Category: Oklahoma City Thunder

OKC mayor wants to spend $850m on Thunder arena via tax hike “that will not raise taxes”

access_time personNeil deMause

It’s been a little under two months since Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said he wanted to build a new arena for the Thunder because their 22-year-old one that was just renovated 12 years ago “will keep getting older.” (And now, it’s older still!) At the time, he said he would fund ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ million dollars in arena construction by extending the 1% sales tax surcharge that built the Thunder’s old arena and which was supposed to expire in 2028, instead keeping it in place until ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But now, the mayor has more details:

  • The arena will cost “a minimum of $900 million.”
  • Most of that will be paid out of a temporary 1% sales tax surcharge running from 2028 to 2034.
  • Another $70 million will come from leftover money in a city arena fund.
  • Thunder owner Clay Bennett will kick in a whole $50 million.

The best part of Holt’s press release, though, is this:

The plan for the new arena and the commitment from the Thunder is conditional on passage by Oklahoma City voters on December 12 of a temporary one-cent sales tax that will not raise taxes. The temporary tax will start after the conclusion of MAPS 4 and will not increase the City’s current sales tax rate.

That’s right, “a temporary one-cent sales tax that will not raise taxes.” Roll that around in your mouth for a while.

On the one hand, it’s easy to see what Holt’s comms department was going for here: Nobody likes to ask people to vote to raise taxes, so saying “No no no, these are the same taxes you’re paying now, it’s just that you weren’t going to keep paying them but now you will” is at least confusing enough to maybe cast some doubt into voters’ minds. But come on: Is there anything more Quimbyesque than arguing that establishing a new tax to give public money to the local billionaire isn’t really raising taxes because it just replaces the old tax that gave public money to the local billionaire?

If the city council approves it on September 26, the sales tax surcharge will go to a special election on December 12, at which point it’ll be up to voters to decide if they buy Holt’s “no new taxes” spin. There was apparently a poll conducted on this back in March, but the only news outlet that covered it was the Oklahoman and that page is officially the most heavily paywalled article I’ve ever seen — if any Oklahoman subscribers can share in the comments what the results said, the world would very much appreciate it.

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Slow news day leaves nation’s journalists stumping ever more desperately for new stadiums and arenas

access_time personNeil deMause

Some days it’s hard to decide what to write about here. There’s always some kind of stadium and arena news burbling beneath the surface, depending on what you consider “news,” and if I tried to write about it all every day, it would leave me no time for anything else, not to mention nothing left over for the Friday roundup, and then where would we be on Fridays? So instead I scroll through the news feed and wonder, is it worth writing about this Guardian article about the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Oklahoma City Thunder are the team of the future. But where will they play?

OKC have a host of young stars who could help them challenge for the NBA title. The only problem may be finding a long-term home

I mean, it’s a dumb premise, to be sure: The Thunder have a bunch of good young players and a pile of draft picks, but they play in an arena that is (checks) 22 years old, and it’s “a bare bones building” or maybe “a bare-bones building” (the Grauniad‘s copy editors can’t seem to decide) according to (checks) the head of the local chamber of commerce, and so CRISIS! Rehash some numbers about how much other cities have spent on NBA arenas, discuss who would pay for one in Oklahoma City (checks: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), and sum up by restating your premise (“So as fans look to a bright future for the Thunder, there remains a looming uncertainty over where the NBA’s potential next great team will actually play”), cut, that’s a wrap, time to file for your first freelance check in seven months, it’s a rough journalism market out there.

Or maybe the San Antonio Business Journal’s article about how the Spurs have one really good young player but are stuck playing in a non-downtown arena that is (checks) 21 years old thanks to “a lack of political consensus and a willingness to settle” and how there’s “increasing chatter” about a new downtown arena but no consensus or even a hint of a plan in how to pull that off” and architect Janet Marie Smith once said that getting development around a baseball stadium requires planning “to allow for that organic growth to happen” and what does this have to do with, you know what, never mind, just keep on going, there’s almost enough words here to make an article, just reach into your “conclusions” folder and pull out something like “It’s free advice that Alamo City leaders should certainly consider,” now hit publish, time to go see if there’s any breaking human resources news that is also your beat.

