Before we get to the week’s stadium and arena news, let’s pause to appreciate that New York’s nutso mayor Eric Adams‘ campaign staff have been revealed to be under investigation for illegally accepting donations from the government of Turkey. Which I guess sort of qualifies as stadium news given Adams’ boosterism of that NYC F.C. stadium that could cost city taxpayers $800 million in infrastructure spending and tax breaks, but mostly: Yes, Turkey. Also his chief fundraiser and campaign consultant who is at the heart of the investigation is apparently 25 years old? This is going to make a great Netflix documentary in a couple of years.
But enough about my city, how’s yours doing?
- The St. Petersburg city council voted 5-3 yesterday to hold a public referendum on spending about $600 million on a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium — which means the referendum won’t happen, because the motion required a two-thirds supermajority. Also it would have been only advisory, anyway. Council chair Brandi Gabbard, who opposed the public ballot measure, said she was afraid it wouldn’t be possible to explain the stadium deal in the 75 words available, which is certainly a novel line of reasoning.
- Former Miami Marlins president David Samson says there is still “a deal to be done to keep the A’s in Oakland” because Las Vegas has “several issues that are not worked out yet” like whether A’s owner John Fisher actually has the money for his share of the project. Meanwhile, former Oakland A’s VP Andy Dolich says it would be a mistake for MLB to approve the relocation of the team from a large market to what would be baseball’s smallest. Not that either of them holds clout with the current crop of MLB owners, or they would still have jobs with them, but it’s keeping hope alive in Oakland, anyway, in advance of a likely vote by owners on relocation sometime this month.
- Here’s an article about how a special tax district for Indy Eleven‘s new $1 billion stadium wouldn’t really cost taxpayers anything because it would just be a “special tax” that will be levied on soccer fans. And here’s an article explaining that the district would actually divert existing sales and income tax revenues from a large swath of downtown toward the USL team. The city-county council is set to vote on the tax district later this month; let’s hope they’re reading all the news coverage first and not just WRTV’s.
- The Arizona Diamondbacks just got blown out in the World Series, and former team owner Jerry Colangelo thinks this makes it an excellent time to build them a new or renovated stadium, because “there’s a good vibe.” Gotta capitalize on vibes like this!
- The Oklahoma City Thunder arena has been “the centerpiece of OKC’s innovative self-help effort, producing energy and economic impact that academic studies cannot predict, but 30 years of OKC success prove,” according to some downtown business development dude who was given a “guest column” in the Oklahoman to make this case. He adds that tearing it down and building a newer one would “create new and currently unimaginable opportunities,” which, that’s certainly an interesting choice of adjectives there.
- Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt says he’s waiting to see what the Royals decide about a new stadium before deciding what to ask for in terms of a new or renovated stadium for his team. “If the Royals do decide to stay in Jackson County, that’s going to be an issue that we’ve got to resolve,” Hunt said, which is maybe a hint that he’s hoping they’ll move to the county next door so he can get all of the future sales tax proceeds? That would have been a good followup question, if the reporters covering this had asked any, oh well.
My God, Neil, referencing David Samson? What’s the matter, Bud Selig not available?
Acorn, blind squirrel.
He’s been pretty forthcoming lately about how the Marlins swindled the taxpayers for a new stadium so his ideas a out the A’s feel credible.
Takes one to know one, I guess.
For 20+ years Oakland’s strategy to keep the A’s has been “let’s hope others fail!”. They (politicians/Oakland-only fans) rooted for failure with Fremont, $an Jose (not really a failure BTW).. and now they’re doing it with Vegas. Like I stated in another forum, Dolich wants MLB to strike down the proposed move to Vegas..FOR WHAT EXACTLY?!!! The sooner the A’s leave the bad taste of Oakland behind, the better.
Seems like the $300 million in public money for Howard Terminal was more than just hoping others would fail.
Dolich “wants” (your words) MLB to think about this before approving the move because it is a bad move for literally everyone involved.
It’s bad for MLB because it makes the A’s/Aviators/GAP51’s permanent welfare cases. And while one of the league’s teams will hold that spot regardless under the current system, I think it’s important to keep in mind that whatever Fisher gains someone else will lose. It may be a net zero for MLB as a whole. It’s not for the 1-3 owners who might rotate into (or out of) spot 16.
It is also a terrible look for MLB to be leaving a large shared market that has offered a significant subsidy toward a new stadium for a tiny one.
It’s bad for Fisher because the site chosen cannot properly accommodate a legitimate MLB stadium. If the A’s are going to build a 28,000 seat domed stadium somewhere, using public money naturally, what makes Vegas a better place than Oakland or somewhere else? He is also moving from a city where he is pretty much the only game in town to one where he will be fighting for a limited pool of fans with two other major sports leagues. Not ideal.
It’s bad for Vegas because it costs them a lot of money and has them acquiring perhaps the worst owner in sports (apart from one they already have – although who can put a price on having the world’s most famous 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager on display? – and Jeffrey Loria, who must be considered worst owner in sports emeritus at this point…)
Finally, there is really no way to examine the economics of the A’s in Vegas and find them better off (as a business) than they are in Oakland. This is true regardless whether you love or hate Oakland and love or hate the franchise or it’s owner.
