Category: Philadelphia Phillies

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.
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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.
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Friday roundup: $2.5B Philly stadium development could demand public money, KC sales-tax vote too close to call

access_time personNeil deMause

It’s Friday again, and you know what that means: Time for the cavalcade of bullet points on news we didn’t have time for the rest of the week (or which just broke since Thursday morning, that happens too).

  • The Philadelphia Phillies and Flyers owners say they’re going to partner on a $2.5 billion mixed-use development in the teams’ shared parking lots, with restaurants, shops, hotels, apartments, and a 5,500-seat performance stage. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: “Asked if the project would require public tax dollars, the company said that it was still working on an estimated cost, and that there were many ways to finance the development,” which is decidedly not “no”; stay tuned on this one.
  • Apparently it is allowed to conduct polls in Missouri during the early voting period, and one conducted in Jackson County on the April 2 referendum on a 0.375% sales tax surcharge extension to fund Kansas City Royals and Chiefs stadium projects is … tied, basically, with “yes” ahead by 47-46% but with a 4.5-point margin of error. The poll was taken last weekend before the latest news that community groups are urging a “no” vote, and by the Remington Research Group, which is connected with the “yes” campaign, so all this doesn’t look great for the team owners, though of course they still have more campaign spending to do.
  • Asked if state and city money would be required for the $2 billion Royals stadium — since team owner John Sherman is only putting in $1 billion and the county sales tax surcharge would only generate $250-350 million, sure seems like yes — team EVP Sarah Tourville told Fox4KC: “What I’ll tell you is that the Royals are committed to putting private capital into the stadium. We’re committed to a billion dollars of private capital in the stadium district.” That’s also decidedly not “no.”
  • The Arizona Coyotes briefly posted some arena renderings on their team app on Tuesday, and they’re super-tiny images that don’t have any fireworks at all, come back when you have something high-resolution, guys. Team owner Alex Meruelo still doesn’t actually have the land to build an arena on, since he first has to win an auction for state land where the bidding starts at $68.5 million, then also find the money to build the thing, but baby steps, and baby images, first, apparently. A Sportsnet reporter warned last weekend that the Coyotes could relocate if they don’t win the land auction, but 1) there might not be time to do so before the 2024-25 season and 2) we’ve been hearing this for decades now about multiple arena plans, wolf-crying caveats apply.
  • Oakland A’s management has agreed with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority on a community benefits agreement worth at least $2 million a year, which is less than they’re paying 34-year-old relief pitcher Scott Alexander. Also, community benefits agreements are supposed to be signed with community groups that can oversee and enforce them; teams can sign them with local politicians, sure, but that generally turns out very badly.
  • Speaking of going very badly, “Oakland A’s again block all replies on Twitter after realizing how much everyone hates the A’s” is an excellent headline about how very badly things are going for A’s execs right now.
  • The Chicago Bears could use personal seat license sales to fund “a significant portion” of a new lakefront stadium, reports Crain’s Chicago Business, which also notes that the team used PSLs to fund a portion of its 2002 renovation of Soldier Field — a portion of the team’s share, not the public’s share, don’t get crazy now — and that those licenses’ “value would evaporate” if the team moved to a new stadium. “Buy the right to buy tickets and keep it forever or until we tear down the stadium and build a newer one, whichever comes first” would not seem to be the best marketing strategy, but team owners do seem to rely on sports fans having short memories.
  • I was all set to see where sports subsidies would fall on Phil Mattera’s list of biggest mega-scandals, but sadly he ranks these by how much in penalties companies have paid for their misdeeds, and sports team owners have so far escaped prosecution for their crimes, unless you count the St. Louis Rams settlement.
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Friday roundup: Arlington Heights officials love Bears (sorta), A’s TIF woes, NFL could forgive Snyder if he brings them a new Commanders stadium

access_time personNeil deMause

Apologies for the slow posting week — it was busy for me in other ways, so the site was a little quieter than I’d intended. But let’s make up for that now, since the stadium grifting industry doesn’t stop just because I have to step away from the computer:

