Tag: Florida

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.
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…

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.
Stadium

Can anyone support the constant waste of public money by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority?

In 2024, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) spent more than $2.2M on “influencers to promote the city.” However, the LVCVA refused to tell the public how much each influencer received because LVCVA claimed it was a “trade secret.” Let me get this straight. A taxpayer-funded agency is giving taxpayer money to a contractor, and the public isn't allowed to know who was paid what?

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

Port St. Lucie leaders want to build a soccer stadium at the last second

According to Port St. Lucie city leaders, this agreement “is designed to bring economic growth, entertainment, and new opportunities to the community.” In this instance, the taxpayer money given to ESC will come from the TIF revenue. However, for the last few weeks, many city leaders have been trying their best to express one specific thing: taxpayers will not pay for the stadium. This message has been expressed time and time again whenever this subject is…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

World Cup matches were going to cost Boston taxpayers virtually nothing…until now

Today, Boston 26 argues that the city is in “jeopardy” of losing the matches unless $20 million in taxpayer money is given to them. Keep in mind that Boston 26 was first trying to demand almost $40 million but they have since brought that down to $20 million mark. But didn't Boston 26 say they wouldn't ask taxpayers for help? That everything was already in place?

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 Tampa Bay Rays owner and executives should be embarrassed at their recent comments

The Tampa Bay Rays are responsible for all cost overruns and have one of the cheapest and worst owners in all sports. So, it would make sense that Sternberg could be getting nervous and is trying to find any way possible to get out of this deal. One of the Rays team presidents, Silverman, not that long ago stated how the current deal may not be good for the Rays “in the context of Major…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

Did the cities of Fort Lauderdale & Miami actually stand up for themselves against a professional team?

When the city reminded the team of this contract agreement, Inter Miami had the nerve to ask the city to pay for the park. Why would the team do this? Especially when the lease agreement says nothing about the city paying for the public park? The team claims that during stadium negotiations, an unknown city person at some unknown time gave the team “certain agreements…but not all made it into the written contract”. After some…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

Tampa Bay Times: Just approve the new ballpark. If we don’t, people will say mean things to us

Transparent? Everyone, outside the team, knew little to nothing about this deal until the very end. A few months after the deal was announced in 2023, the Tampa Bay Times wrote an article that had this line in it: “After months of secret negotiations, the release Thursday of finance projections…”. In March of this year, the team was actively trying to get both the city and county to approve the ballpark deal. However, both Pinellas…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

More fake love for Jacksonville’s stadium proposal, this time coming from Jax Chamber

Today, I saw am opinion piece that declared how great the new Jacksonville Jaguars proposal would be for the city and state of Florida. David Miller stated in the Florida Times-Union that this deal would, in fact, be a “catalyst” for “significant and lasting benefits to our community”. Miller goes on to say that this plan would also “revitalize” the stadium, be a “landmark investment” for the city, is “vital” to addressing the “most pressing…

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

Negotiations continue to happen in secret across the country, all without the public seeing or hearing about it

This is not going to shock anyone. Sports owners hate when their plans are released and looked at intensively. Have you ever read a sports venue agreement? Try reading the Potomac Yard Economic and Fiscal Impact Study from the failed Capitals/Wizards to Alexandria, Virginia proposal. The agreements are almost impossible to read and understand unless you read these types of documents daily. This is why billionaire owners aren’t always forthcoming with initial sports venue details.…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce backs Tampa Bay Rays ballpark proposal

The Tampa Bay Rays are lucky that the package passed the city council, as it was approved barely. Apparently, language was put in very late that gave developers “more flexibility in opting out of creating affordable housing units” and gave developers a required 10%  participation from minority-owned businesses, instead of the previous language stating it was 30%. When the Community Benefits Advisory Council met to agree to the package, they had several changes that they…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena

The Miami Heat continue to screw over Miami-Dade County by refusing to follow through on their promised waterfront park

In 2003, a part of Parcel B required seawall work that cost $6 million to fix. How did the Miami Heat pay for this? They didn't. They gave the land back to the county, but continued “to lease it for extra parking and staging at special events”. This allowed the Heat to keep using it while being responsible for nothing. In 2020, the city decided that enough was enough. After 25 years, the city council…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are not putting in $30 million into their ballpark, the city is doing that for them

According to the article, the Jacksonville Jump Shrimp discussed how the “team plans to build” a facility in right field and center field, a souvenir shop and a concourse level. Towards the end of the article, a fan is quoted saying that he loves the improvements because it shows that the team was “putting that type of money” into the ballpark. The team is really putting their wallet on the line. Except, they are actually…

William Neilson Jr.