Category: Regina Red Sox

Friday roundup: 76ers’ “privately funded” arena would require 30-year tax break and maybe state cash, this is why we can’t have nice things

access_time personNeil deMause

Happy Friday! Hope you enjoyed the last 24 hours of hoping that the Philadelphia 76ers‘ $1.3 billion all-privately-financed arena plan didn’t have any hidden catches, because sorry to tell you, but:

  • Buried in a Philadelphia Inquirer article about what Philly locals think of the 76ers arena plan — some are tentatively optimistic, councilmember Helen Gym opposes it like the last 76ers arena plan and a Phillies stadium plan 20 years ago, Chinatown leaders are worried about parking and traffic impacts as you would expect they would be — is this news: “the arena’s developer has also said that the plan involves inheriting a 30-year property tax break for the parcel that Council gave to the current property owners.” Since that tax break is tax increment financing — all property taxes above a certain level are getting kicked back to the developers of the mall that was built on that site — the value of that tax break will presumably increase beyond the $127.5 million already committed once there’s a pricey new arena on the property rather than just a mall, but the Inquirer didn’t provide details. Oh, plus: “the team has also opened the door to receiving state funding.” Again, no details, but all this stuff will have to be approved by the city council, if not the state legislature as well, so we should have more info eventually. For now, though, the Sixers owners’ claims of “no public money” need to come with a nine-figure asterisk.
  • “It almost seems like the NBA’s like, holding our city hostage, like, ‘if you don’t give us this, that the taxpayers don’t give us this arena, you know, like we’re going to move the team somewhere else,’” Oklahoma City resident Alex Coleman told KFOR-TV this week about Thunder owner Clay Bennett’s demands for a new arena. It’s not like that, Alex, it is that, though with the caveat that the gun the NBA is holding to the dog’s head may not even be loaded, but savvy negotiators and all.
  • Without a floor vote or any debate, the Massachusetts House approved fast-tracking a New England Revolution stadium last Thursday, exempting a likely MLS stadium site on the Everett-Boston border from a slew of environmental regulations. If it passes the state senate as well, Revolution owner Robert Kraft would have three years to come up with money to build the thing.
  • Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, who last month announced his desire to bail out Pawtucket’s planned USL soccer stadium by diverting an extra $20 million in infrastructure funding into stadium construction instead, uh, still wants to do that. First he needs to convince the board of the state Commerce Corporation, and board members have been reticent to do so, noting that, as the Providence Journal puts it, “by agreeing to put all of the incentives toward the stadium, the state will then have to fork out an unknown amount of money in the future if it wants the rest of the project built.” This is surprisingly level-headed for the board of a state development agency, but: Yup, it sure would! Another meeting of the Commerce Corporation board is scheduled for Monday.
  • Regina, Saskatchewan is exploring building a minor-league baseball stadium despite not having a pro team (it has the Regina Red Sox, an amateur college summer team), and Jersey Village, Texas is exploring building a minor-league baseball stadium despite the region already being chock full of minor-league teams. Somebody needs to explain to them how increasing demand while the supply of teams is reduced is a good way to drive the price of teams up, but given that Jersey Village hired CSL to do its feasibility study, they may not be interested in hearing how money actually works.
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Friday roundup: Bills still have other people making their threats for them, plus this week’s cavalcade of terrible journalism

access_time personNeil deMause

That Arizona Coyotes news really laid waste to my planned writing schedule this morning, so I’m afraid the Friday roundup is going to be extra-brief and extra-late today:

  • NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, clearly not satisfied with having twisted Buffalo Bills move-threat leverage into being a real threat, doubled down yesterday with a column saying the “clock is ticking” because the Bills’ lease is up in 2023 and if they start talking to other cities they won’t “want other cities to sense that they’re being used in an effort to get a better deal in Buffalo” but instead will only be seriously looking to move. Florio has been doing this for a long time and presumably is familiar with the history of team move threats, which have nothing to do with when leases expire or not wanting to toy with other cities’ emotions and everything to do with ego and the search for greater profits, but also Florio has been doing this for a long time and pretty much sees everything through NFL-ownership-colored glasses, so none of this is surprising, except maybe that NBC Sports continues to employ him.
  • Speaking of the Bills, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared this week that he’s “confident the Bills will stay in Buffalo” now that the state has “a new governor from Western New York who’s a Bills fan” who can “work with the team” and the NFL on shoveling public money at a new stadium. He didn’t actually say that last part out loud, but what else could he mean, right? That Kathy Hochul will show up at negotiations in a Bills jersey and the NFL will say, “You’re our kind of people, forget that whole $1.4 billion thing”?
  • The Regina Red Sox owners still want a new $20-25 million stadium, and still are willing to put up $5 million while “the rest would have to come from the city or other funds the city could access.” I, too, am willing to put up 20% of the cost of a new home; anyone who would like to cover the other 80%, I take Paypal.
  • The Los Angeles Clippers‘ new arena in Inglewood could break ground this month, according to a Sports Illustrated article based on a Substack post by disgraced-for-plagiarism-and-cronyism former L.A. Times writer Arash Markazi, in turn based entirely on a statement by Inglewood Mayor James Butts that he “hopes” the team will break ground this month, never mind, nothing to see here, just another game of journalistic telephone.
  • Speaking of lazy stenography journalism, here’s an entire Tampa Bay Times article on how Tampa city officials are convinced the Rays are going to build a stadium in their city, because, um, they just are, okay? The TB Times ran a great op-ed this week by a Covid expert laying out clearly and with simple math the risks of the Delta variant and the efficacy of vaccines, maybe go read that instead and skip their sports coverage.
  • The Cleveland Plain Dealer wants you to subscribe to their newspaper in order to read their terrible article on how the NFL Draft supposedly brought in $42 million in economic activity to the city, based entirely on a press release by the local sports authority, don’t click on the PD at all, you’ll only encourage them.
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Friday roundup: NFL Draft’s $5.5m subsidy, A’s play apples and oranges with stadium math, plus Canadian wood-bat vaportecture!

access_time personNeil deMause

Let’s see, what else happened this week? Massive governmental incompetence and death in India, that has nothing to do with stadiums, let’s stay focused here, people:

  • The NFL Draft was last night, and let’s not let the occasion pass without noting that this is yet another dumb mega-event that sports leagues get cities to pay for the privilege of hosting: Cleveland put up $5.5 million in public and privately raised funds to land this year’s draft. Bloomberg Tax goes on to report that this all started about a decade ago when Butch Spyridon, CEO of Nashville’s convention authority, approached NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at a party and “pointed at the [Nashville] mayor and said, ‘You should consider moving the draft. He’ll give you free police and free venues.’” Mayors and shiny objects, man.
  • San Jose Mercury News columnist Daniel Borenstein has called Oakland A’s owner John Fisher’s demand for a massive public subsidy a “massive public subsidy,” and also “egregious” and and attempt to “mooch off taxpayers.” He also notes that A’s stadium czar Dave Kaval fudged the numbers on his claims of economic benefits, comparing $855 million in up-front public infrastructure costs with $1.4 billion in projected public benefits without noting that the benefits would be stretched out over 45 years, making them worth way less than $855 million. Borenstein calls this an “inflation adjustment” when it’s actually also the discount rate, which is a slightly different thing, but either way major props for actually doing math instead of just repeating whatever was in the team press release.
  • Baltimore is seeking bids from developers to renovate its downtown arena because, let’s see, something about the Washington Capitals maybe occasionally playing games there if it were renovated? Anyway, Baltimore’s development agency is refusing to release any details of the bids because “proprietary information,” so we’ll just have to wait to see how much Baltimore taxpayers are being asked to spend for the privilege of watching live hockey a couple of times a year.
  • Depressed about the Tennessee legislature nearly unanimously approving $22 million in sales-tax kickbacks as part of a $50-million-plus subsidy for a new Tennessee Smokies stadium? Well, at least one Tennessee legislator has a line in the sand he won’t cross: state Rep. Jerry Sexton said he was voting against public funding for upgrades to the Titans‘ stadium because he’s upset that some NFL players sometimes take a knee for the national anthem as a protest against systemic racism. That’ll show ’em.
  • The Regina Red Sox are asking for $15-20 million in public funds for a $20-25 million baseball stadium, and … oh, sorry, are you not familiar with the Regina Red Sox of the Western Canadian Baseball League, a summer wood-bat league for college players that operates exclusively in Saskatchewan and Alberta? Well, their owners want a new stadium built with public money for their unpaid players to play in, because, let’s see, scroll scroll scroll, here we go, “Currie [Field]’s old infrastructure severely limits our options for food and beverage, seating, parking and our ability to attract corporate sponsors.” Also “a dump built on a dump,” according to team president Alan Simpson, now that’s the way to get fans to turn out for ballgames! Anyway, here’s a YouTube video of renderings of what they want to build:, and though it doesn’t feature any fireworks or magic basketballs (Canadians are so boring, amirite?), it does include this guy who wore sandals to the game and is drinking some kind of beverage while leaning back against thin air, so don’t knock it entirely:
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