Category: Las Vegas MLB team

Friday roundup: Rays stadium back from dead, A’s Vegas stadium shambles forward

access_time personNeil deMause

In case you missed the live recap of yesterday’s St. Petersburg city council meeting, the council approved selling $287.5 million in bonds for a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays, reversing their vote of two weeks ago to hold off on the move. What happened is pretty straightforward: The two councilmembers who’d flipped to “no” votes two weeks ago flipped back to “yes” — while their stated excuse was that they were content that team execs were no longer calling the deal entirely dead, presumably it was more the recognition that this was likely now or never, as starting in January there would be two new anti-stadium-funding members of the council, and they didn’t want to be accused of dawdling too long like the Pinellas County Commission.

So what happens now? The county commission still has its slim 4-3 majority against selling its $312.5 million in stadium bonds unless Rays owner Stu Sternberg renegotiates the deal; at the same time, Sternberg and his top aides are insisting that they need the pot sweetened to cover the costs of the bond sale having been delayed, even though the original deal said it didn’t need to happen until next April. Historically, this usually leads to some serious haggling between team officials and whichever commission member they think they can flip — the only question is which one would be willing to flip for the cheapest price, and whether “okay, we won’t ask the county to pay for the cost overruns that we’re suddenly claiming exist” would count as a concession. (Okay, there’s also the question of when and if the St. Pete council will sign off on repairing the Tropicana Field roof so the Rays would have somewhere to play in 2026 and 2027, as they didn’t vote on that yesterday, but even if that’s delayed a bit, the team could presumably extend its stay at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field into early 2026 without too much trouble.)

Or the county commission could decide to hold the line at its December 17 meeting and delay the bond sale again, or even reject it altogether, at which point, understates Mayor Ken Welch, “that sets us on a different path.” We’ll find out a week from Tuesday, but right now, the odds of Sternberg getting his $1 billion public subsidy deal or something close to it look a lot higher than they did a couple of days ago.

But enough about the Rays, already — other stuff happened this week, let’s get to it:

  • The Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board gave its final signoff to an Athletics stadium in Las Vegas after team owner John Fisher submitted a letter vowing that “members of my family and I are committing to contribute up to $1,100,000,000” to the project. The Associated Press called this clearing “the last major hurdle” for a Vegas stadium, which isn’t really true: The Clark County Commission still needs to hold its own vote, something A’s exec Sandy Dean said the team was in early stages of talks for; and, of course, Fisher still needs to actually figure out where to get that $1.1 billion — he claims he’s still looking for new private investors, but those seem unlikely to materialize at this late date, so he may need to decide on whether it’s worth committing a large chunk of his family’s wealth to building a very expensive stadium in what would be easily MLB’s smallest market. If he does, and if the county signs off, construction could start as early as next spring with a stadium opening in 2028, but those are still fairly major hurdles.
  • The Cleveland Browns hired a real estate consulting firm, as one does, to determine the economic impact of building a new stadium in Brook Park, and announced that the county would see an added five squillion dollars in annual economic impact (give or take a squillion). Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne responded with a statement that “economic impact studies commissioned by organizations with a vested interest often present overly optimistic projections that do not reflect the financial realities faced by local governments and taxpayers” and that “we’re going to have to throw a flag on the play.” (And we were so close to getting out of this without any football metaphors!) Still, this allows the media to portray this as “Browns study says five squillion dollars, city claims only three squillion, truth must lie somewhere in the middle,” which is why real estate consulting firms get paid the big bucks.
  • A city council vote on the proposed Philadelphia 76ers arena is expected by December 19, and Chinatown groups made a last-ditch effort to demand that the team owners increase their community benefits agreement from $50 million to $300 million. (Sports economist Geoff Propheter says this would be close to what Sixers owner Josh Harris would be saving in property tax breaks, at least.) Developers said at a hearing Tuesday that $300 million would be too much, but were open to a smaller increase; with the council seemingly set on approving the deal, we look to have entered the haggling over the price phase.
  • NYC F.C. held a groundbreaking for their new Queens stadium, now to be called Etihad Park after a brief but memorable spell being depicted as Naming Rights Sponsor Stadium. The city’s Independent Budget Office recently issued its long-awaited report on the cost of city tax breaks for the stadium, and determined that team owners Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the New York Yankees will save $538 million via the site being exempted from property taxes, though it also notes that it could have saved all but $74 million of that money through other city tax breaks anyway. So, yay?
  • Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris (yes, same Josh Harris) and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell went to D.C. this week to lobby Congress to hand over the RFK Stadium site to the district for a potential NFL stadium, and Maryland’s two senators responded that they would demand that one of D.C.’s two Air National Guard squadrons be transferred to Maryland in exchange. This is officially peak haggling over the price, I think we’re done here, have a good weekend and see you on Monday!
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Fisher needs to find another $250m in Vegas stadium money in his other pants

