewers bolster ballpark after $500M deal” when $471 million of the money is coming from state taxpayers is a choice, Fox6 Milwaukee.
  • Marc Normandin has a good rundown on MLB commissioners Rob Manfred’s conflicting missions of doing what team owners want and doing what’s best for baseball, especially when owners themselves can’t agree on what they want: Some owners want to force the players union into accepting a salary cap at all costs, while others are more concerned about the damage an extended lockout in 2027 would do to the league’s broadcast value when it’s time to renegotiate TV deals after 2028. Explains Normandin: “Basically, he has to use this time to convince them of what they should want, so that he can then enact it just like they want him to — otherwise, he’ll have to do what they want him to, even if he thinks it goes against their best interests, because he is beholden to them in the end.” Shaking down players and cities and TV networks for money all at once is no easy feat, you try it sometime!
  • Fine, here’s an update on the Commanders stadium deal as well: The mixed-use district around the stadium will need to go through normal zoning procedures rather than being fast-tracked under a last-minute amendment, meaning they may not be ready for years after the stadium’s planned 2030 opening. That’s bad if you want to live in the promised affordable housing, but does at least also make the development rights less valuable to team owner Josh Harris, meaning the public subsidy is now more likely to be closer to $6.6 billion than $25 billion, yay?
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Zalupski completes Rays purchase, now has to figure out which city to shake down for stadium money

access_time personNeil deMause

The sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to Patrick Zalupski and friends for $1.7 billion is now official, and the Tampa Bay Times is on it! Here’s what their three staff writers on the story are reporting:

With no official plan for a new stadium and Tropicana Field still under repair, the new owners have big questions to answer.

Well, yes, though Tropicana Field is set to no longer be under repair by next spring, so that’s less a big question than “Can they find someone willing to build them a stadium, and would whatever subsidy it came with be enough to make it worth spending a pile of their own money moving from one part of Tampa Bay to another?”

“This is exciting for the Tampa Bay area,” Pinellas County Commission chairperson Brian Scott said Monday. “It opens up exciting new possibilities for the future of baseball.”

No idea what that is supposed to mean, other than “We sure are glad to see the back of that guy.”

“There’s an awful lot of opportunity for them if we can find the right home and the right deal for the team and the city,” said Tampa City Council chairperson and Tampa Sports Authority board member Alan Clendenin.

Likewise, though Clendenin being from the Tampa side of the bay means this could have the added subtext of “Sure would love to have the Rays in Hillsborough County, not that there’s much public money available to make that happen.”

The sale of the team also includes the Tampa Bay Rowdies, a United Soccer League franchise. The professional soccer team plays at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg. It’s unclear whether the Rowdies would stay at their waterfront home or move wherever the team goes.

“Rowdies May or May Not Join Rays in Stadium That Isn’t Planned Yet” would have been a hilarious headline, and I am sad to see the Times chose not to run with that one.

Zalupski and his group of buyers are purchasing a team without a permanent home.

Can anyone truly be said to have a permanent home? Yes, the Rays’ lease expires after 2028 (moved back a year after the hurricane damage made Tropicana Field unplayable for 2025), but every team’s lease expires eventually, at which point the options are always the same: extend it or move somewhere else. Zalupski is in the same boat that Stu Sternberg was the last decade or so, really: He has a stadium to play in, but no one loves it much, but also a new stadium would come with most of the same problems as the old one unless someone can figure out how to build a stadium that doesn’t get overly hot or rained on all the time and is in the exact middle of the bay. And for a price that would earn Zalupski more profits, so no fair proposing this.

Depending on the timeline for a new stadium, the owners may seek a short-term lease extension at Tropicana Field.

Given that it’s September 2025, and it takes close to three years to get a stadium built after it’s planned, and nothing is being planned right now, that “may” seems to be an understatement if anything. Surely Zalupski is going to want to leave the lease expiration hanging to push local governments to offer new stadium deals, but it’s hanging over his head too, perhaps even more so since he’d be the one with nowhere to play if it runs out too soon. A set of year-to-year extension options would be nice for him, but if St. Pete officials are smart they would drive a hard bargain before offering those, since it would reduce their leverage and get them absolutely nothing in exchange.

“They’re going to have to build and make relationships and contacts with people throughout the region to decide what’s the best place for the ballpark in order to make the Rays successful over the long haul,” [MLB Commissioner Rob] Manfred said at a Front Office Sports summit in New York.

