Field of Schemes
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Does Tom Dundon really want to move the Trail Blazers, or he just creating leverage?
One of the persistent themes in the ever-non-evolving Portland Trail Blazers arena saga has been the question of what new team owner Tom Dundon really wants. Oh, he’s made clear enough what he’s asking for: $600 million in taxpayer money to spend on upgrading his 31-year-old arena, in exchange for which he’ll keep paying (some) taxes. […]
Broncos execs tired of waiting for someone to give them land and money for stadium
It’s been almost a year since Denver Broncos owners Greg and Carrie Penner, Mayor Mike Johnston, and Gov. Jared Polis announced plans for a new stadium to be built by 2031 at Denver’s state-owned Burnham Yard railyards, with the big remaining questions being how much the Penners would pay for the land, how they would get it […]
Friday roundup: Blazers arena staredown escalates, haggling continues in Rays stadium standoff
Happy Friday! There’s nothing in the latest batch of stadium and arena news that can quite compete with the European and North/Central American soccer federations vowing to start boycotting FIFA events as soon as this September if FIFA sells operating rights to the World Cup to Jared Kushner’s brother, but it was still a pretty […]
Where will Tom Dundon move the Trail Blazers? Probably nowhere
The Portland Trail Blazers arena dispute so far in a nutshell: Tom Dundon, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes and past purveyor of predatory lending car loans, bought the Blazers from the estate of the late Paul Allen for $4.25 billion. With four years to go on a short-term lease with the city for the arena that Allen […]
County commissioners propose giving Blazers owner $35m from different taxpayer pocket
The two Multnomah County commissioners who are trying to call a do-over on the county’s proposed $100 million or so in spending toward $600 million in Portland Trail Blazers renovations have revealed more details of their plan, and it’s looking less like pulling $35 million from the pot than taking it from a different pocket: […]
Hearing to get public feedback on Royals stadium shut down early after public gives too much feedback
Representatives of the Kansas City Royals and the Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation held a required public hearing on their rezoning proposals for a new Royals stadium complex yesterday, and and they absolutely heard from the public: “We already said no to a downtown baseball stadium, and here it comes back again,” said Mary Ellen Vincent, a […]
Tampa council swing vote opens talks with Rays about his price for approving stadium deal
Anytime you have a one-vote margin on a stadium deal, as currently exists on the Tampa city council, you can expect to see team officials see what it’ll take the peel off a swing vote to get themselves a majority. And we’re starting to see what that haggling is going to look like for the Tampa […]
Friday roundup: Tampa council slams brakes on Rays stadium approvals, A’s find an investor (maybe sorta)
Lots of other news this week while we were off on Portland Trail Blazers watch: The Tampa city council has made two moves to throw the brakes on Tampa Bay Rays owner Patrick Zalupski’s proposed $2 billion stadium subsidy, voting 4-3 to not send a land-use amendment to the state for approval, while also removing […]
Can Tom Dundon move the Blazers or not? Let’s read his lease and find out!
I didn’t mean for this to be an all–Portland Trail Blazers week, but here we are. The latest news is that, on top of anonymous team officials saying they won’t dignify the city’s lease offer with a response, anonymous city officials say they’ll wait for a counteroffer because to do otherwise would be “negotiating against […]
Blazers execs to Oregon taxpayers: Consider yourselves lucky to only be giving us $600m
Two days into the week, and Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon’s strategy for getting arena renovation money is becoming clear: Send team officials to talk to the media under cover of anonymity to sell his $600 million demand. That’s a typical enough gambit — though finding two media suckers in a row to agree to […]
How much will Portland officials give to Tom Dundon to keep him from moving the Blazers like he’s said he won’t?
Amid the ongoing staredown over $235 million in city and county funding for Portland Trail Blazers arena renovations, the news media dropped a slew of articles this weekend on the latest developments, such as they are: The Oregonian (reprinted at MSN without a paywall) asked all 12 Portland city councilmembers what they want out of […]
Friday roundup: Tampa plans for Rays keep going sideways; new stadium funding demands in Orlando, D.C.
Happy Friday to those of you who can see this through all the burning Canada! Everyone stay safe, mask up, and stay indoors to read the latest sports subsidy news, only most of which this week involves Florida men: Hillsborough County Commission chair Ken Hagan said Wednesday that if the Tampa city council won’t go […]
Chicago to vote on swiping $287m in tax money from next neighborhood over to fund Fire soccer stadium development
Last September, when the Chicago city council voted to approve a new Fire soccer stadium at the downtown The 78 site that had previously been considered for a White Sox stadium, I reported that “Fire owner Joe Mansueto says he’ll build [it] with his own money, so there should be no public funding involved” but also […]
Portland could vote on $120m Blazers arena subsidy before knowing where money would come from, this should work out well
And speaking of “Approve sports spending first, work out the details later,” this just in from Portland, Oregon regarding Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon’s $600 million arena renovation request: As a deadline to commit public dollars to Moda Center renovations rapidly approaches, it appears that Portland city councilors will be asked to approve spending $120 […]
Proposed Indiana tax hikes could fail to pay off $1B in Bears stadium bonds, leave taxpayers on hook for even more
Five months after the Indiana state legislature passed a funding bill for a Chicago Bears stadium that amounted to “What if we built an NFL stadium construction plan entirely out of handwaves?“, the Chicago Tribune’s Robert McCoppin has taken a look at exactly who would be paying for what under the deal. Better yet, he […]
Can Portland make Blazers owner pay a fair share of $600m arena renovation cost? The Oregonian investimagates
The Oregonian ran an incredibly long (by 2026 standards) article on Friday on the Portland Trail Blazers arena situation, including lots of useful information but thematically muddled to the point where if you read it and aren’t sure what it was saying overall, you’re not alone. In all likelihood, you didn’t read past the headline (“As […]
Friday roundup: On being a fan of the World Cup without being a fan of the FIFA World Cup 2026™
Before we start with this week’s roundup, a note about the World Cup: I’m enjoying it! The one-game knockout format, even in its dumb expanded iteration, is great for generating drama, and when you mix in international politics and colonial history, you get even more opportunities for hilarity. But I enjoy most sports, even the […]
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 […]
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