access_time personNeil deMause

The Las Vegas Stadium Authority is set to meet Thursday to discuss Athletics owner John Fisher’s latest paperwork about how he plans to pay for a Las Vegas stadium (spoilers: he probably still won’t explain it), and the big news is that the projected price tag has gone up from $1.5 billion to $1.75 billion, meaning Fisher will need to scrounge up another $250 million from somewhere:

The stadium’s projected $1.5 billion price tag has risen to $1.75 billion because of inflation and the addition of 70,000 square feet of ballpark features. New elements added during the stadium’s design phase include more clubs and suites, upgraded general admission spaces and player amenities. The A’s Las Vegas ballpark will be the first in Major League Baseball to offer under-seat cooling.

“The increase in the budget is due to combination of adding a variety of features to the ballpark along with general increases in construction costs,” A’s executive Sandy Dean told the Review-Journal. “The design process is iterative, and has been allowing us to add elements to the ballpark intended to make this a premier facility for Major League Baseball.”

Uhhh, under-seat a/c ducts have been part of the plan at least since March, so why is that adding $250 million to the cost now? More clubs and suites is nice, I guess, though they’d have to generate around $20 million in extra revenue per year to be worth an added quarter-billion in costs. And while inflation in the construction field is still an issue, a 17% hike in just nine months would be pretty remarkable.

In any case, thanks to the one good thing the Nevada legislature did while approving stadium subsidies in June 2023 — making all cost overruns the responsibility of the team — Fisher is now set to be on the hook for $1.37 billion in construction costs. He’ll get about $220 million of that back via property tax breaks and a ticket tax exemption, but that’s still a hefty price to pay for what would be MLB’s stadium in what the league’s smallest media market. We’ll maybe find out more on Thursday, well, probably not, but one can always hope!

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Friday roundup: A’s exec says Fisher really does have Vegas stadium money (no, you can’t see it)

access_time personNeil deMause

Before we get to the bullet points, and I know how much you all love the bullet points, there is pressing news we have to discuss first, which is that Athletics owner John Fisher has the billion-dollars-plus he needs to build a stadium in Las Vegas. Sort of. Maybe. According to a guy:

Athletics owner John Fisher and his family will invest $1 billion into the construction of a stadium in Las Vegas and U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs will offer a $300 million loan, club executive Sandy Dean said Thursday.

Dean made his remarks to a special meeting of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority board.

Dean said four letters will be presented at the Dec. 5 authority meeting asserting construction details and financing will be in place. Final approvals are expected to be made at that meeting to allow construction of the $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat domed ballpark with a capacity for up to 33,000 fans.

So it’s official: Fisher has financing in place for his Vegas stadium … well, no, he will have financing in place by December … or he’ll have a letter (or four) stating that financing is in place?

[One] letter, Dean said, asserts the Fisher and his family have the ability to meet their financial commitment. Dean said [another] letter from U.S. Bank will show that through a review of the owner’s finances that it “concludes the Fisher family has more than sufficient resources to fund the equity investment that’s required to build the stadium.”

