NFL NFL Stadiums Discussion

[Exe Gesis]

Bills’ $1.4B Stadium Left Out of New York’s $216.3B Budget Proposal​

BY OWEN POINDEXTER
JANUARY 19, 2022

Negotiations between New York State and the Buffalo Bills are ongoing, but for now, there is no money for a new stadium in the state’s proposed fiscal 2023 budget.

Gov. Kathy Hochul released a record $216.3 billion budget proposal on Tuesday with no appropriation for a new team facility.

“There hasn’t been any determination because we don’t have a dollar number of what the contribution would be yet,” New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica explained. “Those talks are ongoing.”

• The cost of the stadium will be split between the team, state, and Erie County.
• The stadium could cost $1.4 billion. The Buffalo News estimated that public funds could cover around $1 billion (or 73%) based on recent NFL stadium deals in small-market cities.
• Hochul signaled support for a new stadium last month.

Hochul has 30 days to submit amendments following her initial proposal. The budget must be finalized by April 1.

Austin Still Possible?​

Team owners Kim and Terry Pegula have reportedly threatened to move the team if they don’t get a satisfactory deal, with Austin, Texas, a possible destination. Taxpayers have already chipped in $200 million for renovations to Highmark Stadium, the team’s current home.

The team’s current stadium lease expires in 2023.

For now, the Pegulas are synonymous with Buffalo sports: They also own the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, the National Lacrosse League’s Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks, the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, and an arena in Rochester.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Bryan Horwath (contact)

Rosen touts tourism bill during visit to Allegiant Stadium​

lvsun.com

Updated Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022 | 2:28 p.m.

In just over three years, Allegiant Stadium will host Super Bowl 58 — an event that will trumpet Las Vegas to an international audience as a top tourist destination. The game is broadcast in some 170-plus countries.


Today, U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., stood on the field during a news conference to sell the Omnibus Travel and Tourism Act of 2021, a bill she co-sponsored last year as chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade and Export Promotion.

The bill would designate money to promote travel and tourism in the United States, including a focus on welcoming international travelers. It has yet to reach the Senate floor.

International travel — a key component of the Las Vegas tourism demographic — has been sharply down since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.

“We have to continue to strengthen Nevada’s tourism industry,” Rosen said. “We know that tourism is a driving force of Nevada’s economy and, over the course of the past two years, it’s been hit hard by the pandemic. Too many Nevadans who have built careers in tourism and travel are still out of work.”

Standing midfield at the home of the Las Vegas Raiders, Rosen and other tourism officials touted the successes of Allegiant Stadium, which last year hosted over 1 million guests to sporting events and concerts.

Along with the 2024 Super Bowl, Allegiant Stadium will host the NFL’s Pro Bowl game early next month.

Rosen also pointed to the 2022 NFL Draft — which will take place in April in Las Vegas — as key tourism event.

“It’s my mission to make sure we overcome this pandemic,” Rosen said. “We’ve already secured $44 million that will expand, upgrade and modernize Harry Reid International Airport so we can more easily bring visitors here from across the country and around the world.”

Funding for the airport is coming through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Rosen said she would like to see better coordination of the country’s “national travel and tourism strategy across federal agencies.”

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is one of a number of Nevada-based organizations in support of the tourism bill.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Washington Commanders stadium bill clears first legislative hurdle easily in Virginia

“I’ve got blinders on for everything but numbers,” the committee chairman said.

richmond.com

 

[Constantgin]

 

[Exe Gesis]

“We have to get a new stadium in Buffalo,” Goodell says​

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 9, 2022, 6:44 PM EST

A new stadium for the Bills is a high priority for the NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell said today.

“The bottom line on it is we have to get a new stadium in Buffalo,” Goodell said. “The governor has recognized that. It’s got to be a public-private partnership. All parties are going to have to work together. That means the state, the county, the team and the NFL to be able to achieve that.”

A spokesman for New York Governor Kathy Hochul told the Buffalo News that “negotiations are ongoing” with the state, the team, the league and Erie County.

Goodell said the new stadium will be needed within about five years, which means there isn’t much time to get started. Bills owners Kim and Terry Pegula want the state to foot the bill for most of the cost of the stadium.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Roger Goodell expects Los Angeles to be a “regular Super Bowl stop”​

Posted by Charean Williams on February 9, 2022, 7:51 PM EST

Greater Los Angeles will host its eighth Super Bowl on Sunday, but it’s the first since Jan. 31, 1993. The Cowboys beat the Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII in the Rose Bowl.

The Rams and Raiders left Los Angeles after the 1994 season, and the NFL didn’t return to Los Angeles until 2016. So the Super Bowl didn’t return either until two years after SoFi Stadium debuted as the home of the Rams and Chargers.

Now, the NFL expects Los Angeles to be a regular in the Super Bowl rotation.

“It’s sort of great that we’re sitting here with the backdrop of the stadium and the media center,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday. “It did come with a lot of ups and downs. Losing two teams from the NFL in the 1990s was a difficult period for us and our fans. I think it’s something we worked really hard to resolve, but we really wanted to find the right solution. One of the things I’m really confident about sitting here, and feeling it this week, is that we really landed in the right spot. We have a state-of-the-art stadium that I think reflects this great community in the entertainment capital of the world. It now has two NFL teams playing here, which I think has been extraordinarily successful in reestablishing two teams here. Then, we have what I think is really the ultimate event, which is the Super Bowl, here. To me, it’s sort of surreal that we’re here in many ways after all these years — 29 years since we had the last Super Bowl (in Los Angeles).