But maybe neither of those seems like quite enough for their own post? What, then, about D.C. councilmember Charles Allen’s cleverly contrarian op-ed “Yes, D.C. needs a stadium deal. But not at RFK“? Which turns out not to be, as the Washington Post’s headline writers seem to have thought it was, possibly without having read the whole thing, about how D.C. needs to build a Commanders stadium somewhere other than the RFK Stadium site, but rather about how what D.C. really needs isn’t a football stadium but a basketball/hockey arena to replace the one the Wizards and Capitals play in that is (checks) 25 years old and is “showing its age” in unspecified ways that don’t require spelling out in an op-ed. Anyway, if the teams moved to (checks) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, “it would send the message that we’ve given up on the downtown of the nation’s capital: Who wants to open a new store or restaurant or convert a commercial property to apartments in an empty, destabilized Chinatown?” And nothing says “stabilizing” to D.C.’s Chinatown like a new or renovated arena!

On second thought, maybe none of these are worth writing about, or asking you to read about — is it really necessary to pay attention to every slow-news-day article that the nation’s remaining news outlets throw at the wall? On the other hand, if I write about this today, then if tomorrow’s another slow news day, I can punt on posting then and just skip straight to the Friday roundup and be done for the week. That’s free advice that I should certainly consider.

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Friday roundup: OKC mayor wants new Thunder arena because 22-year-old one is “getting older,” and other things to sigh deeply over

access_time personNeil deMause

Before we even get to the bullet points, we need to start with this: Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt announced yesterday in his State of the City speech that he wants to build a new arena for the Thunder to replace their current one, which just turned 22 years old and is receiving a $100 million upgrade begun in 2011. The present building is “simply not what it used to be,” according to Holt, and  “will keep getting older,” which, yep, that’s how time works. “Seats get old, scoreboards get old, elevators break,” said Holt. Everything breaks, dunnit?

To help pay for a new arena, Holt wants to extend the 1% sales tax surcharge that paid for the old one and which is currently set to expire in 2028. Holt described this as “no tax increase will be necessary,” which is true if you mean that Oklahoma City residents won’t have to pay any more in taxes than they do now, but not true if you mean whether they’d have to pay more than they would if the Thunder were forced to continue to play in their aging more-than-two-decade-old arena instead of an aging new one.

The tax extension would at least require a public vote, as the original one did. Still, J.C. Bradbury has a point:

Nothing wrong with getting a new arena every year, so long as you’re not the one paying for it. And now, on to the week in bullet points:

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Friday roundup: Raleigh to spend $625m on arena and convention center upgrades because reasons, and other news

access_time personNeil deMause

Here is video of the Beths playing last night in front of a giant inflatable fish! You’re welcome!

On to the news:

  • Raleigh and Wake County “need to make some big renovations” to the Carolina Hurricanes arena and the city’s convention center to lure more events, reports WTVD-TV, but how will the estimated $625 million in costs be paid for? (North Carolina approved $81 million last year, but now is preparing to spend a whole lot more.) An even better question: What kind of events would be worth spending $625 million in upgrades to lure them? Those curious about the answer will not find it at WTVD, which interviewed all of three people for its story: a county commissioner trying to raise the funds, the head of the state authority that runs the arena, and the manager of the convention center, hmm, wonder why none of them are questioning the need for that level of spending?
  • I’m not exactly sure what the best rhetorical strategy is when going into negotiations with your local NBA team for signing a new lease, but I’m pretty sure going on about how small your city is and how “cities who want to retain their status as TOP tier American cities have obligations” is not it, yes I’m looking at you, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt. Of course, if we look at this less as Holt bargaining with the Thunder owners and more him bargaining with city residents for why he needs to use their tax money to build a new arena just 21 years after building the last one, it starts to make a bit more sense…
  • New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to give $455 million to the operators of Belmont Park racetrack for upgrades and let them pay it back with future state subsidies, and here’s an interview with the consultant who wrote the report saying this is a good idea somehow. Highlight: “Are there other tracks that have reversed declining attendance numbers by renovating their facilities?” “I don’t know the answer to that.” Worth every penny, this guy.
  • MLB Players Association president Tony Clark says that owners asked for the right to unilaterally reduce the size of the minor leagues even further in bargaining over the minors’ first-ever union contract, and Clark informed them that this was a “non-starter.” It’s not clear whether the leagues’ owners already have another contraction plan in the works or are just looking to reserve the right to axe more teams if they so decide, but given how great the last downsizing has worked for letting them shake down cities for stadium money, it’s no real surprise they’re at least thinking about it in their downtime from lobbying Florida to exempt minor-leaguers from minimum-wage laws.
  • More than 60% of Jacksonville residents don’t want to see the city spending $750 million in their money on renovations to the Jaguars stadium, which should be unsurprising, frankly. Also, 48% reported “they had shouted ‘DUUUVAL’ in the past year,” which makes me a little concerned about the people who are writing these poll questions.
  • The latest Buffalo Bills stadium renderings aren’t nearly as hilarious as the last ones, but I do wonder why the scoreboard during the game depicted appears to be showing footage of an entirely different game where the Bills are wearing different uniforms.
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Friday roundup: MSG lobbies to stay put, OKC debates new Thunder arena, plus: BEES!

access_time personNeil deMause

It’s been another week already, can you believe it? Before we get to the cavalcade of news items that didn’t make the cut for individual posts this week, it’s probably a good time for me to thank all of you who’ve generously supported this site with your hard-earned dollars to help me keep getting up at 7 am to report on this sports grift that doesn’t seem to have any intention of ending. So, thanks! And if you haven’t kicked in any coins of late and would like to, you can sign up for either a one-time donation or a small monthly payment — there are still a few cab-hailing lady art prints up for grabs!

Or just read the week’s news, that works too!

  • Madison Square Garden officials say they should get a perpetual operating permit from the city of New York because moving the arena elsewhere would cost $8.5 billion. Actually, the city could just send in its Padlock Unit (a real thing!) to lock the Knicks and Rangers out until James Dolan agreed to relocate the Garden on his own dime, or at least until he agreed to start paying property taxes, neither of which is likely to happen, but it could. The operating permit expires this July 31, so expect to see a whole lot more public grandstanding over the next six months, especially if the Knicks or Rangers make a deep playoff run (neither of which is likely to happen, but it could). Mayor Eric Adams says he wants to keep the Garden where it is but plans on being a “hard negotiator” for a renewed permit (which … okay, you already see where this parenthetical is going.)
  • Two competing Oklahoma City council candidates said they’re both in favor of building the Thunder a new arena (estimated cost: TBD) to replace their 21-year-old one, so long as the public gets something in return like “sales tax” or “full and thriving wages” for arena employees or “density.” (That’s in ascending order of likelihood, albeit descending levels of comprehensibility.)
  • Glendale, Arizona councilmember Joyce Clark is going to town on nearby Tempe’s planned arena for the Arizona Coyotes, posting back-to-back blog posts showing that team owner Alex Meruelo’s finances are considered high-risk and estimating that tax kickbacks for the project would amount to $700 million. In present value that’s probably more like $500 million, but it’s still not chicken feed; Tempe voters go to the polls on May 16.
  • Not saying that the Virginia legislature isn’t going to ever consider building a Washington Commanders stadium, but rejecting Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s request for $500,000 for “planning” a stadium proposal is a pretty good sign nothing’s going to move forward until legislators can dance on team owner Daniel Snyder’s (probably metaphorical, but either way works) grave.
  • Stadium architect Ron Labinski, who helped design Arrowhead Stadium, Giants Stadium, and whatever you call the Miami Dolphins‘ stadium these days, died recently at age 85, and condolences to his family and friends. The New York Times headlining his obit with the line that he “Designed a Cozier Future for Stadiums,” though, is pretty much 100% wrong, given that one of the hallmarks of his era as a stadium architect was building more luxury suites, which have forced upper decks into the stratosphere, making stadiums decidedly less cozy.
  • The bees are moving south! Run for your lives! Oh, wait, it’s just the Salt Lake Bees, and their new stadium in Daybreak is going to be “privately financed,” though the Bees owners still haven’t announced how that funding is going to work yet, maybe best to run for your lives anyway just to be on the safe side.
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Friday roundup: MSG throws campaign cash around, Commanders on pace for new stadium (someday), OKC to build two arenas?

