Arena Ballpark Stadium

Does your sports team need help convincing the public to give the team billions of taxpayer dollars? Call the Seidman Research Institute

The Phoenix Business Journal wrote a story on a recently released study by the Seidman Research Institute that discussed how a women's final four tournament held in the area generated a huge economic impact for the state of Arizona. Apparently, this tournament created $42.2 million for Arizona's Gross Domestic Product for Phoenix, while the State of Arizona saw a $71.5 million overall impact. However, the report appears to be missing a lot of information. The report admits to JUST using “new dollars” that Arizona may have received during the tournament. What about expenses? What about the substitute effect? Or…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

To get their new ballpark approved, the Tampa Bay Rays made many promises to local students…now that the deal is done, the Rays will just ignore almost all of them.

It has been reported this week that the city has agreed to a community benefits agreement (“CBA”) with the Tampa Bay Rays. In this agreement, the Rays are forced to do little except say that they made efforts to do small things for local citizens. Overall, the CBA has the city giving the team $80M of taxpayer money while the team is promising to give $21M worth of benefits to the city. As the Tampa Monitor wrote about the community benefits agreement, the deal “relies too much on the Rays voluntarily keeping their promises.” Additionally, there is almost “nothing…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

D.C. United threatens to leave if not given $300M from a city facing a projected deficit of $800M

This means that MLS teams will now be playing games later in the year and therefore in cold weather. For this reason, the MLS team in Washington, DC, named DC United, is asking for $300M so that a roof can be added to their home venue, Audi Field. According to the CEO of DC United, this money is “necessary” because the team will be playing more matches in the cold and because this addition to Audi Field is “the next steps in our partnership”…whatever the hell that means.

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

San Francisco 49ers owner, Jed York, continues spending millions to sway local politicians. When will it be called out nationally?

Recently, San Francisco 49ers owner, Jed York, created “two new political action committees” so that he could sway the public into electing a 49ers-friendly mayor and city councilmen. The team handed over $645,000 and $335,000 to the committees supporting the 49ers' preferred candidates. Nobody should be surprised by this. York has spent millions on every election since 2014, the year that the 49ers' stadium was built in Santa Clara. But it still surprises me how little attention York gets for his constant attempts to destroy any semblance of a democracy.

William Neilson Jr.
Arena Ballpark Stadium

Team owners continue to get out of paying for venue upgrades when they are responsible for keeping it at a “First-Class Condition”

The new owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, Tom Dundon, told Portland city leaders that he won't negotiate with them until language is changed in the lease agreement between the city and the team. Dundon is demanding the removal of language that requires the team to keep the Moda Center in first-class condition. When an agreement includes a “First-Class Condition” or “State-of-the-Art” clause, it requires the facility owner (either the city/county or the team itself) to maintain, repair, and upgrade the venue so that it remains comparable to top-tier facilities in the league. This means Dundon is responsible for…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

FIFA made $15B from this World Cup. Actual businesses near the matches? Not so much…

Now that the World Cup is over, I went looking to see how businesses did in host cities. FIFA made $15B in revenue from the current World Cup. That is a considerable amount of money to be taking in from this event. Surely the host cities will see some of that money, right? No, host cities get none of this money. Before I could even look into how local businesses did during the matches, I found FIFA continuing to do everything they could to make it seem like this event was a massive success for everyone involved.

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

Chicago Fire owner was praised for not “asking the city for money” when he proposed his new stadium…yet now he wants $425M of taxpayer funds

Last year, the owner of the Chicago Fire, Joe Mansueto, announced that the MLS club was moving forward with plans to build a new stadium. While the costs varied between $650M and $750M, the stadium would be “privately-funded.” Local media and other news outlets praised Mansueto for not forcing costs onto taxpayers.

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark Stadium

The Washington Commanders owner is “frustrated” when he is asked to negotiate a deal that was done in secret for months

Sports owners are trying to negotiate their new stadiums in secret and then refuse to negotiate once the agreements are in the public eye. Recently, the owners of the Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Commanders have used this tactic, although in slightly different ways. Residents of both Tampa Bay and Washington DC were never involved in stadium talks before an announcement was made on a new stadium. Once their deals were announced, the Rays claimed that their deal would not change because they had given up too much already, while the Commanders stomped their feet like a child and…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena Ballpark Stadium

San Antonio editorial wants taxpayers to follow the “spirit of the agreement”, yet teams never seem to care about it

The Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) owe the city of San Antonio and Bexar County $5 million because of a failed 2015 MLS bid. The city, county, and SS&E were all involved in the bidding for a team and signed an agreement stating that SS&E would pay $5M if the bid didn't produce an MLS team. Yet, to this day, SS&E has not paid for it, nor has the city tried to push the team to pay what is owed to taxpayers. Even so, the city did find time to help pay for a large part of the new…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena Ballpark Stadium

Will news sites ever properly label people who are clearly biased or have an interest in the venue?

Yesterday, I saw an opinion piece in the Sports Business Journal. The point of the piece was just how great the World Cup will make our stadiums look for future events. The article claims that the current stadiums that are hosting World Cup matches shortly are all in top-notch form and can handle any future “World Cup (matches), Super Bowl(s) & specialty events, concerts, and more.” About here is where I started to wonder whether this was an actual opinion piece or essentially an advertisement by a financially biased individual/group. It is the latter. Before we go into that,…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark Stadium

In Chicago, Kansas City & Tampa Bay, sports owners are trying to push new venues without any public input or review

If you are a sports owner, massive projects should and do get agreed upon in weeks, if not a month or two…max. I have written numerous times about how almost every sports owner runs the same play every time. The sports owner will come out and demand a new stadium and mandate that a deal must be done within weeks due to…reasons unknown. If this isn't good enough, then the team will possibly relocate. The purpose is clearly to pressure local leaders into agreeing to the project without any time to properly review and vet it. Most local politicians…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

The Arizona Diamondbacks just got $500M of taxpayer money yet now want even more

Recently, Arizona Diamondbacks officials have issued several public statements that seem to suggest that the team will demand more taxpayer money. Since the lease agreement between the team and county expires after the 2028 season, the Diamondbacks are apparently using this as a reason for more taxpayer money to be given to them. This week, the team opened up to being shocked at how much it costs to repair and upgrade equipment at their ballpark. The team admitted that the cost of recent repairs to things, like a new air conditioner, were “much higher than we thought.”

William Neilson Jr.