Stadium/Arena Saga Omnibus

[sky1324]

Charlotte Coliseum was built for the city to stay in the ACC's basketball rotation, but its construction led to the Hornets. Slight gray area, but I believe this one counts.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

On 10/18/2021 at 3:10 PM, B-Rich said:

 

"If you build it, they will come"

 

Places this worked:

1. Milwaukee (Milwaukee County Stadium)

2. Minnesota (Metropolitan Stadium)

3. Indianapolis (Hoosier/RCA Dome)

4. Orlando (Orlando/Amway Arena)

5. St. Petersburg (Suncoast Dome/Tropicana Field)

6. St. Louis (TransWorld/ Edward Jones Dome)

7. Memphis (kinda/sorta, with spec-built Pyramid serving as a temporary home, but  they had to agree to build the FedEx Forum to actually get a team).

8. New Orleans (New Orleans Arena/Smoothie King Center)

9. Oklahoma City (Ford Center/Chesapeake Energy Arena)

10. Las Vegas (T-Mobile Arena)

 

 

Also add the Kingdome, construction of which was begun in 1972.

 

 

[B-Rich]

 

On 11/5/2021 at 7:10 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Also add the Kingdome, construction of which was begun in 1972.

 

Not a case of the spec-approved and spec-built "if you build it, they will come."  More like  "we'll come, but you need to build a new stadium".   It was approved by Seattle voters AFTER the city was awarded the Pilots franchise.

 

Per Wikipedia:

 

In 1967, the American League granted Seattle an expansion franchise that would be known as the  Seattle Pilots. The league clearly stated Sick's Stadium was not adequate as a major-league stadium, and stipulated that as a condition of being awarded the franchise, bonds had to be issued to fund construction of a domed stadium that had to be completed by 1970; additionally, the capacity at Sick's Stadium had to be expanded from 11,000 to 30,000 by  opening day 1969, when the team was scheduled to begin playing. The Pilots were supposed to begin play in 1971 along with the Kansas City Royals. However, when  Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri got wind of those plans, he demanded both teams begin play in 1969.  The American League had birthed the Royals and Pilots as a result of the Kansas City Athletics moving to Oakland, and Symington would not accept the prospect of KAnsas City  waiting three years for baseball's return.

 

On February 13, 1968, King County voters approved the issue of $40 million in bonds to fund construction of the "King County Multipurpose Domed Stadium" with 62 percent in favor...

[The_Admiral]

I always thought that was an interesting wrinkle, how the A's screwed Seattle and helped Milwaukee because Symington did "nice antitrust exemption, shame if something happened to it" about Kansas City having to wait. I don't think we've ever had four true expansion teams join the league at once since, have we? The ABA and WHA teams came in fully formed or close to it (I think it was the Jets who got ransacked on the way in). Having one of the four fail in the first year would be a good reason why it hasn't happened since.

[SFGiants58]

5 minutes ago, the admiral said:

I always thought that was an interesting wrinkle, how the A's screwed Seattle and helped Milwaukee because Symington did "nice antitrust exemption, shame if something happened to it" about Kansas City having to wait. I don't think we've ever had four true expansion teams join the league at once since, have we? The ABA and WHA teams came in fully formed or close to it (I think it was the Jets who got ransacked on the way in). Having one of the four fail in the first year would be a good reason why it hasn't happened since.

Such a move also helped the White Sox stay in Chicago. The ‘68-‘69 squads, despite the AL not wanting to lose Chicago, were one foot out the door to Milwaukee. Getting the Brewers a year after the last of the County Stadium White Sox games didn’t hurt.

[Red Comet]

3 hours ago, the admiral said:

I always thought that was an interesting wrinkle, how the A's screwed Seattle and helped Milwaukee because Symington did "nice antitrust exemption, shame if something happened to it" about Kansas City having to wait. I don't think we've ever had four true expansion teams join the league at once since, have we? The ABA and WHA teams came in fully formed or close to it (I think it was the Jets who got ransacked on the way in). Having one of the four fail in the first year would be a good reason why it hasn't happened since.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen more threats of revoking anti-trust exemptions over issues like that. Politicians will gut their own mother over a few million more in pork for their 5 mile wide House district. What could be a bigger bit of pork than a pro sports franchise delivered by government mafioso tactics? Let’s go Royals!

[TBGKon]

A local sports talk show in Tampa was reporting some interesting details earlier this week with details from the Tweet below.  Of course, I won't believe anything until there some more tangible public knowledge, but some of these details make some sense.

