Category: Oakland A’s

Friday roundup: A’s charging $200 each for Sacramento tickets, DC hires NFL-linked firm to study building NFL stadium

access_time personNeil deMause

How much additional stadium news was there this week? So much so that I skipped posting anything yesterday, just so I could start on the bullet points for this roundup. That’s just how much I care about you, the readers of this site. (Also I couldn’t bear to write entire posts for any of these, they were all either too silly or too depressing or both.)

On with the news:

  • There were rumors that Oakland A’s management was going to force fans to also buy Sacramento River Cats season tickets if they wanted A’s season tickets in Sacramento next year, but it turns out that’s not true. What is true: A’s fans wanting season tickets will have to commit to buying them for the “duration” of the team’s stay in Sacramento, and tickets will run between $185 and $250 per seat per game. (UPDATE: The Sacramento Bee reports that that’s only for “premium” season tickets; it’s unclear if there will be non-premium season plans, or if so what they will cost.) At least A’s players won’t have to suddenly acclimate themselves to playing in front of crowds bigger than the intimate affairs they’ve grown used to since owner John Fisher alienated all his fans in the Bay Area.
  • Washington, D.C. is exploring building a new Commanders stadium by agreed to pay $565,000 for a feasibility study to ASM Global, which Fox5DC describes as “a company with extensive experience managing NFL stadiums,” but which is more accurately described as a subsidiary of Legends Entertainment, which is co-owned by the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys. Surely they will deliver an unbiased and comprehensively researched cost-benefit analysis of building an NFL stadium in D.C., why would you ever think otherwise?
  • Not only is the city of St. Petersburg forcing its top employees to pay back $250,000 in bonus checks it sent out for overtime work on the new Tampa Bay Rays stadium project, now city administrator Rob Gerdes has suspended city HR director Christopher Guella for a week as punishment, despite Mayor Ken Welch having defended the bonuses as “within budget and my administrative authority.” Gerdes says this is because the bonuses actually turned out to be illegal; Welch insists it’s just because he wanted to avoid a bad look, though if so he really should have checked first with Barbra Streisand about how well that works.
  • Illinois labor leaders are pushing for the state to fund sports stadiums for the Chicago Bears and White Sox and Red Stars, because “unions want to build,” according to AFL-CIO president Tim Drea. And they don’t like building the things that won’t get built if the state saves a few billion dollars by not building stadiums? Somebody get them on the phone with the Nevada teachers union, they have a lot to talk about.
  • Two Cleveland city councilmembers walked around the Browns stadium during an exhibition game and asked more than 3,000 fans if they’d rather the team stay at the lakefront or move to Brook Park, and most said they prefer the lakefront. Of course, since these were people at a game at the lakefront, you’d expect them to skew more toward wanting to see games there, since people who skip going to games because they’re at the lakefront wouldn’t be at a game at the lakefront. Anyway, what did the fans say about how much they want the city government to spend on a new or renovated Browns stadium? Oh, they didn’t ask about that? Opening day is two weeks from Sunday, plenty of time for the councilmembers to plan a new round of canvassing.
  • The Dome at America’s Center, former home of the St. Louis Rams, needs $150 million in upgrades, according to the stadium authority that runs it and surely would never lie about something just to get a nicer space to rent out at public expense. The dome is currently rented out for “assemblies for large conventions, Metallica and Beyoncé concerts, and even some lower-level professional football games,” which surely will make it easy to earn back $150 million, so long as Metallica never stops touring.
  • Saskatoon needs to come up with $400 million in public money toward a $1.22 billion development to include a new arena for the Saskatoon Blades, and it plans on raising the money via a long list of uhhhh, we’ll get back to you: maybe hotel taxes, maybe TIF property tax kickbacks, maybe money from the province, who knows? “What would the city look like without SaskTel Center or without TCU Place?” asked Saskatoon director of technical services Dan Willems. “Would we be able to attract newcomers and help major employers attract talent to our city without these types of amenities?” Shh, don’t tell him.
Share this post:

Friday roundup: Royals float stadium atop public park, A’s financial plan may not be ready until December

access_time personNeil deMause

And so we come to the end of another programming week, one that at least managed to avoid having anyone propose building a new privately used stadium in a public park — oh, wait!

  • Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has revealed that Royals owner John Sherman is considering other downtown stadium sites after there was so much opposition to his plan to build one atop the Crossroads neighborhood, and naturally one site is on top of a public park, that will go over so much better. Also, Washington Square Park and the adjacent site that would be used for the stadium only total 11.6 acres, which isn’t really enough for a modern MLB stadium and certainly not for one plus a whole entertainment district like Sherman wants. (The Crossroads site would have been 17.3 acres.) Can’t wait to see how the eventual renderings avoid explaining this!
  • Oakland A’s owner John Fisher’s financing plan for a Las Vegas stadium is “rounding third and heading home,” according to Nevada authority chair and unregistered A’s lobbyist Steve Hill, which is another way of saying it may not be ready until early December. Yesterday’s stadium authority meeting did include a bunch of lease details, like Fisher committing to keep the team in Vegas for 30 years but having the option to extend it to 99 years if he wants, and Fisher having the option to buy the stadium for its appraised value at the end of each lease term, and if there’s anything Nevada taxpayers get out of the lease other than $600 million in debt and tax expenditures, the news coverage didn’t mention it.
  • Cleveland.com has noticed that $461 million in city spending on Browns stadium renovations over 30 years isn’t the same as $461 million now, good work, gang. (Their estimate of the present value of Mayor Justin Bibb’s offer is about $234 million, mine was $240 million, reasonable people can disagree.) They also note that it’s not clear in Bibb’s plan who would sell the stadium bonds — Bibb’s office sent a terse text: “City will not bond. Some other public entity” — or how they would be paid off if alcohol or cigarette taxes fell short — Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam didn’t text “Not us. Taxpayers somehow,” but they really didn’t have to.
  • Speaking of the Browns, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has entered the chat.
  • The California state legislature is auditing the Los Angeles Angels lease extension that was approved in 2019 by Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu while he was in the midst of negotiating a new stadium deal in exchange for (allegedly) demanding $1 million in campaign contributions. There was previously some talk on the Anaheim city council about voiding the lease on the grounds that the whole deal was covered in slime; we’ll see where this audit leads, if anywhere.
  • WUSA-TV reported this week that the Washington Wizards and Capitals arena renovation deal with D.C. still hasn’t been finalized despite passing a July deadline, and I’m still waiting for any other news outlets to think this is worthwhile news and not just haggling over the fine print, but keep one eye on it nonetheless.
  • The Dodger Stadium gondola project lives! No matter how dumb an idea it is!
  • This has nothing to do with stadiums, but if you think I’m going to pass up an article that begins “Billionaire Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio has allegedly been stealing sand from an exclusive Southern California beach,” you don’t know this site at all.
Share this post:

Friday roundup: How fast is the A’s Vegas stadium going nowhere, and other questions

access_time personNeil deMause

Another week down! Have you been enjoying the Olympics so far? Did you even remember the Olympics were happening, other than to make sure you weren’t going anywhere near Paris during them? I, for one, cannot wait for the 2028 flag football competition.

Meanwhile, here’s what’s been happening:

  • Until now Oakland A’s owner John Fisher’s lack of any options for funding a Las Vegas stadium has just been widespread conjecture, but now a research note by JMP Securities analyst Mitch Germain confirms it: “The Oakland A’s new stadium currently remains in a holding pattern. The last piece of the puzzle was private financing obtained by the owner for the remaining cost of the stadium. Chatter suggests this may have hit a roadblock.” Oh wait, “chatter” could just mean Germain is reading the same conjecture? We can upgrade it to extremely widespread conjecture, at least.
  • Oakland has officially signed a deal to sell its half of the Oakland Coliseum site to the African American Sports & Entertainment Group for $105 million, paid out between now and June 2026. If AASEG fails to make the payments, then … that part didn’t make it into the San Francisco Chronicle story, it’s okay, they had bigger fish to fry.
  • The Massachusetts legislature adjourned this week without rezoning industrial land in Everett for a new New England Revolution stadium, and team owner Robert Kraft said he’s “deeply disappointed,” then threw some passive-aggressive shade by adding, “Massachusetts’ political landscape is one of the only places where creating opportunities in environmental justice communities and rehabilitation is dictated by the needs and bargaining of political leaders with outside influences.” Outside influences, eh? Were they … agitators?
  • Cleveland councilmembers want the Cleveland Browns to keep playing in Cleveland, not so sure about the whole “giving them hundreds of millions of dollars” thing, film at 11.
  • There are two competing proposals to put a sales tax increase back on the ballot to raise money for a Kansas City Chiefs stadiums, and the Jackson County legislature just voted down the one for a 0.125% hike over 25 years but is still working on the one for a 0.375% hike for 40 years.
  • Chicago Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren says he still prefers a new stadium on the Chicago lakefront that would come with billions of dollars in public money, but if that doesn’t work, Arlington Heights is nice, too.
  • Turns out someone did do a more robust analysis than the one by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office of the number of hotel room stays attributable to Philadelphia Phillies fans, and the finding was “not statistically significant.” I know Springer books are pricey, but the fiscal office really couldn’t afford $180?
  • The Atlanta Braves owners’ decision to build their stadium in the middle of the woods in the suburbs has prompted much debate, but until now it didn’t have its own Tracey Ullman parody song.
Share this post:

