I got places to be, so let’s get right to it:
- Someone asked Baltimore Orioles owner John Angelos at a Martin Luther King Jr. event where he was announcing a $5 million donation to a local college fund about his family’s future plans for the team, and he responded by angrily saying that that was “not an appropriate subject matter for this day” and anyway “My family owns over 70 percent of the team … Number 2, we’re not going anywhere, Number 3, the principal owners are Georgia and Peter Angelos, and Number 4, you see what we’re doing here in the community.” So, it’s appropriate to ask questions about the $5 million you’re giving away while seeking $600 million-plus in stadium renovation money if it makes the team ownership look good in your staged MLK Day press event, but not if it’s about when you’ll actually sign your lease, got it.
- Nine Chicago mayoral candidates were asked at last night’s debate if they would fight to keep the Bears in the city, which is kind of a loaded question (fight how? with money cannons, or with pugil sticks?), and answers included: asking for state funds to get the team to stay, opposing using state funds to get the team to stay, being willing to negotiate, being willing to build a dome over Soldier Field, being willing to explore other sites in the city, getting another NFL team to replace the Bears if they move to Arlington Heights, giving up on doing anything as too late, and “I came from a family of 10, and I certainly know how to negotiate when you’re in the house with one bathroom.”
- Apparently that $170 million arena subsidy for the Indy Fuel got approved when I wasn’t looking, because the city of Fishers (no, not that one) just held a groundbreaking for it. (Though I suppose it’s possible they held a groundbreaking without finalizing the funding yet. Somebody out there research this if you want — what part of places to be didn’t you understand?) Anyway, here’s a rendering of the new place that seems to have been created by someone who only had access to the CW Additional Cast clip art pack.
- The Denver Broncos owners are about to start surveying fans on what they’d like in a “reimagined” stadium, including things like “how you feel about escalators versus elevators.” How fans feel about not spending a crapton of money to replace or renovate a stadium that opened in 2001 will presumably not be included in the survey.
- “Do The San Jose Sharks Need A New Stadium Built?” asks FanSided’s San Jose Sharks blog, which apparently isn’t a big enough hockey fan to know that NHL venues are typically called “arenas,” not “stadiums.” Anyway, their answer appears to be “the door that the zambonis use got stuck during a game, so sure, maybe.” Is there a way to appeal to get a site delisted from Google News for not actually having anything to do with news, do you know?
