Field of Schemes
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Rays stump for $2B stadium subsidy by releasing pictures of fans all raising fists in air at once
It’s been a while since Tampa Bay Rays officials released any stadium renderings, and with talks on getting almost $2 billion in cash and tax breaks from the city and county seemingly on hold, no time like the present to drum up any excitement possible from some images of what a new building may or […]
Building a Marlins stadium during the financial crisis is about to hit Miami with a tsunami of debt payments
Something I like to harp on here is that news articles that rage against governments still paying off stadiums after they’ve been torn down are missing the point: How to pay for a stadium, whether with cash now or bonds that can be refinanced into the far future, is just a financing choice, like deciding […]
World Cup economic impact still hard to find, but at least we’ll always have the “togetherness”
The U.S. Men’s National Team is now extremely out of the World Cup, joining co-hosts Canada and Mexico on the sidelines, but North America still has two more weeks of the sweet, sweet international tourism that comes with hosting the tournament. Or, you know, not: As Toronto’s official FIFA World Cup 2026 hosting duties come […]
Indiana gov to Porter County: If you want to miss out on fun of giving $250m in tax money to Bears, your loss
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun says he isn’t sweating Porter County leaders’ opposition to raising food and beverage taxes for a new Chicago Bears stadium the next county over, because really it’s Porter County that would be missing out on all the fun of taking part in shoveling money at the Bears owners: Under the law, […]
Friday roundup: Portlanders balk at giving Blazers owner $600m, KC gives initial okay of $235m to expand 2-year-old soccer stadium
Too damn hot! Gonna see how few words I can use today, to save electricity, y’know. That headline already caused voltage reductions across Brooklyn! A poll by two Portland city councilmembers found that city residents oppose spending $600 million on Trail Blazers arena upgrades 49-42%, but only 45-44% after they’re told that it would be a […]
Chiefs owners claim report they won’t show you says stadium will create $8.4B in something or other
The Kansas City Chiefs (actually the owners of the Kansas City Chiefs, but journalists like to refer to team management metonymically this way, even though, like calling the current leadership of the United States “the United States,” it causes all sorts of problems, sorry, where were we?) released an economic impact report claiming that their new stadium […]
Royals prepare rezoning plan for new stadium district, even as $1.35B in public money remains up in air
Kansas City Royals execs have submitted a rezoning plan for their proposed new stadium development at Crown Center, which Fox4KC, citing the team’s application, describes as “a vibrant mixed-use destination that supports a wide variety of year-round activities – including professional sporting events, concerts, festivals, community gatherings, private events, sponsorship activations and other programmed experiences.” Or […]
NC house leaders balk at spending $1.7B in tax money on stadium for nonexistent MLB team
WRAL in North Carolina this weekend uncovered the financing plans for a new publicly funded stadium for an as-yet-theoretical MLB expansion team in Raleigh, and while it didn’t publish the legislative language itself, the TV station’s coverage did make clear that the project could cost taxpayers a whole lot more than just the $700 million […]
Friday roundup: Pelicans owner seeks deal for state-funded velour, ballot measure on Royals stadium could face court fight
First off, a special note of thanks to all the FoS supporters who get daily posts by email for your patience while I’ve spent the last week or two figuring out how to make the formatting more readable on mobile devices. (The actual code took just a few minutes to write; figuring out where to […]
Portland legislators question $600m gift to Blazers owner, who replies locals should be glad he pays any taxes at all
The standoff over spending $235 million in city and county money on Portland Trail Blazers arena upgrades to go along with $365 million in already-approved state money — and $0 from Blazers’ billionaire owner Tom Dundon — continues, with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson issuing a public letter declaring it a “transformational civic project” while city […]
Pritzker ready to okay Illinois giving public money to Bears, even if everyone’s pretending it’s not public money
Crain’s Chicago has another article quoting Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as saying the ball is in the Chicago Bears owners’ court as far as coming up with a demand for an Illinois stadium bill, just like Pritzker already said last week. The governor went a bit further this time in saying that Bears execs are actually […]
Colts owners weigh ways to get in line behind Bears for Indiana stadium subsidies
FoS commenter John Bladen, three months ago to the day: I will take this notion of the Bears in Indiana slightly seriously when I hear Colts ownership demanding that ‘whatever Indiana does for the Bears, they must do for us- err, again, err….” Good news, John, your wager may be paying off: Experts say the […]