  • Arlington Heights village trustees met on Monday to discuss the Chicago Bears‘ handwavy stadium proposal, and loved the stadium part but less so the handwavy blank white “mixed use district” part: “I am all in on getting this done for this redevelopment agreement, but I can’t buy into this site plan,” said trustee Jim Tinaglia. “I can’t buy into what it means and how detrimental I think it will be for our businesses downtown.” Trustee John Scaletta likewise said, “We want to keep our downtown and what we don’t want to do is create downtown part two.” Reading tea leaves furiously, that certainly sounds like downtown business (and/or real estate?) interests aren’t happy about a Bears development siphoning off consumer dollars from their neck of the woods, which is maybe a legitimate concern especially in a world where nobody needs the office space we have already, but also maybe shouldn’t be quite as big a concern as the government “funding and assistance needed to support the feasibility of the remainder of the development” that the team owners say they’ll be seeking. Those local electeds, always horse trading for pennies while leaving dollars on the table.
  • Here’s a whole San Francisco Chronicle article about the proposed Oakland A’s stadium’s $1-billion-plus public infrastructure costs and how TIF districts that use tax proceeds from new development to pay off the development almost never work. (It calls them “infrastructure financing districts,” or IFDs, which is Californian for tax increment financing, or TIFs, but same difference.) This is nothing new — check out Good Jobs First’s TIF FAQ for more details — and the Chronicle’s objection that if the promised development never happens, local taxpayers are left holding the bag is just one of the many pitfalls of TIFs: There’s also the issue of cannibalizing development from elsewhere in your city, of subsidizing projects that might have been built even with smaller or no subsidies, and so on. The lure of TIFs is to pretend that taxes from a new project are free money because they really “belong” to the developer who’s paying them — hello, Casino Night Fallacy! — but when one taxpayer gets taxes kicked back, that means everyone else in your city has to cover that taxpayer’s share of city services. (GJF calls this the “ravenous increment” problem; Oscar Madison calls it “That can’t be right. See, I’d be out all this money.”) We’ll see if this article ends up influencing either the debates of Oakland city officials over the A’s project or future news coverage — I’m not holding my breath — but it’s nice to see someone investigating this instead of just reporting on Dave Kaval’s tweets from Las Vegas or whatever Rob Manfred was paid to say this week, anyway.
  • A giant ESPN report on Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder says that as his fellow NFL owners slowly turn on him he’s “lost” the support of his #1 ally, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, but also that “his fellow owners would forgive Snyder for the team’s financial woes and the toxic culture scandal if Snyder could build a new stadium.” Of course, Snyder still may not be able to convince anyone to give him money for a stadium due to that toxic culture scandal, etc., but that even a single NFL owner is saying “bring home a new stadium and all will be forgiven” is telling, to say the least.
  • Hey, remember when the Phoenix Rising F.C. USL team said it was going to build a new stadium on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa reservation complete with robot dogs and giant soccer balls, then announced it had broken ground on said stadium, probably without either thing, with no financial details? Phoenix Rising FC Stadium opened in 2021, and has decent attendance, but that isn’t stopping team management from sending a letter to season ticket holders saying, “We don’t have an update on the team’s location at this time, but as soon as we can communicate where we’re playing in 2023, we will let you know.” So Salt River built them a stadium, or at least let them build a stadium on their land, and didn’t make them sign a lease? Very much here that doesn’t make sense at the moment, but if I can find some reporting with more details, or at least more robots, I’ll report back here.
  • A coalition of 50 Buffalo community groups called the Play Fair CBA Coalition are asking for the Buffalo Bills owners to spend $500 million on community benefits in exchange for their $1 billion state and county stadium subsidy. Erie County officials probably aren’t going to play that level of hardball, but they are demanding “a lot more” than the “standard plus” CBA that the team owners offered, according to longtime NFL consultant/unofficial spin doctor Marc Ganis … okay, that could just be spin doctoring, but the final agreement between the Bills and the county is being held up for unexplained reasons, and where there’s delay there’s hope, at least.
  • The Philadelphia Phillies may want to spend $300 million on a new spring training complex in Clearwater, or at least have somebody spend $300 million on it (local officials got a presentation on the plan from team execs, but according to the Tampa Bay Times couldn’t say “when the Phillies will present their plan publicly, how much the team would pay or how much money the city, county and state would be asked to contribute”), all so players can have “batting cages with floor scales that track a player’s weight distribution through an entire swing”? Good, good, that definitely sounds like it would cost $300 million and be worth taxpayer dollars, no notes!
  • This site doesn’t usually delve too much into college sports because who has the time, but Jackson, Mississippi considering building a new football stadium for Jackson State College and justifying it as maybe convincing the team’s coach to stay at the school, and that coach is Deion Sanders? That is news gold, baby, even if it doesn’t have any robot dogs in it. (Yet.)
  • Speaking of things that could be a whole site of their own, New York state and the federal government are teaming up to give Micron, a $50 billion company owned by multibillionaire Sanjay Mehrotra, $9 billion in cash plus a 49-year property tax break to build a new computer chip plant near Syracuse. (Boondoggle newsletter author Pat Garafolo notes that even if Micron comes through with its promised 9,000 jobs, that’s “just the state’s subsidy payment comes in at a massive cost of more than $600,000 per job created. That’s …. a lot.”) We already knew that up-for-reelection Gov. Kathy Hochul was all about throwing crazy money at chip plants — I guess she figures it’ll win her the votes of all the people who think they might land one of those 9,000 jobs, or at least some campaign money from the chip industry — but $9 billion for just one is … a lot. Meanwhile, other states are spending $13.8 billion in public money on electric vehicle factories, which Good Jobs First notes is “unnecessary, because decades of federal and state investments and policies are driving a robust EV market surge. They amount to states taking credit for good news that is already unfolding.” The best way to get rich on the public dime without being a defense contractor may still be to be a sports team owner, but owning some kind of tech-y company with vague job promises isn’t too shabby either.
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Friday roundup: Beckham proposes stadium lease, FC Cincinnati pays off evicted tenants, Florida city admits its spring training economic projections were bunk