As usual, Manfred wins the prize for using the most words to say the least, which comes down to “They need to figure stuff out soon.” Though he does manage to do the standard commissioner thing of making the decision seem like “The team owner needs to decide where to put a new stadium” rather than “The team owner needs to figure out how much a new stadium would cost him and if it would be worth it,” which is the actual calculus at work, but which is less useful for creating a bidding war among different governmental bodies.

The article then helps out making site selection seem like the main hurdle by launching into a list of possible sites, including Tampa’s Ybor Harbor (currently targeted for a women’s soccer stadium but that could change), the Dale Mabry Campus of Hillsborough College, WestShore Plaza, the Florida State Fairgrounds, the former Tampa Greyhound track in Sulphur Springs, or somewhere in Orlando, according to Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, though he may have just been using it to try to light a fire under his fellow Hillsborough elected officials:

“If for any reason we’re unable to get over the finish line, then the team may ultimately be in Orlando,” he said this month. “It’s Tampa’s to lose.”

Sure must be nice to be a billionaire and to have local elected officials levying move threats against their own cities and counties on your behalf! You don’t even have to pay them except maybe for some free tickets, it’s the best.

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Manfred declares “clean slate” on Rays stadium hunt, hedges somewhat on expansion plans

access_time personNeil deMause

The sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to a group headed by a group led by Jacksonville home builder Patrick Zalupski isn’t finalized yet, but that isn’t stopping MLB commissioner Rob Manfred from Manfredding like crazy about how it’s a new day in Florida:

“I think that there are opportunities in the Tampa area that can be exploited in order to get a new stadium and keep the team,” Manfred said.

“With new ownership, I think you have to assume it’s kind of a clean slate. That they’re going to decide about location. They’re going to have to build and make relationships and contacts with people throughout the region to decide what’s the best place for the ballpark in order to make the Rays successful over the long haul.”…

“They’re going to have the same options that the prior owner had in terms of one side or the other,” Manfred said.

It’s back to square one! To Year Zero! Zalupski and his fellow owners (still largely TBD) will have to start from scratch building “relationships” with “people throughout the region” — presumably Manfred here means elected officials — but has the same options as outgoing owner Stu Sternberg did, which were 1) an offer of $1 billion from St. Petersburg that Sternberg backed out of and which St. Pete officials then officially withdrew, or 2) the vague idea of a stadium in Tampa that nobody wanted to pay for. When you haven’t even gotten started, the possibilities are endless!

It is, of course, possible that Zalupski or one of his fellow owners has some ideas for how to spend a billion dollars or two on a stadium to move from one part of the Tampa Bay area to another and make it pay off, or even how to make Tropicana Field work better for the time being. That’s not Manfred’s goal, though, which is to get the Rays settled in a new stadium so he can finally pursue his long-awaited plans for MLB expansion, which he doesn’t want to do until the Rays (and Athletics) are sure they don’t need any potential expansion cities as move threats. So optimism is the word of the day, as is “options,” because he knows the only way to shake loose public stadium money is with a bidding war, even if nobody particularly seems interested in bidding. Though Manfred seems to have backed slightly away from his commitment to expansion at all, now saying it’s only a decision whether to expand:

“That decision, how easy or hard it is, depends in part on how much central revenue you generate, right, and how the owners are going to react to creating two additional shares of that central revenue,” Manfred said. “Assuming you get over that hump, that they want to expand, then it’s where, right? Which two cities?”

Could “how much central revenue you generate” be a reference to MLB’s still-not-actually-complete TV deals, and whether expansion fees would be worth handing out slices of an uncertain revenue pie? Leading Manfredologists are still debating the meaning of this statement, somebody check whether he was speaking in capital or small letters!
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Friday roundup: Commanders vote, Bengals lease, A’s stadium cost all up in the air at this time

access_time personNeil deMause

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!
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Friday roundup: The world is increasingly an ocean of stadium disinformation slop, and sea levels are rising

access_time personNeil deMause

It’s been another exhausting news week, so if you need a pick-me-up, please enjoy some videos of how I spent last weekend. Sometimes we all need a musical reminder to hang on to your humanity.