Except! Here’s video of Dean saying that one of the letters will be “from John Fisher indicating that his family will invest a billion dollars in support of the project here in Las Vegas.” So which is it: Is the Fisher family committing to spend $1 billion on a Vegas stadium, or just avowing that it  is worth $1 billion? We already knew the latter — Vegas convention center authority chief and unregistered A’s lobbyist Steve Hill keeps saying it, among other things — but that’s not the same as actually figuring out what the family would liquidate to pay for the stadium: the San Jose Earthquakes? The Gap?.

(Dean also said Fisher is still looking to sell minority shares of the team at inflated prices because “it would be good coming to Las Vegas to have outside partners from Las Vegas,” but not because he needs the money, oh no: “The ability to finance the stadium is independent of that.”)

The question all this keeps coming back to isn’t “Where can a billionaire find a billion dollars?” but rather “Is the Fisher family ready to throw a billion dollars of its own money down a stadium hole?” The number of stadiums that can cover their own construction costs is slim; the number that have done so that are in their leagues’ smallest market and include a pricey dome is zero. Which is why people are eager to see Fisher put actual money on the table; promises of a letter next month that will maybe describe actual money on the table is not quite the same thing.

Sorry if all that was anticlimactic. And now, this week’s bullet points:

  • Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wants to intervene in the Cleveland Browns‘ lawsuit against the city of Cleveland seeking to block the use of the Art Modell Law to block the team from moving to a new stadium in Brook Park. Yost says the team’s claim that the law, which requires that teams be offered up for sale to local owners before being relocated from their current home city, is “unconstitutionally vague” is “wrong,” and since Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam only sued the city, he needed to file a motion to intervene on behalf of the state. Feel the excitement!
  • Philadelphia councilmember Mark Squilla may have come down in favor of letting the 76ers owners build an arena next door to Chinatown, but he has an idea for ensuring that the neighborhood isn’t disrupted: a zoning overlay to “require affordable housing, restrictions on types of businesses, and limits on the size of new storefronts to discourage chain restaurants from crowding out traditional Chinatown retail,” in the words of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Adds the Inquirer: “The precise language mandating how any of this would work has yet to be added to the bill.” This is on top of proposing a tax increment financing district to kick taxes collected in Chinatown back to local businesses to offset any rise in rents as the result of increased property values — pretty sure that would only risk encouraging landlords to increase rents more knowing businesses would be getting subsidies to help pay them, need to go back and check my Intro to Economics textbook chapter on microeconomics.
  • The World Series is over and I didn’t get around to discussing the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s claim that each Yankees and Mets home playoff game generated $20-25 million in economic activity, but suffice to say I talked to an EDC spokesperson who told me (on background, so I’m not supposed to quote them directly so I’m not) that the analysis was based off a previous model from 2022 that puts together assumptions from the city tourism board plus assumptions from the Yankees and then applies a multiplier. Also, they look at “anonymized cell phone data”? No, you and I are not allowed to see the actual model, so no further details about WTF this means will be available.
  • Spotlight on America has a piece on how Tempe, Arizona said no to funding an Arizona Coyotes arena and how other cities could follow its lead, which is all well and good until it concludes by lauding late Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen for his commitment to Seattle, when Allen actually paid the city to hold a referendum so he could get $300 million in public money for a football stadium, then refused to open his books like he promised in exchange for the money, seriously, what?
  • Perhaps you would prefer a deep dive into the toilets at the Los Angeles Clippers‘ new arena? Perhaps you would prefer I hadn’t phrased it that way? Sorry, you’re getting both!

 

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Friday roundup: Browns owners sue to block Modell Law, still no Vegas stadium finance plan from Fisher

access_time personNeil deMause

We have a lot to cover today, but first I would like to encourage you to donate to Matthew Sweet’s GoFundMe for stroke recovery if you’re a fan of his music and haven’t yet — he sounds like he’s in a bad way, he couldn’t afford health insurance on a musician’s income (especially being off the road for much of the last four years thanks to the pandemic), and needing to have health insurance is still a thing in the U.S. for some reason. Here’s hoping that the money raised will help allow him to make a significant recovery, and that someday even people without hit songs will be able to afford medical care and the Pentagon will need to hold a bake sale.

