Tag: California

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…

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)…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium Arena Ballpark

Will news sites ever properly label people who are clearly bias 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…

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…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena

Since Portland passed a law to help bring an MLB team, the Trail Blazers would like some more money for Moda Center

Now, the Portland Trail Blazers would like some of that money. According to OregonLive, the Blazers want an “estimated $20 million per year” to be given to them “from the state’s general fund.” The team claims that this allows them to start a $600 million renovation of the current arena. However, as OregonLive notes, the Blazers' situation is not similar to last year's MLB giveaway. The NBA team's players/staff have already been paying “into the…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

LA28 promised Los Angeles residents a zero-cost Olympics, now want several hundred million in taxpayer money

In 2017, the International Olympic Committee awarded the City of Los Angeles the 2028 Olympics. Right after being awarded the 2028 games, the mayor of Los Angeles signed a host contract, which forced the city to be the "financial backstop" and therefore responsible for "paying off any debts" that arose from the games. Even better, as the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 2017 story, the city will have "more than a decade to prepare." Most importantly,…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena Ballpark Stadium

Buffalo is struggling to limit city leaders access to the luxury suites at the Bills new stadium

Last year, the Buffalo Bills beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC playoff game. The Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, billed taxpayers for almost $600 worth of wine and a total bill that day of $1923 and change. As the Buffalo News reported, it would eventually come out that taxpayers had paid “more than $6300” for the governor to attend four different games. According to the state and county, this luxury suite is “meant…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

Santa Clara is not spending taxpayer money on the World Cup. Wait, yes they are

For those who don't know, Levi Stadium in Santa Clara was selected to be one of 16 cities hosting World Cup games in 2026. The six games at Levi Stadium will be played between June 13 and July 1 of next year. Considering how contentious the history has been between the San Francisco 49ers and the city of Santa Clara, I figured something would blow up with this event. Then I recently saw this headline in the…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

The San Francisco 49ers promise to pay for all World Cup expenses…somewhat…kind of…maybe?

Last week, the San Francisco 49ers publicly vowed to cover Santa Clara’s expenses for the World Cup games. The 49ers will use money that they received from their NFL operations to cover the costs. One estimate claims that it will cost Santa Clara about $50M to stage the games. Except, as the mayor reminded everyone, the 49ers promised to only cover all “approved costs”. That can be interpreted many ways, considering the terrible history between the…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

The Arizona Diamondbacks continue to demand that everyone else pay for their expenses

Eventually, in 2018, an agreement between Maricopa County and the Arizona Diamondbacks was finalized that essentially allowed the team to take over all Chase Field maintenance in exchange for the opportunity to seek a new ballpark at another location. The team quickly fixed all of their issues with their wallet, right? No. What about those massive problems listed by the team? For some strange reason, after the team took over management of the ballpark, “hardly…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena

Applied Economics teaches the Sacramento Kings how to polish a small turd into a large diamond

Didn't Sacramento arena critics foresee this exact issue in 2013-2014, when the deal was being discussed publicly? Why yes, they did. Not to worry, though, as “city officials…insisted it wasn’t likely” that the city would ever need to dip into their general fund since parking revenues would always cover the yearly bond payments. You see, the arena deal “protects the general fund” as arena supporters claimed in 2013.

William Neilson Jr.
Arena Ballpark Stadium

Chattanooga’s ballpark costs continues to rise, supporters still claim the ballpark will pay for itself

In Chattanooga, the price of their new ballpark continues to skyrocket. If you remember, two years ago, the city was facing fierce opposition from locals who didn't want to give any taxpayer money towards a new ballpark. But the city decided that this new ballpark would be a “home run for the community” and approved the deal.  This meant the city would be putting up roughly $80 million dollars for the project.

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

Major League Baseball continues to extort taxpayer money out of numerous cities

Several years ago, Major League Baseball decided to eliminate numerous minor league baseball teams. They also updated the ballpark facility standards for minor league baseball teams. What does that mean exactly? What things must be upgraded or built? It is now mandatory for a ballpark to have “larger clubhouses, brighter stadium lights, covered batting and pitching tunnels and other details”. Let's not forget the price of these upgrades, which “will be quite high”.

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

San Francisco 49ers continue to find new ways of screwing over Santa Clara

Santa Clara continues to claim that the 49ers are hiding financial information from the city. A civil grand report from last year claims that the city of Santa Clara hadn't seen any revenue from…events in six years nor have they seen any money from…events from the stadium's most recent fiscal year. When it was announced last year that a report was being done by a civil grand jury, the 49ers responded with an unusual act…

William Neilson Jr.