 

 

 

Here's a synopsis of the highlights:

 

Stu Sternberg is bringing more money to the table for the new Ybor ballpark. Anywhere from $300-400 million. The Seminole Tribe would put up $200 million. City of Tampa would need $200-$300 million to build an open-air ballpark.

According to close sources, momentum is also gaining for Sternberg to FINALLY drop the Montreal Sister-City plan completely.

This shift of momentum comes right after the fact that newly re-elected Montreal mayor Valérie Plante, won the election against one of Stu Sternberg’s hopefuls who were willing to work with the Montreal group led by Stephen Bronfman to fund a new ballpark in Montreal.

The newly re-elected mayor Plante, is against funding a new stadium as well as the rest of Montreal tax payers after they put up a billboard sign near the Trop a couple weeks ago.

The OTHER BIG NEWS is that the current lawsuit against Stu Sternberg from the Rays minority owners has been amended.
Meaning the case would go into a jury trial instead of arbitration. This is BIG since this means there was enough evidence for litigation.

Although the Rays minority owners demand of Sternberg’s removal from Rays ownership is unlikely, the pressure is on Sternberg now.

Close sources from the league have informed JP, that MLB team owners including the commissioner, Rob Manfred were surprised when they read the lawsuit that Sternberg allegedly embezzled more than $500 million dollars from Rays Baseball LLC to his private company account.

Many other MLB owners have stated that the Rays are ruining the system, after the MLB Players Association have filed 2 grievances charges against the Rays, due to Sternberg hoarding the shared revenue given by other teams for his own profit gain instead of using it for the team’s payroll.

[The_Admiral]

Pocketing revenue sharing? The Marlins got caught doing that ten years ago. Florida, man.

[Red Comet]

So Sternberg is getting outed for robbing Peter to pay for his yacht and this absolutely exceptional idea of having two cities share one team is about to die? Feels good, man. 

[GDAWG]

So both the A's and Rays are close to solving their stadium issues. 

[FiddySicks]

5 hours ago, GDAWG said:

So both the A's and Rays are close to solving their stadium issues. 

So contraction is still on the table, huh? 

[SFGiants58]

25 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

So contraction is still on the table, huh? 

 

I did find that because Disney was losing money on the Angels, they could've been contracted and Schott/Hoffman would move to Anaheim. The A's were also in contraction talks briefly, but it was barely considered (as Schott/Hoffman weren't bleeding money like Disney was at the time).

 

Had MLB the chance to do it over, the A's and Rays would've been 1-800-235-DEAD. 

 

 

[GDAWG]

23 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

So contraction is still on the table, huh? 

 

LOL, but I can't see that happening. 

[gosioux76]

On 11/13/2021 at 10:09 AM, the admiral said:

I always thought that was an interesting wrinkle, how the A's screwed Seattle and helped Milwaukee because Symington did "nice antitrust exemption, shame if something happened to it" about Kansas City having to wait. I don't think we've ever had four true expansion teams join the league at once since, have we? The ABA and WHA teams came in fully formed or close to it (I think it was the Jets who got ransacked on the way in). Having one of the four fail in the first year would be a good reason why it hasn't happened since.

 

You're right. Since the era of league mergers, most expansion efforts have either come in pairs or, like the most recent MLS expansion, staggered one franchise per year over several years. 

 

Of the major leagues, the NBA came closest to having four teams join in short order:  Charlotte and Miami in 1988, followed by Minnesota and Orlando in 1989. 

 

[rams80]

NHL did 5 from 1991-1993 and 4 from 1998-2000 as well with notably mixed outcomes.

[DustDevil61]

Bumping because apparently the A’s have put in a bid for a potential Las Vegas ballpark site.

[GDAWG]

 

 

 

[LMU]

 

[Shumway]

I don't know much about the housing/shopping development plan around the stadium, but I feel like something around there would be nice. I was there over the summer at a hotel nearby, and the entire walk to the stadium was just parking lot. The few restaurants right there were either breweries (which were nice) or like Chipotle or...I wanna say a Denny's? Granted, I'm used to Philly, where the stadium complex is its own little mess of traffic, parking and garbage, so having more than one option to go before the game was nice.

 

The stadium itself could also use a bit of a face-lift. The concourses were all pretty dated, and the food selection wasn't great. 

[CaliforniaGlowin]

On 6/24/2020 at 8:46 PM, the admiral said:

Then fight me. I can't stand even looking at mayonnaise-based "salads." Why do they exist? Disgusting!

I just discovered deviled egg potato salad