But enough about the unfairness of the modern American economic system, on to … well, you know:

  • With the city of Cleveland considering whether to file suit under the Art Modell Law to force Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam to offer the team for sale to local buyers before decamping to suburban Brook Park, the Haslams have taken the preemptive step of suing to block the Modell law on the grounds it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and is too vague and probably a bunch of other things, the typography on the PDF is really hard to read. “Today’s action for declaratory judgment was filed to take this matter out of the political domain and ensure we can move this transformative project forward to make a new domed Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park a reality,” said Browns COO Dave Jenkins, which is a nice way of saying, “These damn ‘laws’ and ‘democratic procedures’ were getting in the way of our stadium plans, that could not be allowed.”
  • Speaking of things getting in the way of the Browns’ Brook Park dome plans, Cuyahoga County executive Chris Ronayne has reiterated that he doesn’t want Ohio taxpayers footing $1.2 billion of the stadium bill, saying, “We have looked at the facts, and the facts are that, and I said it before, that the Brook Park play just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work from a financial standpoint, and it’s frankly very detrimental to our future.” Added Cleveland city law director Mark Griffin: “I want to say this to our state legislature … and to this court system: If you make moves to try to gut this city of one of our key corporate partners and money maker, all of us will remember. You will be up for reelection. You would have to deal with the city of Cleveland in some way, shape, form, or fashion, and none of us will ever forget it.”
  • John Fisher will not be presenting any financial details of his Las Vegas Athletics stadium plan at the Las Vegas Stadium Authority’s October 31 meeting, I’m sure you’re all shocked to hear. The authority will discuss his proposed lease agreement for the stadium, but the actual language doesn’t appear to have been posted yet on the authority’s website, guess it’ll be a surprise! Marc Normandin has more on the Vegas clown show at Baseball Prospectus.
  • The Green Bay Packers have agreed to future rent increases at Lambeau Field after previously demanding a rent freeze so it could instead put the rent savings into paying for stadium upgrades. The Green Bay council unanimously rejected that proposal, and Packers execs agreed to annual 2.75% rent increases worth about $30 million in total present value — turns out sometimes pro sports franchise owners do take “no” for an answer, though obviously the Packers are a bit of a special case in terms of franchise ownership.
  • WTOP-TV quotes University of Maryland business professor Michael Faulkender as saying a renovated Washington Capitals and Wizards arena could benefit the surrounding Chinatown because “Generally when people come down for an event, they’re not just going to go straight to the event. They’re also going to, perhaps, come in early, go to restaurants, maybe stay afterward, go to bars,” which 1) they really don’t that much, 2) those that do are already there, since the arena is already in place. Faulkender added, “It may, on the margin, attract people to live closer to it, if they’re regular fans of one of those teams,” and attracting new residents to displace existing ones is exactly why people say the arena has been bad for D.C.’s Chinatown, Faulkender can just stop now, I think.
  • If you were wondering what former Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo was up to and had your money on asking for tax kickbacks for a proposed $1 billion minor-league and college hockey arena in Reno, Nevada, you’re a winner!
  • New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says her $1 billion Buffalo Bills stadium subsidy was necessary because five other cities were trying to steal the Bills otherwise. She didn’t name any of the cities, of course, but we know what one of them must have been.
  • I wrote a long explainer for Defector this week on where the proposed Philadelphia 76ers arena deal falls on the bad-to-awful spectrum, if you’ve been wanting a long explainer on that. And I did an interview with ABC Tampa about where the Tampa Bay Rays might play next year with their stadium roof in tatters, if you want to hear me expound on that, or just missed seeing what I have on my living room walls.
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Is Fisher’s sale of 25% of A’s for $500m to raise Vegas stadium money for real? An investimagation

access_time personNeil deMause

I am promising myself I’m going to limit myself to one post today, after three straight multi-post days thanks to things that keep happening, what’s the deal with this world anyway? So, hmm, let’s see, so much to choose from, but gotta go with the anonymously sourced story in the nation’s worst newspaper about everybody’s favorite owner assclown:

Billionaire Oakland A’s owner John Fisher is looking to cash in on the team’s move to Las Vegas by selling off a minority stake that values the franchise at $2 billion — a whopping 66% increase from its most recent valuation, The Post has learned.