Friday roundup: Olympics remain world’s greatest money suck, TB Times self-extorts for Bucs stadium, Rays $1B deal nears final approval

access_time personNeil deMause

This has been a long, busy week for a lot of reasons, so let me just thank those of you who re-upped your FoS memberships (your swag will be in the mail shortly!) and get straight to the news, of which there is a ton, because the stadium game doesn’t stop just because it’s summer or there’s other stuff vying for our attention:

  • The Paris Olympics start tonight, and how’s that going? You say France is spending $3-5 billion on the Games in exchange for “uncertain” benefits, tourists are staying away because they don’t want to deal with all the Olympic disruptions and local museums and such are set to lose a ton of money, and Paris is forcibly relocating homeless people to make the city seem more attractive? Good, good, that’s what the Olympics are traditionally all about.
  • The Tampa Bay Buccaneers owners aren’t asking for a new stadium, but that won’t stop the Tampa Bay Times from noting that the stadium is “aging” (aren’t we all, every day) and wondering if the Glazer family will want renovations or a whole new one. “Even after repeated requests from the [Tampa] Sports Authority for information, the Buccaneers have still not provided us with any renovation plans,” Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan told the paper, while Tampa spokesperson Adam Smith said the Bucs “haven’t approached the city about anything like that” and “we don’t expect them to.” But the Bucs’ lease runs out in 2028, and all the other kids are getting new and renovated stadiums, so Times sports reporter Rick Stroud still spends 2700 words speculating on what a new or renovated stadium could look like and how it would be paid for, it’s always a time saver when your marks take the initiative to extort themselves.
  • Also in Tampa Bay, two Pinellas County commissioners are asking questions about the Rays stadium deal in advance of a Tuesday final vote, questions like “How much will this actually cost taxpayers?” (more than $1 billion, by best estimates) and “Will the public have to put in even more money to make sure affordable housing is built?” Unfortunately, it only takes four of seven commissioners to pass the deal, so there’s no guarantee the dissenters will get answers to their questions before Tuesday, though county officials said they’d ask.
  • Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and the owners of the Blackhawks are planning a $7 billion mixed-use project around the United Center, no details provided on whether this would involve public money or tax breaks or anything, they didn’t mention it in their press release so it probably isn’t important.
  • The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office did a study of the economic impact of the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates stadiums, both of which were built with public money, but unfortunately even though it spelled out that it was calculating spending by both “fans whose main reason for travel is a Phillies game and casual fans who attend games because they happen to be visiting the region,” the final numbers just added up all spending in and around the stadiums and assumed it wouldn’t happen without them, very disappointing.
  • Not telling the Nevada Independent how to do its job, but if you’re going to roll with the headline “How Bally’s buyout might affect resort plans for A’s Vegas stadium site,” you might maybe want to include something about how it will affect that, you know?
  • Oakland A’s owner John Fisher is laying off half the team’s non-baseball staff so he can make Sacramento River Cats employees do two jobs at once, this has been your weekly John Fisher Sucks post.
Share this post:

Friday roundup: St. Pete okays $1B+ Rays stadium subsidy, A’s Vegas $ remains a mystery, Bears’ $2B ask still a no-go

access_time personNeil deMause

Was it only two weeks ago that I skipped the Friday roundup entirely on the grounds that nothing was happening? What Berenstain Bears universe was that? The stadium and arena news firehose is back on in full force, so let’s get to it:

  • The St. Petersburg city council indeed voted 5-3 to grant final approval to a $1.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays stadium that will come with between $1 billion and $1.4 billion in public subsidies, bringing almost to an end (the county commission still has to vote on July 30) one of the longest-running stadium battles in sports. “We are St. Pete!” shouted city chief equity officer Carl Lavender following the vote, either overcome with emotion or just reading the wallpaper. Rays owner Stu Sternberg declared, “I think, how it was put today, it was just the right time in the right place, and most importantly, the right people,” which is another way of saying that if a sports owner takes enough swings enough times, even a 15-year stadium losing streak can end up with them holding a ten-figure check from the public.
  • After the development agreement between the Oakland A’s and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority released yesterday revealed nothing specific about the team’s stadium funding plans, team board member Sandy Dean gave the authority more nonspecifics, saying owner John Fisher is in “good shape” raising money but providing no details of where it could come from other than that it would use $300 million in debt and $850 million in private equity and that “it would be a positive to have outside investors,” something A’s execs are “going to talk with folks about” in “the coming months.” (Who’s going to invest $850 million in a team that has an estimated value of $1.2 billion, plays in the smallest market in MLB, and starts out with $300 million in debt? Reply hazy, ask again later.) Dean also said that Fisher would only use $350 million of the $380 million in public funding approved last year, because reasons.
  • MLB commissioner Rob Manfred did reveal this week that the artificial turf at the A’s broiling Sacramento stadium will be cooled by “a hydration element,” and if anyone knows what that means — sprinklers? underground cooling pipes? misters attached to the light poles? — please let me know in comments.
  • Also Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times asked a bunch of MLB players who grew up in Las Vegas what they thought of the A’s moving there, and replies included “it’s a terrible idea” (Paul Sewald), “I don’t see it in Vegas” (Bryce Harper), “as soon as they get a good team, they start trading guys before they get too expensive” (Tyler Anderson), and “the whole thing, I fear, is going to be an abject disaster” (Sewald again). On the other hand, Tommy Pham said, “They said the same thing about the Golden Knights: Would this be a hockey town? … Everybody wears Golden Knights stuff in Vegas now.” Opinions differ!
  • Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker met with Chicago Bears officials this week to discuss their $2 billion state funding request for a new stadium, and Pritzker still hates it, with his press spokesperson saying afterwards “the governor’s position has not changed” from May, when he called the plan “a nonstarter.” Maybe Bears execs need to threaten to move to Indiana, that usually seems to work.
  • Jackson County probably isn’t going to hold another vote on Kansas City Royals and Chiefs stadium funding this year, but it could next year. Gov. Mike Parson will be out of office then, and the people running to replace him won’t be known until the results of an August 6 primary, so this could still go a lot of ways.
  • Paris cultural sites are preparing for next week’s start of the 2024 Summer Olympics by anticipating massive dropoffs in customers. In London during the 2012 games, visits to museums, movie theaters, zoos, and the like “dropped by a staggering 30 percent” as non-sports tourists steered the hell clear of the city, and Paris is expecting the same. “We’re the big losers of the Olympic Games,” said independent theater chain operator Pierre-Édouard Vasseur — though maybe he’ll rethink that once athletes start collapsing and dying from the heat.
  • NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says his league would consider expanding to Las Vegas once its new TV deal is finalized and arena developers have contacted the league for specs on building NBA-ready venues. Las Vegas, at last count, has as least three arenas that could host NBA games, but sure, building a fourth arena just for the NBA to host the fourth big-league sports team in the nation’s 40th-largest TV market makes total sense.
Share this post:

Vegas stadium authority docs reveal Fisher to get A’s stadium money from PSLs and, uh, somewhere

access_time personNeil deMause

The development agreement between the Oakland A’s and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority has finally been posted in advance of today’s authority meeting (which is about to start at 3 pm local time), and let’s see what’s in there about the long-awaited financing details for John Fisher’s proposed stadium:

Section 3.2 Payment of Project Costs Generally. The Project Costs will be paid with, or otherwise reimbursed using, the sources of funds listed in subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this Section 3.2 below

(a) is the $380 million from the county and state that was approved in June 2023. (b) is personal seat license sales. (c) is:

StadCo Contribution Amount. An amount, as determined from time to time, equal to the amount necessary to complete the Project Improvements in accordance with the Project Cash Budget minus the sum of (i) the Authority Contribution Amount and (ii) the PSL Contribution Amount (such amount, the “StadCo Contribution Amount”).