Once you’re sufficiently fortified, here’s what else happened this week in the world of sports stadium and arena shakedowns:

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Friday roundup: Bengals lease a mystery even to officials who voted for it, Congress and lobbyists pressure DC to okay Commanders’ $7B+ stadium deal

access_time personNeil deMause

How’s everyone doing out there? The news has been a lot lately, both the stadium shenanigans and the other non-stadium stuff, I get it, I’m as tempted as anyone to just shut off the outside world and watch Murderbot. Feel no obligation to read this week’s news roundup if you’re out of spoons, but do know that whenever you’re ready for it, it has some classic Rob Manfred garblequotes in it, those are kind of amusing at least:

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Even MLB doesn’t pretend the All-Star Game brought $100m to Atlanta, so why does the media?

access_time personNeil deMause

The MLB All-Star Game was last night, and the word being used to describe it most in headlines is “historic,” which is the nice way of saying it was tied after nine innings and decided by a mini–home run derby because baseball changed the rules in 2022. And the thing about history is that it can be good or bad, or both depending on your perspective, so it’s a fair word for everyone to describe what unfolded last night.

What hasn’t changed, meanwhile, is the torrent of article that accompany every major sporting event these days, claiming the true historic event is the rain of economic activity that falls from the sky as a result:

According to preliminary estimates, the All-Star Game and surrounding events are expected to generate at least $50 million in economic activity for metro Atlanta. Statewide, officials believe the number could approach or surpass $100 million, comparable to what Georgia was projected to lose when the 2021 All-Star Game was relocated.

This is the kind of reporting that causes sports economists to lose their shit. The impact of sports mega-events has been studied to death at this point, and the findings show that while events like All-Star Games or Super Bowls obviously draw tons of fans, they often drive away other visitors who steer clear of town during the event, cost significant amounts of public money for hosting and supporting the event, divert money and attention from other things cities could be investing in, and siphon off much of their benefits to out-of-town interests. And when pressed back in 2021 on the source of their economic projections for an Atlanta All-Star Game in particular, the league and county officials who boasted of them already backed away from them, with the county saying they came from the Braves and MLB, the Braves saying they came from the league, and the league denying any role in calculating them at all.

USA Today sportswriter Gabe Lacques visited The Battery, the bespoke neighborhood that the Braves built in a wooded area alongside their new suburban stadium that opened in 2017 with the help of more than $300 million in county money, and found that while it’s a success from a team real estate development standpoint, generating $67.3 million a year for the team, it hasn’t done much for the county, and certainly not for the Atlanta metro area as a whole:

Certainly, Cobb County captured the revenue that used to go to Fulton County when the Braves played there. Yet much of the activity – a night at the movies, a mid-range dinner, a round of drinks with the boys or the baddies – simply would have occurred somewhere else minus The Battery’s existence.

“You built a department store,” says JC Bradbury, an economist and associate professor at Kennesaw State. “We already have seven of those in Cobb County. It’s not transformative for development when you look at a county that’s a ($64 billion) economy. It’s a rounding error.

“Even though they’re always touted as a great economic engine, they’re not. And the data bear this out.”

Bradbury has already crunched the numbers and found that the county is losing about $15 million a year in tax revenue on the Braves stadium development, a figure that didn’t make it into any of this week’s coverage, not even USA Today’s.

And, hey, what was all that way back up above about “when the 2021 All-Star Game was relocated”? Also not mentioned much, in an event that celebrated Henry Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s career home run record while downplaying the groundbreaking civil rights aspects of the moment, was the fact that Atlanta was originally supposed to host the All-Star Game in 2021, but MLB took it away because of concerns over Georgia’s draconian new voting laws that threatened to disenfranchise many Black voters. What ever happened with those laws, anyway?

In fact, voting rights experts say, conditions have only worsened for potentially disenfranchised voters….

A Brennan Center for Justice analysis of the 2022 midterms revealed that the racial gap between white and Black voters was the largest in at least a decade.

As opponents of the bill indicated, reducing the amount and availability of drop boxes would have a disproportionate impact on voters in areas like Fulton County, where they were abundant during the presidential election but much scarcer in the wake of SB 202.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s explanation of why he changed his mind despite the laws that led to the 2021 cancellation not changing one bit: “I made a decision in 2021 to move the event and I understand, believe me, that people had then and probably still have different views as to the merits of that decision. What’s most important is that the Atlanta Braves are a great organization. Truist Park and The Battery are gems in terms of the facilities, and Atlanta and Georgia have been great markets for us for a very, very long time.”

All that reporting is again courtesy of Lacques, who is shaping up to be the hero of All-Star week journalism, along with folks like Craig Calcaterra and Bradbury. Much like last night’s game itself, the impact of the All-Star Game looks exciting and historic on the surface, but it leaves out a lot of the story.

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Field of Schemes