Fisher — an heir to The Gap clothing empire co-founded by his parents, Donald and Doris Fisher — plans to start shopping a 25% chunk of the team with a price tag of $500 million in the coming days, two sources close to the situation told The Post.

That’s the New York Post, which doesn’t even capitalize the “The” on its own paper, but does when referring to itself, I guess, because that’s what fancy people do. The $500 million price tag isn’t new news — Fisher himself said it back in March, back when he was waxing poetic about spherical armadillos — but the share of the team a buyer would get in exchange appears to — oh, no, wait, that was reported by the Los Angeles Times last November. No hints at all from the Post about who passed along this information, though the only possible options would seem to be either an Athletics employee or maybe someone with whatever company is being hired to negotiate the sale, either of whom could clearly have lots of ulterior motives for leaking this information to the one newspaper that is guaranteed to run with an “exclusive” without asking too many questions.

On the surface, it makes sense for Fisher to try to raise $500 million toward the $1.15 billion he still needs for his new Las Vegas stadium by selling a quarter of the team: Can’t get if you don’t ask. Whether it makes any sense for anyone to buy 25% of the A’s at that price is another story, given that 1) the team is set to play the next three years in a minor-league stadium before moving to MLB’s smallest market and being saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in stadium debt, 2) the Baltimore Orioles, who have none of those drawbacks, just sold for a total valuation of just $1.725 million, and 3) whoever ends up with a minority share would have to deal with a majority owner who is John Fisher. The prospectus on this sale is going to have to say “For sale: share of MLB franchise, as-is, serious bidders only, comes with existing roommate” — and while it’s always possible some billionaire will bite in hopes of being able to leverage their slice into majority ownership once Fisher drops an anvil on his own head, it doesn’t seem likely.

Or to put it more succinctly:

Meanwhile over at SI, which isn’t doing much better than the Post these days but which does still have a handful of good human writers remaining, Jason Burke observes:

The one person that could even potentially value the A’s at $2 billion isn’t in Las Vegas, and isn’t interested in becoming a minority shareholder in the franchise. That person would be Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob. It has been reported that he has a standing offer to buy the A’s from John Fisher, though what that price is set at is unknown. If that price is close to $2 billion, it would be have to be tantalizing for Fisher to get the post-ballpark valuation as a sale price without having to build the actual ballpark first.

He’s not wrong! As Burke acknowledges, there’s no guarantee Fisher will see it that way, but a sale of the whole team, to someone in a market bigger than Las Vegas, does seem to make the most sense financially. He concludes:

Something is going on with this Las Vegas deal, and it sure doesn’t appear that it’s smooth sailing at this point. What if the re-report of the A’s valuation was a negotiation tactic done by Fisher/MLB for someone attempting to actually buy the team behind the scenes? It’s not too often that the A’s end up in the NY Post, which could mean that MLB was involved in this report getting out there.

Too many people are reassuring the public that everything is just fine for everything to be just fine. This feels more like a last ditch effort to get the funding lined up before either Fisher digs into his own pockets for the first time, or finally decides to sell the team.

That’s speculation, absolutely. But it’s speculation with at least as much information behind it as the Post’s “exclusive.” Maybe I should be giving more credit to SI — sorry, I mean The SI. When there’s no good information out there, informed guesswork is sometimes the best journalism possible.

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A’s owner totally can get $1.1B in Vegas stadium money, says someone whose checks he signs

access_time personNeil deMause

While we’re at it with the unnamed sources, one “close to the Oakland Athletics” tells the Nevada Independent that team owner John Fisher does too have $1.1 billion in private financing lined up for a new Las Vegas stadium, he just won’t tell anyone what it is for a couple of months yet:

The financing plan covering a $1.5 billion baseball stadium on the Strip “is in place,” according to sources close to the Oakland Athletics, but any public discussion of funding will wait until December…

In December, the A’s are expected to provide written confirmation of the financing for the ballpark, according to a team source. The financing needs to be in place before construction can begin on the ballpark.

