stadium Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Columbus <em></em>Fiasco Shows That MLS Is No Different
Earlier this week, Anthony Precourt, the San Francisco-based owner of the Columbus Crew, announced that he would pick up stakes and move the team to Austin unless the city bought him a shiny new downtown stadium. Columbus does not need a new soccer stadium, because the current stadium is only 18 yea...
The Pistons Couldn't Give Tickets To Their First Game At Detroit's Dumb New Arena Away
There has been much fanfare in Metro Detroit about the $863 million new stadium downtown that serves as the new home for both the Red Wings and the Pistons, which was paid for in part by $324 million in public money from the city and the state. The stadium, which is named after cheap pizza, is by al...
Columbus Crew, Welcome To The Stadium Extortion Racket
MLS is not and for the foreseeable future will not be one of this country’s so-called Big Four, but let no one say the scrappy upstart doesn’t extort American cities like a big-boy league. The league’s rapid expansion—someone without a stake in the matter would say too rapid—has cities from Cincinna...
Las Vegas Sneakily Gave Away $80 Million For A New Triple-A Stadium
If you read the press release announcing the construction of a new ballpark out in Summerlin, Nev. for the Las Vegas 51s, you might have thought that the construction would mercifully be completed without use of public money. The Raiders’ stadium deal is the worst heist in American history, and one ...
Look At This Big Dumb World Cup Stadium
Soccer fans who travel to see some hot World Cup action next summer in Yekaterinburg, the easternmost of Russia’s 11 host cities, will not only get to watch soccer from inside a stadium, they’ll also simultaneously get to watch soccer from outside the very same stadium, thanks to some creative const...
What The NHL Is Doing In Calgary Is Pretty Gross
Let’s cut through the sports angle and put in plain terms exactly what’s happening here:...
The Patriots Are Sorry They Charged Fans $4.50 For Tap Water
In his new pseudo-health book, Tom Brady warns readers not to drink tap water. “Even when you use tap water for steaming vegetables,” he writes, “it’s better to filter it first.” Sunday, the Patriots ran out of Brady’s precious bottled water at the Gillette Stadium concession stands, and then had th...
Nobody Went To Watch The 49ers Again
I suppose at some point this will qualify as beating a dead horse, but holy smokes, man, nobody went to watch the 49ers last night....
The Oakland A's Have Finally Decided Where They Want To Build Their Ballpark
The first step in the Oakland A’s long, seemingly never-ending quest for a new ballpark has reportedly been taken. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that A’s ownership has settled on a desired location for a new stadium. Now, they just have to convince everyone else—from the current land-owners to...
Flames, NHL Claim Team May Move If Calgary Doesn't Give Rich Asshole Millions
The Calgary Flames announced today that they’re done trying to bilk hundreds of millions of dollars from the city to pay for a new arena, again suggesting that they’re ready and willing to relocate if that’s what it takes to get a new stadium that they don’t have to fund themselves—unless, that is, ...
The 49ers' Stadium Is As Empty As It Deserves To Be
In the last few seasons the 49ers played at Candlestick Park, I got into the gate for roughly $50 per game. The swarms of ushers and ticket-checkers customary at modern professional sports games were conspicuously absent at the old concrete bowl, and so by the end of the 2013 regular season, I’d fou...
Want To Avoid Getting Screwed On Arena Deals? Look To Seattle.<em></em>
Nine years ago, Seattle’s sports scene was in about as dire circumstances as a city can get. The owner of the SuperSonics, Starbucks mogul Howard Schultz, had thrown a hissy fit over Washington’s refusal to gift him $220 million to renovate an arena that had just been renovated 11 years earlier, and...
Cavaliers Give Up On Trying To Make Cleveland Pay For Arena Renovations
Eighteen days after Ohio’s Supreme Court decided that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ proposed $140 million arena renovations merited a referendum and the public’s input, the NBA team has decided to pull out of the project....
Here Is Another Incredibly Sad Attempt At Arena Financing Grift
The New Orleans Pelicans will launch a developmental-league team before the start of the 2018-19 season, but first, they have to decide where it’ll go. Five cities were initially vying for the right to join the NBA’s minor league (which recently rebranded to serve as an advertisement for a sports dr...
The Desperate Future Of Cal Athletics Is Here
The athletics program at the University of California, Berkeley, in, say, 2037 will barely resemble what you see today. And the hammer is already starting to fall....
Ohio Supreme Court Rules That Dan Gilbert's Proposed Arena Renovations Deserve A Referendum
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ arena was renovated 12 years ago, but team owner Dan Gilbert has spent almost a year fighting a pitched battle to divert millions of dollars in public money towards extensive arena renovations. The proposed slate of renovations would cost $140 million, with half the tab bein...
The Braves' New Ballpark Is An Urban Planner's Nightmare
In 1965, voters from the five counties that still make up metro Atlanta—Cobb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Clayton and DeKalb—went to the ballot box to decide the future of the region’s public transportation system. The counties that voted “yes” would begin planning a regional rail system that would eventually...
Study Finds Buying Brewers New Spring Training Park Will Lose Money, So Town Buries Study And Commissions Friendlier One
The Brewers want a new spring training park. Gilbert, Ariz., would like to give it to them. The stadium would cost $90 million; the Brewers offered to pay $20 million of that. The adjoining mixed-use “village,” including retail and hotel, would cost another $70 million; the Brewers offered to pay no...
Diamondbacks Run To Mommy To Further Attempt To Gouge Arizona Taxpayers
The Diamondbacks are bringing Major League Baseball into their ongoing attempt to fleece taxpayers out of more money to get a new ballpark. An attorney for the D-backs is claiming that MLB has claimed that if they don’t get a new ballpark or major upgrades to their current park, the league “might” f...
"Megatron's Butthole" To Remain Clenched
When we last checked in on the progress of the Atlanta Falcons’ new stadium, which features an eight-petal retractable roof known as “Megatron’s Butthole,” things were stopped up. The Atlanta Journal Constitution brings us an update today, and it looks like the hole will remain closed for some time....