If you’ve wandered over to the social media network Mastodon in hopes of sticking it to The Man or just seeing what’s up, and are having the common Mastodon newbie experience of “Wait, how do I find anything to read here?”, I’m happy to report that Field of Schemes is on the air there at @fieldofschemes@mas.to. (If you haven’t wandered over there yet, you can start by signing up with a server that has openings, it doesn’t matter which one, you can always switch later.) I’m also on there with a personal account at @neildemause@mastodon.online, where you will find even more dumb jokes about our dumb world beyond stadiums, if that floats your boat.
And if you are a traditionalist who just wants to get their news and dumb jokes the old-fashioned way, by going on the web, stay right here, and we shall begin:
- Today’s big news is that the Tempe city council voted unanimously last night to send the Arizona Coyotes‘ proposed arena to a public vote next May 16. As previously discussed here, the public tends to be more fickle about its approvals than governmental bodies, okaying stadium and arena plans about 50% of the time, vs. 96% for elected officials. On the other hand, there’s still the story that then-Miami Heat executiv Jay Cross told at a 1997 sports developers’ conference that we told in Field of Schemes the book — it has lots of good stories, you should consider buying a copy if you don’t have one, or at least the electronic version — about how he decided a public referendum was just fine if you treated it like “a political campaign … no different than if you’re running for the Senate, or governor, or mayor,” and proceeded to dump a ton of money into campaign ads, and won handily. So, we’ll see what happens in Tempe, but do buckle in for a whole lot of paid pro-arena propaganda, which I will be here to debunk where necessary, where else am I gonna be?
- D.C. attorney general Karl Racine announced this week that he’s filed a consumer protection lawsuit against the Washington Commanders, owner Dan Snyder, the NFL, and league commissioner Roger Goodell for allegedly deceiving the public about, well, pretty much everything: This seems to have started over the question of whether the team kept two sets of books to cheat both the league and ticket holders out of money they were due, but now is extending into any “public misrepresentations, omissions, and ambiguities of material fact,” including misleading Washington area fans into thinking Snyder wasn’t a complete asshole. This sounds a bit like a fishing expedition on the part of Racine, but even if so, the discovery phase where he subpoenas the team and league for evidence promises to be awesome, so I am very much here for that and hope you will be too.
- Still no official election results in all those close races that could affect stadium plans: Steve Sisolak is marginally gaining on Joe Lombardo in Nevada, Loren Taylor still has the lead for mayor in Oakland but they aren’t going to finish the next round of counting second-place votes under the city’s ranked choice voting system until Monday, and Anaheim isn’t sure who its next mayor will be either. None of these races feature super-pro-subsidy candidates vs. super-anti-subsidy ones, so it may just be a matter of whose names end up appearing in the headlines for the next few years, but it’s still worth keeping half an eye on.
- Everybody loves a good fly-on-the-wall “inside story,” but this one in the Buffalo News about the Bills stadium planning is mostly just the team’s architect reminiscing about how he and team officials brainstormed guiding concepts like “Progressive. Modern. Timeless,” which is entertaining without actually being very informative: If nothing else, you’ve gotta love an article that can report things like “Some of the more philosophical principles – ‘Belonging,’ ‘Pride’ and ‘Respect’ among them – become tangible in the branding of the stadium” while keeping a straight face.
- The Arlington Heights Village Board voted in favor of a non-binding pre-development agreement with the Chicago Bears, which is exactly as noneventful as it sounds, but the dream of a giant suburban Bears complex remains alive, at least until somebody decides that building whole new neighborhoods isn’t profitable anymore.
- I promised you comedy up top, here’s your weekly moment of comedy: The Nippon Ham Fighters, who as you must always reminded are not the “Ham Fighters” but rather the Fighters who are owned by Nippon Ham, just opened their new stadium to the media, who discovered that the backstop is several feet closer to home plate than league rules allow. Team officials won’t say how they plan to resolve this issue — moving home plate or tearing out some seats would seem to be the only real options — but meanwhile, HA ha.