Seriously, Nevada Independent, why is this news? “A’s officials say Fisher will be able to pay for his share of Vegas stadium” has already been reported, so what’s new about different A’s officials (or the same ones, who knows?) saying so again, this time on condition they not be identified? Did you only watch “All the President’s Men” while looking at your phone and come to think that the reason Deep Throat was to be believed was that he was standing in a shadowy parking lot, not that he had provided verifiable information previously?

Fisher’s people did provide some information yesterday, but it wasn’t about the finances. Rather, they released new draft development and lease agreements for discussion at today’s Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board, which included some fresh stadium schematics:

It’s still a little tough to tell exactly how Fisher plans to fit an entire stadium onto a 9-acre site, but it looks like part of it will be keeping the actual seating section relatively small — only 30,000 actual seats, plus 3,000 standing-room spaces — and limiting the concessions areas to the spaces under the seating decks, which goes against current trends and could limit his ability to create massive food courts and club spaces that have helped boost revenues at other new stadiums. I’d also be interested to hear from any engineers about whether that massive roof has enough support structures planned to hold it up — it would be weird for schematics like these not to include that, but given the massive columns that other stadiums’ roofs need, it’s a question worth asking.

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Tropicana hotel demolished to make way for Vegas A’s vaporstadium

access_time personNeil deMause

The Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip was blowed up real good last night, to clear the land for an eventual Las Vegas A’s stadium along with other redevelopment by the site’s owner, the Bally’s Corporation:

And speaking of that planned A’s stadium, how’s the financing for that going?

In July, the Athletic’s’ executives said the stadium would be financed in three parts. Nevada taxpayers would pay about $350 million, debt financing would contribute another $300 million, and Fisher would pay the remaining $850 million.

That’s true as far as it goes, but A’s board member Sandy Dean’s testimony at the time was incredibly nonspecific about where Fisher’s $850 million would come from, beyond saying that A’s owner John Fisher was in “good shape” raising money and that “it would be a positive to have outside investors” — a positive for Fisher, sure, though it’s still unclear what Fisher would have left over to offer to investors after paying off $300 million in loans plus whatever ROI his family will want for their cut of the stadium costs. The team still hasn’t submitted a detailed financial plan to the Vegas stadium authority and may not until December; stadium authority chair Steve Hill, who moonlights as an unregistered A’s lobbyist, said yesterday that after something between “an audit and a look” at the Fisher family’s finances, “it is clear that the Fishers have the ability to provide the financing for the stadium, period,” which isn’t the same thing as saying that the Fishers can pay for the stadium and earn their money back, which would seem to be the point of the whole exercise.

Until Fisher presents an “irrevocable” financing plan, Nevada won’t release its $380 million in stadium funding approved last summer — along with an additional $180 million in property tax breaks and $100 million in ticket tax exemptions — so right now the whole thing still remains on hold. Except for the site being cleared, but Bally’s is free to use that for something other than a stadium if Fisher’s financing falls through. In the meantime, enjoy the sardonic laughter of the Bay Area’s KGO-TV news anchors as their reporter notes, “If the A’s can get it together, they hope to start playing in Las Vegas in 2028.”

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Friday roundup: Florida Panthers’ lease extension could be one of the priciest ever for taxpayers

access_time personNeil deMause

I’ve been trying to write about this all week, but stuff kept happening: Broward County commissioners agreed to a term sheet that would give the Florida Panthers a five-year lease extension through 2033, and the money part is so convoluted that it calls for its own set of bullet points:

  • Panthers owner Vincent Viola will give the county $51.5 million to pay off the remaining debt on the arena where the team plays, which cost the county $185 million to build in 1998.
  • The county will continue to spend $25 million a year in hotel tax money on operations, maintenance, and upgrades to the arena, for the life of the lease extension.
  • The county has two five-year options to extend the lease. If it doesn’t do so, it has to return some or all of Viola’s $51.5 million debt payment.
  • Viola gets development rights to land around the arena, which he had given up as part of a 2015 deal to get access to the hotel tax funding and get the out clause in his lease that is the whole reason why the county is renegotiating his lease now instead of waiting until 2028.

