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)…
Read More 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…
Read More Now that the Browns are moving out of the downtown area, residents are left to deal with two billionaire owners demanding countless amounts of money for upgrades. Most rational people would look at this situation and wonder why an owner like the Cleveland Cavaliers Dan Gilbert, with a net worth north of $20B, is not paying for 100% of his arena upgrades. The answer is because he knows that he doesn't have to pay for…
Read More The Anaheim Angels need to be held to the same standard as sports teams holding their cities when the government handles the facility. However, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to see some local leaders appearing to give the team ways out of their lease agreement. Others suggest the ballpark is, in fact, a first-class ballpark right now. One City Councilman told a local media outlet that the lease agreement to him seemed…
Read More Hamilton county agreed to “guarantee 50,000 tickets sold per game”, agreed to give the Cincinnati Bengals all stadium management rights, agreed to give the team all advertising revenues, agreed to give the team all money made from food or beverages and agreed to pay for all stadium maintenance or capital projects. But best of all, the county agreed to give the Bengals a state-of-the-art provision that essentially allowed the Bengals to go to the county…
Read More The new stadium has brought virtually nothing economically back to the city and therefore the stadium debt continues to account for more than almost 20% of Hamilton County's yearly budget. Did I mention that the lease agreement says that the stadium must be in a state-of-the-art condition? This means that every few years, Mike Brown will demand any number of new toys for his stadium, like a new scoreboard, and taxpayers are mandated to pay…
Read More The San Antonio Spurs want a new arena. That isn't new or shocking news. But if you want actual news on this subject? Good luck. For the last year or so, the Spurs and city officials have kept every possible detail out of public view if it pertains to a new arena. No discussions. No interviews. Just silence. Now, will taxpayers end up paying quite a bit? Sure. But they won't know about it until…
Read More In July, the Chattanooga Lookouts, a minor league baseball team, reached an agreement with the city to build a new ballpark. Although the price was originally going to be $79.5 million, the final price tag was actually $120 million. Not to worry, though, as the public contribution amount is capped at…$112 million? Ever since 2022, local groups in Chattanooga have been pressuring local officials to make sure that the community was represented whenever a community…
Read More The Cincinnati Bengals are frustrated with Hamilton County on the lack of progress with lease negotiations. The Bengals need to sign a new lease rather soon because their current one runs through 2026. The Cincinnati Enquirer got emails between the team and city showing how displeased both were with the other side. The team believes that there may not be any “political will for any deal” according to their Vice President. They point out how…
Read More For the third year in a row, FC Cincinnati co-CEO, Jeff Berding, has gone in front of the Cincinnati Regional Chamber and pushed for a new arena to be built, with or without a sports team attached to it. This year, Berding spoke about how the size of Cincinnati and the fact that many other cities of Cincinnati's size have arenas.
Read More We know that FC Cincinnati has plans for an entertainment district, a 150-room hotel tower, 450+ apartments, 85,000 square feet of commercial and retail space and up to 600 parking spaces. Last year, FC Cincinnati asked the city to make major changes to the stadium agreement. The team wanted additional land to be deemed as “planned development” and for the boundary of the development to be increased further north. FC Cincinnati also asked the city…
Read More A full year had not even passed since FC Cincinnati's housing promise, when the Cincinnati Enquirer found out that at least 20 people were, in fact, being displaced by the new stadium. Many more would follow, and the above two examples are ones of many that I could write about. The kicking out of the 99-year-old woman caused so much local anger that FC Cincinnati decided to keep her building in their plans, rather than…
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