So the state of Nevada will provide $380 million, and the A’s will sell PSLs, and anything not covered by that will be covered by StadCo (the A’s) by … paying money. From somewhere. Fisher will be able to recoup $180 million by selling the transferable tax credits that were approved by the state last year, but other than that — after my first quick read, anyway — there don’t appear to be any details on how much the stadium will cost or how it will be paid for.

So what was all that about Fisher promising to “set forth the sources of financing” that was in the authority meeting agenda? That appears to be this:

Section 20.1 Adequate Financial Security. Prior to the Effective Date, and other than as to Cost Overruns, StadCo has provided the Authority with evidence of adequate financial security for the performance of the financial obligations of StadCo for the development and construction of the Stadium Project. The Authority acknowledges receipt of such evidence from StadCo and advises StadCo that such evidence is satisfactory to the Authority to establish adequate financial security for the performance of the financial obligations of StadCo for the development and construction of the Project Improvements, other than as to Cost Overruns, and that the provisions in the Act requiring such evidence have been satisfied (other than as to Cost Overruns). For the avoidance of doubt, the Authority acknowledges and agrees that the following sources of funds are and will be adequate financial security (other than as to Cost Overruns): (a) the financing provided pursuant to the FinanceCo Credit Facility; and (b) the financing provided pursuant to the StadCo Credit Facility.

That’s a lot of words, but it appears to say that Fisher will just have to provide documentation that he’s good for his share of the stadium costs by the Effective Date, which is defined as “[_________], 202[_].” So, no actual details on where the money is coming from yet, or when we’ll know where it’s coming from. We’ll see if anything more is divulged during the meeting itself, but for now, this is looking like a big pile of nuthin.

Share this post:

Vegas stadium authority to meet to discuss A’s financing plan, if there is one

access_time personNeil deMause

The Las Vegas Stadium Authority is meeting on Thursday, and according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Mick Akers, on the agenda is a development agreement that “will break down how the stadium will be financed by the A’s and the construction plan for the 33,000-seat stadium.”

Huge if true! Ever since Oakland A’s owner John Fisher won league approval to move to Las Vegas last November, there has been rampant speculation about whether he actually has any idea how he intends to pay for the rest of a $1.5 billion stadium after using his $600 million in state and county tax money, $380 million of which would be in cash and the rest in tax breaks. So what does the stadium authority agenda actually have to say about what will be presented on Thursday?

Off we go to SB 1 sections 18-35, the most relevant portion of which says this:

So it’s not entirely clear whether “set forth the sources of financing” means Fisher actually showing where he plans to get the money or just saying “I’ll cover that billion dollars or so, don’t worry, I’m good for it.”

Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz, you have anything to add that will shed light on this?

Even though the Nevada Legislature approved a bill designating the stadium construction resources more than 13 month ago, there are still unanswered questions.

— Why has A’s owner John Fisher not submitted his stadium funding plan to the stadium board?

So are any financial details going to be presented on Thursday or not? Schools Over Stadiums organizer Alexander Marks?

Guess we’ll have to wait until Thursday to see what, if anything, is actually presented to the board. Until then, the Vegas A’s stadium plan will remain in a quantum superposition of alive and dead.

Share this post:

A’s will be forced to adhere to Triple-A schedule in Sacramento, endure blazing heat for Sunday day games

access_time personNeil deMause

When Oakland A’s owner John Fisher announced in April that his team would be playing in Sacramento for the next three years while awaiting the construction of a Las Vegas stadium, including how exactly the time-sharing arrangement would work between the A’s and the minor-league Sacramento River Cats. As I noted here at the time:

It just occurred to me that the Pacific Coast League plays week-long series against one team at a time, to cut down on travel. This is going to make drawing up an A’s schedule really interesting, to say the least.

Three months later, and yup, “really interesting” turns out to be not the half of it:

Because the A’s will be co-tenants at Sutter Health Park, they not only will use the same field as the River Cats — the top farm team of the San Francisco Giants — but will need to adhere to Pacific Coast League scheduling to fit in their 81 home games.