I’m hesitant to put a dollar figure on the whole thing, but it looks like if Broward County picks up the two five-year lease extensions it gets the $51.5 million while spending $25 million a year over 15 years, which comes to around $250 million in present value, plus gives up development rights to 140 acres of land, which is worth who knows — let’s guesstimate it as $250-300 million in subsidies from the county to Viola. On the other hand, if Broward doesn’t do the extensions, it doesn’t get the $51.5 million, but also its annual arena subsidies go down to more like $100 million, so that’d be more like a $150-200 million subsidy — but also it would need to redo the Panthers’ lease a decade sooner.

So on a per-year basis — math’s almost done, I promise! — that’s either $17-20 million a year for a 15-year extension, or $30-40 million a year for a 5-year extension. That would still be less than the current record $43 million a year lease extension that Charlotte gave the Carolina Panthers (no relation), but it’s a chunk of change regardless.

The Broward County Board of Commissioners still needs to give final approval to the deal, so maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get some hearings or something that will shed more light on the bouncing dollar signs. In the meantime, we had more news this week, let’s get to that:

  • Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch says if Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf wants a new stadium, he should mostly pay for it with private money. Welch also revealed that the White Sox greats at that private ballfield event Reinsdorf held this week for elected officials included Bo Jackson, Ron Kittle, Harold Baines, and Ozzie Guillen, and they didn’t even play catch — though given Kittle’s career –7.5 defensive wins above replacement, you probably don’t want to let him throw many baseballs your direction anyway.
  • Frisco, Texas approved that $141 million-plus renovation for the F.C. Dallas stadium that it was set to vote on Tuesday, as expected. At least the new sun roof looks cool, even if the provided rendering shows lots of fans still sitting in the sun.
  • My former employer Gothamist, continuing its race away from quality journalism that saw it earlier this week write about New York police shooting a bystander on a subway car in the head by only asking former cops whether it was justified, opines that the Philadelphia 76ers not moving to Camden is a loss for New Jersey officials who proposed the idea. Not mentioned: All the other things New Jersey can do with $400 million if it doesn’t give it to Sixers owner Josh Harris. Guess this is what happens when keep laying off your news staff.
  • The design of the Oakland Athletics‘ proposed Las Vegas stadium is 50% complete, and no, I don’t know what that means either. It would only have 30,000 seats, with another 3,000 in standing room. If you don’t count the Tampa Bay Rays stadium, which only holds 25,000 because its upper deck has been closed since 2019, this would be the smallest MLB ballpark since the 1969 Seattle Pilots played at 25,000-seat Sick’s Stadium, which went so well that the Pilots moved to Milwaukee the next spring.
  • Cleveland.com asked some sports economists if a new Cleveland Browns stadium would be good for local jobs or tax revenue, and got the expected answer. It’s a good overview of the existing economic findings, though, and worth reading if you want to dive into the details of why sports subsidies don’t pay off for taxpayers, not even if you count the value of keeping a team from leaving town.
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Friday roundup: A’s dunno where 2025 playoff games (LOL) would be played, NY ethics panel probing pols’ use of Bills suite

access_time personNeil deMause

Thanks to travel plans, much of this week’s roundup was written on Wednesday and Thursday, so if there’s anything that needs updating, please just note it politely in the comments and we’ll take it from there.