access_time personNeil deMause

It was a slow week for stadium and arena news — even money-grubbing plutocrats and their elected-official pals like to go on vacation in the summer — but there are still a few more items of note that didn’t make it to posts of their own:

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Friday roundup: 76ers’ “privately funded” arena would require 30-year tax break and maybe state cash, this is why we can’t have nice things

access_time personNeil deMause

Happy Friday! Hope you enjoyed the last 24 hours of hoping that the Philadelphia 76ers‘ $1.3 billion all-privately-financed arena plan didn’t have any hidden catches, because sorry to tell you, but:

  • Buried in a Philadelphia Inquirer article about what Philly locals think of the 76ers arena plan — some are tentatively optimistic, councilmember Helen Gym opposes it like the last 76ers arena plan and a Phillies stadium plan 20 years ago, Chinatown leaders are worried about parking and traffic impacts as you would expect they would be — is this news: “the arena’s developer has also said that the plan involves inheriting a 30-year property tax break for the parcel that Council gave to the current property owners.” Since that tax break is tax increment financing — all property taxes above a certain level are getting kicked back to the developers of the mall that was built on that site — the value of that tax break will presumably increase beyond the $127.5 million already committed once there’s a pricey new arena on the property rather than just a mall, but the Inquirer didn’t provide details. Oh, plus: “the team has also opened the door to receiving state funding.” Again, no details, but all this stuff will have to be approved by the city council, if not the state legislature as well, so we should have more info eventually. For now, though, the Sixers owners’ claims of “no public money” need to come with a nine-figure asterisk.
  • “It almost seems like the NBA’s like, holding our city hostage, like, ‘if you don’t give us this, that the taxpayers don’t give us this arena, you know, like we’re going to move the team somewhere else,’” Oklahoma City resident Alex Coleman told KFOR-TV this week about Thunder owner Clay Bennett’s demands for a new arena. It’s not like that, Alex, it is that, though with the caveat that the gun the NBA is holding to the dog’s head may not even be loaded, but savvy negotiators and all.
  • Without a floor vote or any debate, the Massachusetts House approved fast-tracking a New England Revolution stadium last Thursday, exempting a likely MLS stadium site on the Everett-Boston border from a slew of environmental regulations. If it passes the state senate as well, Revolution owner Robert Kraft would have three years to come up with money to build the thing.
  • Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, who last month announced his desire to bail out Pawtucket’s planned USL soccer stadium by diverting an extra $20 million in infrastructure funding into stadium construction instead, uh, still wants to do that. First he needs to convince the board of the state Commerce Corporation, and board members have been reticent to do so, noting that, as the Providence Journal puts it, “by agreeing to put all of the incentives toward the stadium, the state will then have to fork out an unknown amount of money in the future if it wants the rest of the project built.” This is surprisingly level-headed for the board of a state development agency, but: Yup, it sure would! Another meeting of the Commerce Corporation board is scheduled for Monday.
  • Regina, Saskatchewan is exploring building a minor-league baseball stadium despite not having a pro team (it has the Regina Red Sox, an amateur college summer team), and Jersey Village, Texas is exploring building a minor-league baseball stadium despite the region already being chock full of minor-league teams. Somebody needs to explain to them how increasing demand while the supply of teams is reduced is a good way to drive the price of teams up, but given that Jersey Village hired CSL to do its feasibility study, they may not be interested in hearing how money actually works.
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Friday roundup: Thunder owner wants 20-year-old arena replaced, Nevadans hate idea of A’s stadium subsidy

