Tag: NBA

Arena Ballpark Stadium

The absurdity of non-disclosure agreements, sports and taxpayer money

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 a deal is done first. How can this be legal? We are talking about taxpayer money. We are talking about city officials and negotiators...the…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena Ballpark Stadium

Yet another “historic” community benefits agreement…this time in Chattanooga

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 benefits agreement (CBA) was discussed.

William Neilson Jr.
Arena Stadium

Isn’t it great when sports owners announce upgrades to their arena while contributing little to nothing themselves?

In Utah, the Smith Entertainment Group owns the local NBA and NHL teams. In order for this group to get almost a billion dollars from taxpayers to pay for upgrades to the current arena, the Group pledged to pay $3B dollars of their own money on upgrading the arena and renovations outside the venue. Only problem? Nobody knows any details about this pledge to pay $3B dollars. Can he walk away from this? Is it in writing? Is it just something he may not want to do in a few years? Who knows?

William Neilson Jr.
Stadium

Carolina Panthers officials swear their economic impact numbers are real, they just can’t prove it

Several weeks ago, the Carolina Panthers were given $650 million by the city of Charlotte to renovate their current NFL stadium. Nevermind that the Panthers owner has a less-than-perfect history of following through on commitments (then refuses to talk about it publicly). Nevermind that he is one of the richest men in the entire world. Maybe one of the worst owners too, but that is for another time. Anyway, since the deal was approved several weeks ago, some city leaders have been getting public pushback on their approval of it. This was the biggest public investment in Charlotte's history.…

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 decided to…change the name of the property from Parcel B to “Dan Paul Plaza”. They named it after a man who in 1996 “opposed…

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

Little Caesars Arena was going to change Detroit per the Ilitch Family, then it did nothing

Back in 2014, the city of Detroit was debating what to do with their old arena that the Detroit Red Wings played in. On one hand, they could do nothing and let the Red Wings figure out what to do on their own. On the other hand, they could give the Red Wings owners, the Ilitch Family, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to build a new arena. When the Ilitch family initially proposed a new $450 million dollar arena and placed it in downtown Detroit, they were praised for the location by many. This new arena was going…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

The Las Vegas Review-Journal claims the Oakland A’s will “boost” their economy, increase tourism & give city additional dollars.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal went after these teachers for their political action committee. According to the newspaper, the teachers are simply “blinded by its misguided opposition”. I was interested to see what the newspaper would say as to why the teachers were wrong. Instead, the Las Vegas Review-Journal uses the same arguments that have been disproven numerous times.

William Neilson Jr.
Arena

Philadelphia 76ers pinky swear they will prioritize minorities even more

The idea that this Philadelphia 76ers deal can be looked at as privately funded is crazy. Nobody can say whether this project is actually privately funded until all the details of the project are released by the team. We don't know who is paying for the land where the new arena would sit. Furthermore, the 76ers still intend to demand a “tax increment financing deal” that would cut their property tax rates and allow them to take taxpayer money to fund the construction.

William Neilson Jr.
Arena

Sacramento Kings arena is losing money. MLS keeps turning down city expansion efforts. Mayor thinks more sports teams would help

Did we mention that San Diego, the city who did win the expansion team, paid a $500 million expansion fee? That is three times what their proposed stadium was supposed to cost. Yikes. The mayor also seems to enjoy telling the public how much he is doing behind the scenes. He can't just tell us because...he can't. He told the Sacramento Bee that when it comes to whether Sacramento will get an MLS team, the mayor wishes that he “could tell you and the public everything, but I can't”. What about possibly getting an MLB team? The A's? He…

William Neilson Jr.
Arena

The Sacramento Kings arena has revenue questions both for today and in the future

Sacramento's debt manager recently announced that at the end of 2024, a city assessment will need to be done to figure out how the city will pay off the arena's bond debt. The city may be forced to dip into their general fund to pay off the bonds that are due. Similar to what the city had to do in 2021-2022 when arena revenues were again down to a point where the revenues did not pay off the yearly bond payment.

William Neilson Jr.