  • If the no-city-designation Athletics make the postseason next year — stop snickering, it’s mathematically possible, at least until the 2025 season actually gets underway — they haven’t decided yet if playoff games would be played in Sacramento’s 10,600-seat stadium or somewhere else, though the team did issue a statement that “A’s season ticket holders will have priority purchase access for tickets.” The right to buy playoff tickets for a city to be determined, that should boost season ticket sales even more than “watch Aaron Judge hit homers off our pitchers,” John Fisher’s remaining staff are truly marketing geniuses.
  • In other A’s news, a Las Vegas stadium groundbreaking has been set for the second quarter of 2025, which means nothing since breaking ground doesn’t necessarily mean building anything. And the son of ex-A’s owner Walter Haas says it’s “unforgivable” that Fisher is choosing to move the team instead of selling it to someone else who would keep it in Oakland.
  • The Buffalo Bills gave New York state officials a luxury suite as part of a 2012 lease deal to get $130 million in stadium upgrades, and New York state officials sure do love sitting in it: One game last December saw Gov. Kathy Hochul, assembly speaker Carl Heastie, and assembly majority leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes all hanging out in the I Love NY suite — along with Heastie’s girlfriend and college roommate, who the Buffalo News notes in passing are “both registered lobbyists,” which may be the most telling part of this whole story. (State officials who use the suite have to make a contribution to charity equal to the value of the tickets.) Anyway, the suite is only supposed to be used for “encouraging and fostering economic development, tourism and public awareness for the City of Buffalo, Erie County and the State of New York,” so the state ethics commission is investigating whether state officials just hanging out and watching Bills games might be illegal; though presumably the suite helped cement the new stadium deal rammed through by Hochul that made New York the poster child for handing over $1 billion in tax money with no legislative debate, and that’s a kind of public awareness, right?
  • Chicago Bears CEO Kevin Warren said he’d be willing to share a stadium with the White Sox, or maybe just share a strategy for shaking loose public dollars, who can be bothered to ask the difference.
  • Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer and the federal National Capital Commission have a September 20 deadline to work out a deal for a new hockey arena at LeBreton Flats, something that’s been in the works for … good grief, ten years now, how time flies. When last heard from, Andlauer was talking about the government funding half of a $900 million arena; neither he nor the NCC gave many details this week other than “still talking,” and that deadline appears to be a self-imposed one, so this is less actual news than a placeholder for real news to come soonish, maybe, because a sports billionaire said it is. Why yes, journalism is broken, thanks for asking!
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Judge tosses Nevada union’s A’s funding suit, what will this mean for Vegas stadium?

access_time personNeil deMause

If you’ve been waiting patiently for the results of the Nevada teachers union’s lawsuit against the state’s stadium deal for the Oakland A’s, wait no longer: On Friday a judge tossed it, not because of anything about the merits of the case — which claimed that the state legislature illegally passed the stadium subsidy measure with a majority vote when a two-thirds one was needed — but because she ruled that the union didn’t have standing to bring the suit.

“[T]his Court concludes that the Plaintiffs lack standing,” [Carson City District Court Judge Kristin Luis] wrote, noting that because the lawsuit doesn’t affect those who filed it and the law establishing the public financing deal has not yet been fully implemented, the court would not rule on the constitutional questions raised in the lawsuit…

In her ruling, Luis wrote that the law passed by the Legislature “does not mention public education or education funding at all,” pointing out that the word “education” is used only four times in “negligible ways” in the legislation creating the funding deal and there’s no provision of the law that indicates money will be diverted from education in a way that violates the Nevada Constitution.

That’s splitting hairs, certainly: The money has to come from somewhere, and it may well end up being education, even if the Nevada legislature mostly stood there whistling while gesturing toward a guy behind a tree.

But what’s done is done — if still appealable — and the immediate question is: What does this mean for A’s owner John Fisher’s Las Vegas stadium funding push? One of the presumed reasons it’s been going nowhere is that nobody wants to commit to putting private money in when the public money is still up in the air. Now, presumably, we’ll get to see if anybody wants to commit to putting in private money when there’s just the likelihood that they’ll never see it again, because a stadium in Las Vegas is going to have a hell of a time earning back $1 billion in private construction costs. It feels like we’re getting to the end of a chapter of something, anyway, even if it may end up being a cliffhanger.

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