It’s an extremely challenging logistical ordeal because MLB and PCL schedules aren’t molded in the same format…

Generally, the River Cats play one team per week in a six-game series with Monday set aside as a travel day. One week at home, the next on the road. The A’s need to mirror that and play in Sacramento when the River Cats are on the road and vice versa…

In other words, the 29 other teams are catering to the A’s because of owner John Fisher’s preference to leave the Coliseum, where scheduling would have been routine, for a temporary home in Sacramento, where the scheduling is complex, the heat is overwhelming and the facilities in need of major upgrades.

Oh yes, the heat, did we forget to mention the heat? Sacramento may actually be to the north of Oakland, but it’s also inland in the Central Valley, which has always been hot and is only getting hotter. The league is trying to schedule as many night games as possible, but the MLB national TV schedule means all A’s Sunday home games will have to start at 1 pm local time, plus the limitations set by the PCL schedule means it’ll be harder than usual to avoid weekday games on “getaway days” when the opposing team needs to catch a flight out of town.

Add in that the River Cats’ home stadium is set to get artificial turf installed, the better to put up with the pounding of two teams using it for home games, and game conditions on the field could be toasty indeed. “Complaints aplenty are expected, including from players, because of the brutal heat” is how the San Francisco Chronicle put it; the players union says it’s currently in talks with the league to try to address this as best as possible.

The Sacramento stadium will hold only 14,000 fans, so at least not too many people will have to subject themselves to the summer heat in order to watch the A’s finish last again. All of this is feeling very much like the Arizona Coyotes‘ attempt to play in a college hockey arena, only with the additional fun of heatstroke; it’s probably too soon to predict that the A’s Sacramento stay will be cut short like the Coyotes’ was at Mullett Arena, but that isn’t stopping people from doing so to beat the rush later.

Share this post:

WTH is going on with Oakland’s mayor (and the Athletics’ future)?

access_time personNeil deMause

I’ve been steering clear of the news of the FBI raid on Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home last month, because it’s at best a stadium-adjacent story. But now that people are openly speculating that if Thao is removed from office it could lead to A’s owner John Fisher reopening talks to return his team to Oakland, I guess we should do one of those fake Q&As that everyone loves so much:

Why did the FBI raid Mayor Thao’s home exactly?

The agency isn’t saying. But at the same time they raided Thao’s home, they also raided the homes of the owners of a recycling management company that has a history of questions about campaign-funds money laundering and maybe shooting at a former business partner, so people are connecting the dots.

Does this mean Thao will have to step down?

No, but it certainly doesn’t help her chances of surviving a recall election that opponents just got approved for the November ballot.

Why the recall vote?

According to those behind it, they’re upset about crime, the A’s leaving, and Thao’s firing of police chief LaRonne Armstrong. Brenda Harbin-Forte, the former police commissioner who launched the recall push, says it has absolutely nothing to do with Thao declining to reappoint her to the police commission after police reformers called for her removal.

What does any of this have to do with the A’s?

Fisher’s decision to cut ties with Oakland came after Thao’s administration pushed him for increased rent payments to keep playing at the Oakland Coliseum while awaiting a Las Vegas stadium deal. Last week, San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Scott Ostler suggested “there is a scenario in which the A’s, who swear their plans to move to Las Vegas are on schedule, could flip a U-turn and come back to the Town where they belong” and reported that “sources close to Oakland politics tell us that if the Town were to get a new mayor, the change might provide an opportunity for the A’s and Oakland to discuss a reunion.”

Isn’t that pretty weak tea?

Ostler calls this a “long shot, sure, but a shot,” so, yes.

What’s going on with Fisher’s long-term plans to move the A’s to Vegas and short-term plans to move them to Sacramento?

Glad you asked! There’s still been no real activity on a new Las Vegas stadium, while Fisher figures out whether he can raise $1 billion by selling team stock or borrowing it from lenders or asking his family members for it. (Fisher also just got turned down yesterday in his attempt to intervene in the suit charging that Nevada’s funding for the stadium is unconstitutional.) The move next year to Sacramento, meanwhile, remains on track, though people are increasingly clowning on Fisher for not having noticed what daytime temperatures in Sacramento are like during baseball season.

So that’s all we’ve got? A mayor who might get recalled and some “sources” and one columnist speculating?