access_time personNeil deMause

Sorry for the relative paucity of posts this week — I’ve been a little under the weather (not Covid, or so the test strips say), and the stadium news cycle was taking a bit of a summer break, anyway. But things have started picking up again toward the end of the week, and nothing will stop me from my appointed Friday rounds, so away we go:

  • We start off with the latest news, which just broke late yesterday: Oklahoma City Thunder owner Clay Bennett, who is in the middle of spending $115 million in taxpayer money on upgrading his 20-year-old arena with new restaurants and video boards and the like, has put the project on hold because he might just want a whole new arena instead. “Obviously we want a long-term relationship with professional sports in this city,” said Mayor David Holt in yesterday’s State of the City address. “And to do that, you have to have facilities that are current and competitive.” Being built in 2002 doesn’t count as “current” anymore, apparently, even with three rounds of renovations that were costing $214 million total, because the arena doesn’t have enough “room for all the other elements of user experience” that aren’t watching basketball, though isn’t that what adding new adjoining buildings with new restaurants was supposed to be about? Anyway, even with the Thunder signing a new lease extension until 2026, Holt says the city needs to get cracking on a new arena, because “we have non-NBA cities checking our pulse every morning” and “if we want to be a top 20 city, we have to act like it” — he didn’t say whether Bennett would move the Thunder back to Seattle or what if he didn’t get what he wanted, but sometimes the most effective threats are the ones that leave the details to listeners’ imagination.
  • Clark County residents oppose “allocating taxpayer money in the budget for new sports stadiums similar to what was done to fund the Allegiant Stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders” by a 62-17% margin, yup, they’ll do that. Maybe the Oakland A’s aren’t getting a new stadium in Las Vegas so fast after all if their Oakland plans fall through — sure, elected officials can and do ignore the public will all the time, but given that public statements from Nevada officials about luring the A’s with a stadium have been lukewarm at best, this really does start to smell like savvy negotiators seeking leverage.
  • Knoxville’s $74.3 million Tennessee Smokies stadium subsidy may be getting held up as a model compared to the $79.4 million the Chattanooga Lookouts owners are demanding, but it turns out that $74.3 million figure may not be the final one: Rising interest rates and supply chain issues have the price tag soaring to “not yet been determined,” which means that Smokies owner Randy Boyd’s promise not to ask for any additional public funds may go by the wayside. Neither Boyd nor the government entities involved in the stadium have actually signed any of the stadium agreements yet; both sides say they plan to come up with a plan to cover cost overruns by a July 26 meeting of Knoxville’s sports authority, but would it be crazy to suggest that “Getting too rich for our blood, let’s call the whole thing off?” be at least considered as an option?
  • Speaking of the Lookouts, a Hamilton County commissioner wants to adjust the county’s spending plan to have the team owner front the money and the county repay him with tax money instead of having the county cover costs directly, because at least that would protect the public in case tax increment financing revenues fell short. This is not a terrible idea, though “don’t use tax increment financing at all, it’s almost always a terrible idea” might be an even better idea.
  • New Orleans is set to get a new USL franchise, because pretty much every city is, which will play in oh, someplace. No talk yet of how much a theoretical stadium would cost or who would pay for it, plenty of time for that once soccer fever has taken hold beyond the pages of Nola.com.
  • Some Brooklyn elected officials want New York City to impose a $10 million fine on the developers of the Pacific Park project (which used to be called Atlantic Yards, and which originally included the Nets arena though later those two elements were split between two different developers, really you don’t want to know all the details) because they failed to build a contractually promised “urban room” community space — one of the politicians called this a “field of schemes,” which, you know, it’s always nice to be part of the conversation, even if unintentionally.
  • The Portland Trail Blazers owners may or may not be trying to get a new arena to replace its (gasp!) 27-year-old one, but in the meantime they’re getting about a $1.5 million a year property tax discount thanks to a generous reassessment of the value of the old arena after they went to court to demand one, it really does pay to be able to afford the best lawyers.
  • Oh, did I forget to mention that the Chicago Bears owners’ response to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposal last week to put a dome on Soldier Field was “Nuh-uh, we only have eyes for Arlington Heights, at least right now?” Well, it was, but that happened all the way back last Friday after last week’s roundup was published — I may just need to place a moratorium on things happening after 9 a.m. on Fridays, don’t make me do it.
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Friday roundup: Titans stadium could get $?? in state subsidies, Commanders stadium bill takes (maybe) step back

