Welp, between writing up Cleveland’s record-breaking lease subsidy offer to the Indians/Guardians and reading about how Barcelona is apparently cutting Lionel Messi loose in a dispute with the league over amortized future TV revenues (not technically stadium-related, but still fascinating if you follow sports economics), that took up most of the morning, so let’s get right to the lightning round:
- Sports Business Journal reports — I can’t find the original article, even paywalled, but Mike Florio of NBC Sports has helpfully summarized it — that the Buffalo Bills owners plan to justify their $1.5-billion-or-maybe-a-little-less-doesn’t-less-sound-better-now stadium subsidy demand by arguing that “simply keeping the team in Buffalo when more attractive options exist should be valued as a contribution to the region.” This is still, somehow, not considered a threat to leave, just a promise to stay if its made worth their while. There are other terms for that as well.
- An Albuquerque city council vote on whether to funnel $70 million or so to New Mexico United for a new minor-league soccer stadium was put off until August 16 following negative reaction during Monday’s public comment period, but not before producing the exquisite headline “City council meets on proposed stadium, arroyo safety and balloon landing areas.”
- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf still says she’s ready to continue negotiations on a new Oakland A’s stadium with the team’s owners, the team’s owners remain silent, that’s about all that’s going on there. Games of chicken involving actual vehicles are more exciting, I’ll give you that.
- The Denver city council has decided to let residents vote separately on a $160 million arena project from other city bonds for things like new libraries, which is considerate of them. Without that, voters would be stuck having to vote on things they like and don’t like on the same ballot item, like Oklahoma City did, precisely because it’s easier to get stuff passed that way.
- The NYC F.C. stadium proposal in the Bronx isn’t quite dead yet, everyone is just still haggling over how to count parking spaces.
- The Chicago Sun-Times has a long article on whether a Chicago Bears stadium would make sense to anchor a development at Arlington International Racecourse, all of which is worth reading, but especially for this maxim from sports economist Allen Sanderson: “There are two things you should never put on a valuable piece of property: a cemetery and a football stadium. They’re closed all the time.” (Yes, Allen Sanderson, the “throw money from a helicopter” guy. He has a way with maxims.)
- Sporting Kansas City‘s owners are set to be on the hook to repay $15 million in subsidies that the health tech company Cerner Corp. got as part of the team’s stadium deal, now that Cerner is moving out of town; it’s super-complicated and involves some Cerner execs being part-owners of the team, just click the link if you really want to know, or enjoy the schadenfreude if you don’t.
- Almost 500 people who attended the 100,000-person outdoor celebration of the Milwaukee Bucks‘ NBA championship contracted the coronavirus, according to state health officials. It’s not clear whether the state has determined that they all definitely picked it up there, or that they definitely picked it up outdoors and not, say, while celebrating in a bar afterwards; for that matter, the number of attendees who subsequently tested positive could be much higher, given that not everyone getting tested is getting asked, “Hey, did you go to that Bucks thing?” The original virus variant almost never spread outdoors, but with Delta way more transmissable some scientists are wondering if crowded outdoor events should be considered less safe — you know what, just wear your masks for a while, it’s not going to kill you.
- That MLB-built stadium in the middle of the Field of Dreams cornfield is finally ready to host a game, and it comes with a corn maze in the shape of the MLB logo, because of course it does.