It’s just a bad business decision (which is usually what happens when you make business decisions for reasons other than actual business) made by a lousy businessman (ok, two lousy businessmen).
My guess would be MLB will vote to approve the move anyway, possibly with some serious conditions that Fisher might struggle to meet. They could end this madness right now by making the move and new stadium approval contingent on Fisher surrendering any right to future MLB welfare payments. It seems they are doing the exact opposite of that.
Odd really, considering the very first questions the owner’s club should ask of any prospective franchise owner’s move are:
1. How does this make your business better/you more money?
2. How does this make all of our businesses better/all of us more money?
Though possibly not in that order. Still, this move does neither of those things.
GAP51’s!
Genius!
Make it so!
I’d heard from someone close to the council that this vote was never going to proceed.
That being said, for those of us living in the area, what is your opinion on how citizens opposed to this crazy Rays deal should ramp up opposition to it? Public events, disseminating information, finding legal options, etc…
It just feels like a team of idiots is driving the city towards a cliff and it’s hard to believe there’s not a way to challenge it.
Thanks for any advice or resources.
Have you considered investigating whether your mayor has registered any out-of-state helicopters lately?
Badda Bing!
I’d love to, since the mayor makes no attempt to hide his lack of ethics or intelligence, but I’m not a PI, and the newspaper is 100% on board with touching piles of money for this absurd venture.
So, back to the question- what can be done? There has to be a good example of cities fighting of these kinds of destructive deals.
Sure, lots, and a bunch of them are in the book! The problem being that the team owner can keep coming back and trying again, and they only need one win to cash their check.
I’m ordering it on kindle tomorrow- thanks for the recommendation, and hopefully it helps support you as well.
If you think of anything else that could help people start pushing back against this deal and others , please post to your site/x.
Thank you!
Absolutely. I wish there were a secret sauce to this, but as much as there are cities where people have put up brilliant and dedicated fights, they still fail as often as they succeed. It’s better to be both lucky and good, but if you have to pick one, I’d go with lucky.
According to parkingreform.org, downtown OKC is 28% parking lots. Two bedroom condos are on the market for $700,000. Instead of paying for arena renovations, the city would probably be better off buying parking lots and turning them into housing to collect more property and sales tax revenue.
Now don’t be introducing logic into this…..
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to refer to David Samson as “Jeffrey Loria’s step son” than “former Marlins President”?
I mean the two titles are linked, obviously, but we know which one is the horse and which one is the cart.
I’ve heard Samson interviewed on this very topic. In summary: yes, his mother and Loria did marry, and yes, she urged Loria to hire her son.
But as time went by, Samson was merely a tool to do specific tasks and was under contract to do so.
Samson understood it was business and there was no love lost between them, and thought several times Loria would “fire him” except that the contract would have to be paid out and Loria didn’t want to do that.
So I would interpret that as he got the job through nepotism but didn’t really get along with step dad and was just doing the job.
Of course, he almost certainly was unqualified for it. But then as you hear more about team executives, you realize most of them are unqualified for it.
Yeah he’s an unqualified sleazeball in an industry that’s full of those types of people. His podcast is interesting.
Jerry Colangelo has become a nemasis for Arizona, after bringing the Diamondbacks to Phoenix in 1998, he brought the neverending curse called the Coyotes. Now Colangelo has a scheme to build 300,000 houses in the Hasayampa Valley where ther is no water. Claiming that because “the roof can’t be safely opened or closed with fans inside” Chase Field needs half a billion in repairs? Phoenix weather is easy to predict, if it’s 100 degrees, close the roof in the morning and turn on the AC. Same thing on the handful of days there is any chance of rain in the Sonoran Desert.
Turkey changed the spelling of their name to…whatever it is.
The world yawned. You say tomato, I say potato…..
The OKC Guest Columnist isn’t just some random development dude! This from the OKC article comments section:
“The author of the piece, Devery Youngblood, is the executive director of a lobbying organization for the Oklahoma aggregate industry. Aggregates (sand, gypsum, etc.) are products used in construction. So it makes sense to me why Mr. Youngblood would want to support the Thunder arena, or any other large-scale construction project in the city. What doesn’t make sense is why neither he nor the editorial board of the Oklahoman mentioned this conflict, be it actual or potential, to readers.”
Why stop at “marginal conflict of interest” when you can go all the way?
I’m sure that’s just a coincidence and has nothing to do with his interest in the project going forward… Mr. Youngblood is probably so inherently altruistic – as most paid lobbyists and corporate executives are – that no-one ever thought to question his support…
Per the requirements of Eleven Park, Ozdemir and the Eleven organization are to pay at least 20% of the construction costs if they want that special tax district, which would be about $200 million, assuming costs of construction stay relative. But, as we all know, are they actually going to pay $200 million, or are they going to “pay” $200 million? Because we all know that there are multiple ways for rich people to become exempt from paying their fair share.
Thanks for staying on top of the OKC crap. It’s getting pretty insane here. I spoke at City Council on the topic, very respectful. Just facts and two days later they let me go from my job. “Steve, this is hard but we have to let you go for your political activity.”
Its getting real out there… and to think, these are the good times.
!!! What kind of enployer was this?