Suburban Illinois mayors are pitching Bears on stadium sites again as Indiana plans falter
The Chicago Bears‘ search for the city that will lavish it with the most public stadium dollars has officially re-entered the throwing-stuff-at-the-wall stage, with fresh suburbs entering the fray. Last week, McCook, Illinois Mayor Terrance Carr and four of his top officials hand-delivered a letter to Bears execs spelling out a stadium proposal in his village […]
Friday roundup: NC may earmark $700m for stadium for imaginary MLB team, Steelers could seek upgrade on “expiring” 25-year-old home
Before we get to this week’s news roundup, some old business from last week: I shamefully forgot to give a shoutout to John Mozena for his outstanding liveblog of the stadium-related papers at University of Maryland-Baltimore County’s annual sports economics conference after I was unable to attend. Please check out John’s work at the Center […]
Creating authority to own Browns stadium would push Haslam’s total taxpayer subsidy to $1.3B
Cleveland Browns update: University of Colorado Denver economist Geoff Propheter got back to me yesterday with an estimate for how much Brook Park, Ohio will give up in property taxes by setting up a public authority to own a Browns stadium, and the number is: $539 million in present value, on the low end. (While […]
Brook Park gives initial okay to stadium authority to provide more tax breaks for Browns owner
The Cleveland Browns are already in the process of moving to a new $2.4 billion stadium in suburban Brook Park with the aid of $600 million in state money and $245 million in city money — they’ve even held a groundbreaking — but that doesn’t mean team owner Jimmy Haslam is done asking for stuff. In […]
LOLWorld Cup report: Long lines, high prices, sea of red ink for host nations, windfall profits for FIFA
The World Cup is now finally underway, and aside from the endless string of matches with no winner, how’s that going? A stadium workers’ strike in Los Angeles was averted, and the great water bottle kerfuffle died down, but have there are least been the promised travel nightmares and budgetary fiascos? Early signs are mixed, […]
Introducing Field of Schemes: the Expanded Universe
Fairly regularly I get asked, “When are you going to write another book on sports stadiums?” I get the impetus behind the question: The first edition of Field of Schemes came out almost 30 years ago at this point, and while the book has been updated twice since then, a lot of stadium and arena […]
Friday roundup: KC could spend $235m+ to expand 2-year-old soccer stadium; Rays vote put off at least to August
How is it Friday again already? Is there more than one Friday per week now? Is it always Friday? Discuss in comments. When the owners of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current agreed to build a $117 million soccer stadium mostly with private money in 2022, it was seen as a rare win for keeping public costs […]
Indiana, Illinois still jockeying to throw billions of dollars at Bears stadium
If last Friday’s announcement that the Chicago Bears were “advancing” a stadium project in Hammond, Indiana was meant to end debate about where the team’s new home will be, it’s not working. If it was meant to stir up debate, by reigniting the bidding war that fizzled when the Illinois legislature declined to pass a big […]
Two months after Royals stadium deal proposed, KC mayor still hasn’t asked for state funds
It’s been two months since Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced plans for a new Kansas City Royals stadium development in the downtown Crown Center, using $600 million in city property tax kickbacks, $350 million or more in state money, and $400 million or more in additional tax exemptions, and we still don’t know much about […]
Liveblog: What economists are telling us this year about sports stadiums
I unfortunately had to cancel my trip to this year’s sports economics conference at University of Maryland-Baltimore County starting today, but friend of Field of Schemes John Mozena of the Center for Economic Accountability generously offered to liveblog from there instead. Take it away, John, I will be following eagerly along with other readers! —Neil […]
Plano just approved how much money exactly for a new Dallas Stars arena?
I didn’t make it to this week’s annual sports economics conference in Maryland that starts this morning, but a special guest blogger has offered to report back on the stadium papers presented there, so please tune back in later today for that. (UPDATE: now underway!) In the meantime, I’ve taken on the task of figuring […]
Bears announce they’re moving to Indiana, unless they don’t
Friday news dumps may not work anymore in their original purpose of hiding bad news, but they can still be useful when someone wants to influence the social media discourse without risk of anyone in an official capacity picking up the phone until three days later. That looks to be what just happened with the Chicago […]
Friday roundup: Manfred’s funny Rays poll numbers, Chiefs sales tax fight, MLS wants even more Big O money
You probably noticed, but it’s Friday! Which brings us, with no further ado, to the rest of the week’s news: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said that he’s “hopeful” that a Tampa Bay Rays stadium in Tampa will win final approval, given that “we think the polling runs about 60-40 in favor of the stadium.” Actual […]
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