It’s a holiday week, you take what you can get. Speaking of which, unless something major happens in the next two days, no Friday roundup this week, the news was too light to warrant rounding up, see everyone back here on Monday!

Share this post:

Friday roundup: St. Pete gives initial okay to Rays’ record $1.6B stadium subsidy, final vote set for July

access_time personNeil deMause

Happy Friday, everybody — we’ve made it to the end of another week again, which seems to keep taking longer and longer, I blame the Moon.

And on to the news briefs, starting with a not-so-brief to cover what would get its own item if this were any other day of the week:

  • The St. Petersburg city council took its first vote on the proposed Tampa Bay Rays stadium project yesterday — St. Pete is one of those cities where the council has to vote on things twice, just to be sure — and as expected, it narrowly passed, with five out of eight councilmembers in favor. The official city expense is $212.5 million in property-tax kickbacks on the stadium site plus $130 million in infrastructure spending, but this leaves out a ton of hidden subsidies that Rays owner Stuart Sternberg would be getting:
    • About $300 million (present value) in future tax money from Pinellas County
    • $320 million worth of future property-tax reductions from the city and county
    • $700 million worth of land in exchange for payments worth just $80 million, making for a $620 million public gift

    That comes to a public subsidy of roughly $1.6 billion, which would shatter the Tennessee Titans‘ record of $1.26 billion, at least until the next stadium project comes along. There’s still a final council vote to be taken on July 11, before which the city still needs to provide final documents — a local Sierra Club organizer called the process a “runaway train,” while Southern Poverty Law Center lawyers asked the city to “reconsider this rushed and chaotic timeline” — but the writing does seem to be on the wall. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said, “I think they’ve done a phenomenal job in Tampa Bay, competing, and I think enhanced revenue streams just provides flexibility that can only make things better,” which I think means he’s happy, my universal translator doesn’t do Manfredese.

  • A consulting report for Washington, D.C. estimates that a new Commanders stadium in the district could create $1.26 billion in “yearly economic output,” and while I haven’t read the full document yet, economist J.C. Bradbury has the best response anyway: “I fear going into the details grants some legitimacy to the idea that there is some debate over the economic impact of stadiums. If the consultants feel the decades of economic research on the subject is in error, they are free to submit their challenges to peer review.” (The city also commissioned a second report on how to finance said stadium, but has no plans to release it, so you know it’s got to be juicy — fire off the FOIA requests!)
  • Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles spoke yesterday about why she thinks a $650 million Carolina Panthers stadium renovation subsidy in exchange for just a 15-year lease extension would be good deal despite Charlotte residents apparently thinking otherwise, and one thing she said was: “This is an investment in our future. That’s why is strongly support what we’re doing with Tepper Sports. Yes, I wish we had the ability to do this on our own. But we have to partner with Tepper Sports and our hospitality industry.” We wish we could pay for the whole stadium renovation, but sadly we have to let the team owner who would benefit from it chip in is certainly a choice, let’s just say that.
  • MLB is apparently requiring all teams’ new nonrelocation agreements to allow playoffs games at a neutral site, and Athletics stadium czar Dave Kaval says that’d be great for Las Vegas, which could be in line to host a neutral-site World Series if baseball ever decides to do like the NFL does with the Super Bowl. Given that it’s going to take decades for every team’s nonrelocation agreement to expire and be rewritten, and that Las Vegas could be uninhabitable by then, that’s maybe not the most convincing argument, but Kavals gonna Kaval, especially when he needs to distract from the mess that is the team’s Vegas stadium plans.
  • R.J. Anderson wrote a super-long look at the public ownership model for pro sports teams for CBS Sports this week, and while I have some quibbles — in particular, it tends to conflate community ownership by fans (the Green Bay Packers, German soccer teams) with public ownerships by municipalities (several Canadian Football League teams and minor-league baseball teams) — it’s a good, in-depth overview. Whether either fan ownership or public ownership would necessarily put an end to stadium subsidy demands is an open question: The Packers did demand money to upgrade Lambeau Field, and sports leagues have leaned on municipally owned teams to build new stadiums. But as Anderson notes, at least fans and municipal officials have other priorities than just squeezing every last penny of profit out of teams, so there would be some benefits like cheaper tickets and fewer move threats, which would at least be a start.
Share this post: