Category: AAF

Did I actually write a couple of days ago that this was looking like a slow news week? The stadium news gods clearly heard me, and when they make it rain news, they make it pour:

• The owners of Sacramento Republic F.C. haven’t just released new stadium renderings, they also have a new term sheet outlining $33 million in city tax breaks and fee waivers they would get to help pay for the thing. This would still be better than a lot of city’s soccer stadium deals, but not nearly as good as the “all privately financed” pledge the city got from them back in 2015.
• According to some guy’s tweet, the Chicago Fire owners are considering buying out the rest of their lease in Bridgeview and moving back to Soldier Field on the Chicago lakefront. Bridgeview has been a disaster for all concerned, most of all Bridgeview, but a buyout could cost as much as $125 million, which seems a steep price to pay; also, the above linked article notes that lame duck Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is involved in the move plans, which raises the possibility of public money being involved, so let’s all keep a close eye on this.
• Elmont Against the Megamall, the new group formed last summer a New York Islanders arena at Belmont Park, is funded by a Virginia organization called Citizens for Responsible Community Growth, which was only created last August, and in turn is giving most of its money to the Crux Group, a California-based marketing firm that helped build support for the San Francisco 49ers‘ new stadium in Santa Clara. This is definitely a little weird and bears watching, even if the Newsday article about it is opaque beyond belief. (Most of what’s in the above sentence I just researched myself online in two minutes, because Newsday couldn’t be bothered.)
• Anthony LeBlanc, the former Arizona Coyotes owner who wants a CFL stadium built for him in Halifax (or maybe a stadium for a horrific hybrid of football and soccer, based on the renderings), says instead of asking for a bunch of money to help build a pro soccer stadium, how about he asks for a bunch of money for a smaller “community sports” stadium and then uses his own cash to expand it for the CFL? That sounds much better, right? Right?
• The Alliance of American Football folded in the middle of its first season, and the National Gridiron League (arena football) folded before it even began. I don’t think any cities had begun building or renovating venues specifically for these leagues, but it is a useful reminder not to get too excited about minor sports leagues coming to your town, if you needed any more reminding.
• Speaking of which, the Ohio Machine lacrosse franchise folded this week, just two years after the 4,500-person village of Obetz spent $15 million to build them their own stadium.
• Pawtucket is looking to lure a baseball, soccer, or lacrosse team to McCoy Stadium to replace the Triple-A Red Sox when they move to Worcester (in 2021, because the planned ballpark site is currently still a vacant lot), which is a fine enough idea so long as they don’t pay through the nose for it. Also, apparently the Worcester team still controls territorial rights to the city it’s abandoning and can block a replacement affliated minor-league team, which seems like good grounds for an antitrust lawsuit — MLB’s antitrust exemption doesn’t extend to the minors, does it?
• A New York state legislator found $2.3 million in subsidies for “services and expenses related to the retention of professional football in Western New York” hidden in the new state budget, but it turns out that’s actually still the same money the state is spending from the last set of subsidies to keep the Buffalo Bills in town, so don’t worry about it, I guess?
• Tottenham Hotspur hasn’t even played a game yet in its new stadium, and there have already been a couple of articles worrying that it will gentrify the surrounding neighborhood out of existence. Fortunately, there’s little evidence that stadiums have all that much impact on development surrounding them — the Tottenham stadium’s “restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef” may encourage more fans to eat at the game, but it won’t make anyone open a restaurant across the street — though they can get dollar signs to light up in the eyes of local property owners, which we’re already seeing happen in Cincinnati.
• People living near the former site of the Atlanta Braves‘ Turner Field, now set for redevelopment, are also both looking forward to and afraid of how it will impact their neighborhood, because that’s just how redevelopment works in a world where people with more money can move in and push you out as soon as you have nice things. I wrote a whole book about it!
• The Oklahoma City Thunder owners want to build an “entertainment and dining complex” near their basketball arena; it would be anchored by an “iconic basketball with a mirror finish,” and you better believe there are renderings.
• Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has declared that “every Italian city” needs a new stadium because he’s “tired of committing thousands and thousands of women and men every Sunday in uniform to check what happens outside stadiums and inside them with old systems, without cameras, without exits or emergency access points.” I would have gone with “buy some security cameras,” but that’s just me.