access_time personNeil deMause

Is anyone else hugely enjoying John Cameron Mitchell’s new semiautobiographical musical podcast “Anthem: Homunculus” but having a hard time listening because the Luminary podcast platform keeps freezing up mid-episode? Is there enough overlap in the Field of Schemes and John Cameron Mitchell fan bases that anyone here even understands this question? (If not, here’s a good primer by my old Village Voice colleague Alan Scherstuhl.) Is Luminary still offering podcasts on its pay tier without the creators’ permissions? How should one handle it when great art is only available on platforms that have some major ethical issues? Are we ever going to get to this week’s stadium news?

Let’s get to this week’s stadium news:

  • David Beckham’s Inter Miami has offered to pay $3.5 million a year in rent on Melreese Park land for 39 years, plus $25 million for other Miami park projects, as part of a stadium lease agreement. That still doesn’t sound like too bad a deal for the public to me, but as nobody seems to be linking to the lease proposal in its entirety, there could still always be some time bombs hidden in there that weren’t reported on. More news when the Miami city commission actually gets ready to vote on this proposed lease, hopefully!
  • The owners of F.C. Cincinnati have agreed to pay off the tenants they’re evicting to make way for an entrance to their new stadium, but one of the conditions of the payout is that no one can discuss how much it’s for. We do know, however, that “at one point pizza was ordered in during the eight hours of negotiations” — thank god for intrepid journalism!
  • Clearwater, Florida just cut its estimate of the economic impact of the Philadelphia Phillies‘ presence during spring training from $70 million a year to $44 million a year after realizing that it didn’t make sense to include spending by locals who would be spending their money in town anyway. Now let’s see them adjust their estimates to account for tourists who are visiting Florida already because it’s March and Florida is warm and happen to take in a ballgame while they’re there and maybe we’ll be getting somewhere.
  • Good news for Columbus: After a good year for concerts, the public-private owned Nationwide Arena turned a $1.87 million operating profit last year. The less good news: None of that was used to repay the $4.76 million in tax subsidies the arena received, because the profits were instead poured into improvements like “roof and concrete repairs, natural-gas line replacement, new spotlights, metal detectors, and renovations to corporate suites.” The maybe-good news: If this means that the arena managers won’t ask for new subsidies for renovations for a while because they’re getting enough from operations, yeah, no, I don’t really expect this will forestall that either, but here’s hoping.
  • MLB commissioner Rob Manfred again said a bunch of things about the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays stadium situations, but as usual nobody read them to the end because it’s impossible to do so without falling asleep. I am not complaining when I note that Manfred is an incompetent grifter compared to some of his colleagues in other sports, really I’m not. (Well, a little.)
  • Speaking of the Rays, Minnesota Twins broadcaster Bert Blyleven would like to blow up Tropicana Field because a fly ball hit a speaker, but the game broadcast cut to commercial before he could spell out his financing plan to build a replacement stadium.
  • A street in Inglewood near the Los Angeles Rams‘ new stadium is seeing stores close as a result of luxury blight, but Mayor James Butts says it’s just because of gentrification unrelated to the stadium. Which either way makes it hard to see how the stadium (or the arena that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and Butts want) is needed to help the Inglewood economy, but mayors aren’t paid to think very hard about this stuff.
  • Washington, D.C., is spending $30 million to install three public turf ballfields near RFK Stadium, which sounds like a lot of money for just three turf fields, but still a better investment than some other things D.C. has spent money on, so go … kickball players? Kickball needs to be played on turf? The things you learn in this business!
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Friday roundup: Rays set stadium deadlinish thing, D.C. United can’t find the sun in the sky, Inglewood mayor flees lawsuit filing on Clippers arena

access_time personNeil deMause

Farewell, Koko and Argentina:

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