When I was seven years old, my family drove down to Sanibel Island for vacation — twice in one year, for some reason — so I’m pretty familiar with the causeway bridge that was just wiped out by Hurricane Ian, which is very not good for anyone who is now entirely cut off from the mainland. I suppose I should make some observation about how the substitution effect means Sanibel’s loss will mean some other Florida beach spot’s economic gain, but too soon, people.
- More fallout from that OC Vibe development by the Anaheim Ducks that will use $400 million in city bonds but be paid off by the team owners, maybe mostly hopefully: The city of Anaheim needs to build a fire station to support the new development, but may get sued by Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno for wanting to do so in the Angel Stadium parking lot. There are a lot of moving parts in every development deal, which is why Judith Grant Long spent a decade writing her book just to figure out what stadiums even really cost.
- Still more reports that Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman wants to build a downtown stadium, or have someone else build him a downtown stadium, one of those two, though it looks like all he really said was he was talking to the Chiefs owners and Jackson County about the team’s future. Good thing he didn’t reminisce about the time he took his wife on a date to see Lou Piniella, or we might have been subjected to a whole feature article.
- The latest revelations in the “Brett Favre used welfare money to build a volleyball arena for his daughter’s college” scandal are that 1) Favre wanted to build a football practice facility too and 2) he at one point suggested saving money by building it with prison labor. Then-Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant texted back to Favre: “But we have to follow the law. I am to old for Federal Prison.😊😎.” That’s for the Department of Justice to decide, Phil.
- New York state (not New York City, New York Yimby needs to read its own articles before writing its headlines) has hired an architect for its redesign of Penn Station, and Madison Square Garden is still staying put in the initial plans, look, you can see it right there. New York Mayor Eric Adams says he’s still “open” to discussing with Garden (and Knicks and Rangers) owner James Dolan the possibility of tearing down the arena and building a new one elsewhere, but as the Penn Station redevelopment is not his project — again, he’s mayor of the city, not the state, states don’t have mayors — this is just another example of his mouth opening and things coming out.
- A Pittsburgh court has struck down the city’s “jock tax” on income of out-of-state athletes playing in the city, which probably will have some small impact on the finances of the city’s sports facilities, but mostly I’m impressed that the court case took so long that one of the plaintiffs is Jeff Francoeur, who retired from baseball in 2016.
- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium has been invaded by bees, time to build a new one, bees are even worse than cats!
- I’m not exactly sure why the St. Louis Post-Dispatch devoted a story to its own coverage of the opening of St. Louis Arena (1929-1999) 93 years ago, but there are some nice construction photos, as well as classic observations like “great Visitors will bring added business to local interest and will stimulate St. Louis hospitality and progressiveness anew Welcome to the new Arena civic asset.” I take back everything I said about newspaper copy editing being a dying art.
