Before we get to the week’s stadium and arena news, let’s pause to appreciate that New York’s nutso mayor Eric Adams‘ campaign staff have been revealed to be under investigation for illegally accepting donations from the government of Turkey. Which I guess sort of qualifies as stadium news given Adams’ boosterism of that NYC F.C. stadium that could cost city taxpayers $800 million in infrastructure spending and tax breaks, but mostly: Yes, Turkey. Also his chief fundraiser and campaign consultant who is at the heart of the investigation is apparently 25 years old? This is going to make a great Netflix documentary in a couple of years.
But enough about my city, how’s yours doing?
- The St. Petersburg city council voted 5-3 yesterday to hold a public referendum on spending about $600 million on a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium — which means the referendum won’t happen, because the motion required a two-thirds supermajority. Also it would have been only advisory, anyway. Council chair Brandi Gabbard, who opposed the public ballot measure, said she was afraid it wouldn’t be possible to explain the stadium deal in the 75 words available, which is certainly a novel line of reasoning.
- Former Miami Marlins president David Samson says there is still “a deal to be done to keep the A’s in Oakland” because Las Vegas has “several issues that are not worked out yet” like whether A’s owner John Fisher actually has the money for his share of the project. Meanwhile, former Oakland A’s VP Andy Dolich says it would be a mistake for MLB to approve the relocation of the team from a large market to what would be baseball’s smallest. Not that either of them holds clout with the current crop of MLB owners, or they would still have jobs with them, but it’s keeping hope alive in Oakland, anyway, in advance of a likely vote by owners on relocation sometime this month.
- Here’s an article about how a special tax district for Indy Eleven‘s new $1 billion stadium wouldn’t really cost taxpayers anything because it would just be a “special tax” that will be levied on soccer fans. And here’s an article explaining that the district would actually divert existing sales and income tax revenues from a large swath of downtown toward the USL team. The city-county council is set to vote on the tax district later this month; let’s hope they’re reading all the news coverage first and not just WRTV’s.
- The Arizona Diamondbacks just got blown out in the World Series, and former team owner Jerry Colangelo thinks this makes it an excellent time to build them a new or renovated stadium, because “there’s a good vibe.” Gotta capitalize on vibes like this!
- The Oklahoma City Thunder arena has been “the centerpiece of OKC’s innovative self-help effort, producing energy and economic impact that academic studies cannot predict, but 30 years of OKC success prove,” according to some downtown business development dude who was given a “guest column” in the Oklahoman to make this case. He adds that tearing it down and building a newer one would “create new and currently unimaginable opportunities,” which, that’s certainly an interesting choice of adjectives there.
- Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt says he’s waiting to see what the Royals decide about a new stadium before deciding what to ask for in terms of a new or renovated stadium for his team. “If the Royals do decide to stay in Jackson County, that’s going to be an issue that we’ve got to resolve,” Hunt said, which is maybe a hint that he’s hoping they’ll move to the county next door so he can get all of the future sales tax proceeds? That would have been a good followup question, if the reporters covering this had asked any, oh well.