access_time personNeil deMause

It’s Friday again! And, really, that’s all I’ve got by way of introduction this week, but there is plenty of news:

  • Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally tells The Tennessean that Gov. Bill Lee is expected to put state funding for a Titans stadium in his upcoming state budget. No word on how much money, or where the state would take the money from, or how much the stadium would cost, but certainly all that will be addressed well before the budget is voted on by the end of April, no governor would ever try to avoid public disclosure of something like that.
  • The Washington Post editorial board says Virginia giving Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder a ton of public money for a stadium is a lousy idea, and sports economist J.C. Bradbury concurs in an op-ed, only with more math. Also talks between the Virginia house and senate over a compromise bill have reportedly stalled, so maybe somebody in the Virginia legislature is actually reading the Washington Post? Or is just waiting for all the ruckus to die down so they can pass a final bill quietly, that’s always possible too.
  • Tennessee state Sen. Todd Gardenhire has recommended against his own bill to have the state kick back sales taxes to help pay for a new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium as part of a total public expense of …  honestly, I can’t make head or tail of exactly what’s going on here, other than that Gardenhire is unhappy with something about the funding proposal and is seeking … something else? But then, state Rep. Greg Vital told the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “I’m not quite sure what we’re being asked to fund, who owns what, who’s going to own what,” so at least we’re all in blissful ignorance together!
  • Three Oklahoma City University economists looked at the economic impact of the Thunder on the city, and found that it’s somewhere between “nothing measurable” and “something, but not nearly enough to cover what we spent to get and keep the Thunder.” “These things just don’t pan out as economic growth centers,” says Emeritus Professor of Economics Johnathan Wilner, who is followed in the article by a Norman, Oklahoma official saying the University of Oklahoma needs a new arena because “we’re the third-largest city in the state, and it’s time we started acting like one.” He said she said journalism is just the best, isn’t it?
  • The Guardian has a long recap of the Arizona Coyotes arena saga, and The Athletic has a long lookahead on the future of the Arizona Coyotes arena saga, of which I mostly read the takeaway quote “Every other team in the league will be laughing when they visit us,” so there’s probably some good schadenfreude fodder in there for anyone with the time and patience to sit through a couple of deep dives.
  • Live 24-hour webcam of the reconstruction work being done on the Baltimore Arena! So far it looks like nothing is going on — make your own jokes about that being how the Baltimore Arena always looks — but I promise to alert you if they begin installation of the Top Sail Wine Bar.
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Friday roundup: OKC Thunder want their subsidies sooner, Indy Eleven want theirs later, let me repeat back your orders to make sure I have it right

access_time personNeil deMause

I’ve already thanked everyone individually, but I’d like to give a collective shoutout to all the readers who signed up as FoS Supporters this membership cycle. The money you send translates directly into time I can spend covering stadium and arena news for you, and I remain extremely heartened by your support. If you sent me your mailing address, your magnets should be en route; if you didn’t, send me your mailing address already, these magnets aren’t going to ship themselves!

And speaking of covering stadium and arena news, let’s cover some stadium and arena news, why don’t we:

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