“I think this is going to be a regular Super Bowl stop, because of that stadium. It really started with the stadium. We needed to have a state-of-the-art stadium that gave us the ‘wow factor,’ that gave us the ability to put on these events and frankly attract other events other than the Super Bowl. We don’t have a Super Bowl until LV. That would be the earliest we would consider LA, but I would be hard pressed to think that they’re not going to be at the top of everybody’s list every opportunity we can.”

Super Bowl LVII is in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, next year, in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in 2024 and Super Bowl LIX is at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans in 2025.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Titans exploring new stadium in Nashville​

Posted by Josh Alper on February 17, 2022, 3:39 PM EST

The Titans were in talks with Nashville about renovations to Nissan Stadium, but they may be getting an entirely new home instead.

In a recent appearance on WNSR, via Terry McCormick of TitansInsider.com, Butch Spyridon of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau said that talks about renovations resulted in plans that would run to a cost of around $600 million. A Titans spokespersonn told Nate Rau of Axios that the price tag is actually estimated at nearly double that amount and that “we need to take a step back and re-evaluate if a stadium renovation is the most responsible option forward and explore other paths.”

The spokesperson notes that the stadium’s structural frame “needs to be largely replaced with steel” and that “mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems need to be completely replaced.” Nashville Mayor John Cooper confirmed “revised cost estimates require us to closely review whether a new stadium would be a better long-term financial decision.”

Talks between the team and the city are reportedly progressing well, but moving from renovations to a new stadium raises issues that will need to be ironed out. Among them is whether the stadium will have a roof, which would cost more while also putting the city in the running for bigger events like the Super Bowl and Final Four in the future. The financing for any building is another significant question that would have to be answered before moving forward in Nashville.

 

[Exe Gesis]

St. Louis settlement allocation remains unresolved​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 17, 2022, 11:35 PM EST

Now that the 2021 season has ended with the Rams winning the Super Bowl, a significant in-season legal setback must be addressed, eventually.

As explained by Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, the question of whether Rams owner Stan Kroenke will pay all or most of the $790 million settlement with St. Louis still lingers.

At the time the case was settled at mediation by the NFL’s lawyers — for an amount less than Kroenke’s lawyers would have agreed to pay to St. Louis, as a source with knowledge of the dynamics previously explained it to PFT — the league’s position was simple. The money would be charged to Kroenke’s account. In other words, the league would subtract the $790 million from payments made to the 32 teams via shared revenue, such as the multi-billion-dollar broadcasting deals.

Fischer reports that many owners still regard the situation as “an open-and-shut case,” given that Kroenke agreed to indemnify his partners upon securing permission to move the team from St. Louis to Los Angeles. Kroenke’s position was and still is that the implosion of the common defense wasn’t his fault. His lawyers have blamed, for example, arguments made by the Chargers and Raiders during the competition for L.A. relocation approval as providing the blueprint for the St. Louis lawsuit. Likewise, Kroenke may contend that deposition testimony from other owners (particularly Panthers founder Jerry Richardson) backed the league into a corner, forcing the massive payment to conclude a case the league initially regarded as a pimple on its posterior.

As PFT explained at the time, the indemnity language contains a gaping loophole. By referring only to “costs,” the obligation arguably doesn’t encompass the settlement or judgment.

And while the league would surely take the position that the Commissioner must resolve all relevant legal questions (a handy device for stacking the deck), Kroenke would have a potential avenue to take the fight to court, arguing that the arbitration obligation extends only to the costs that should be paid, and not to the question of whether the settlement constitutes an indemnified cost.

The matter will be discussed at the March meetings, per Fischer. A resolution isn’t expected.

If a fight ensues, it could have real ramifications for the league office, and specifically for general counsel Jeff Pash and the outside lawyers who drafted the indemnity paperwork. If a judge concludes that the ball was dropped on the fairly simple question of whether the paperwork was properly written, the fault begins with the lawyers who wrote it, and it extends to the general counsel who approved it.

Ultimately, the buck (all 790 million of them) stops on the desk of Roger Goodell.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Bill introduced to end tax break for stadium builds

Lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at eliminating subsidies used by professional sports teams to help fund new stadiums. They cited in part the investigation into the Washington Commanders workplace and the league's response as impetus for the bill.

www.espn.com

 

[Exe Gesis]

Bill introduced to eliminate tax subsidies for pro stadium construction​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 23, 2022, 6:31 AM EST

The NFL’s current controversies have consequences. For NFL teams and all other American pro sports teams, potentially.

A trio of U.S. Representatives introduced on Tuesday a bill that would immediately eliminate a tax subsidy used by professional teams when constructing stadiums.

Via John Keim of ESPN.com, Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) have proposed what they call the No Tax Subsidies for Stadiums Act.

Speier cited the ongoing Washington Commanders workplace investigation (and the Congressional investigation of the investigation) in explaining her support for the move.

“The NFL has proven once again that it can’t play by the rules,” Speier said. “As such, taxpayers-subsidized municipal bonds should no longer be a reward for the Washington Commanders and other teams that continue to operate workplaces that are dens of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. It doesn’t make economic sense, and it’s particularly galling given the league’s longstanding failure to address issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault as well as on-going racial and gender discrimination and domestic violence.”

“Super-rich sports team owners like Dan Snyder do not need federal support to build their stadiums, and taxpayers should not be forced to fund them,” Beyer said in a statement. “Billionaire owners who need cash can borrow from the market like any other business.”

In recent years, the public mood has soured dramatically on the notion of paying for professional stadiums. Most teams who want or need new or renovated venue nevertheless have found ways to squeeze taxpayer money in their current locations, because other places (like Las Vegas) are willing to throw cash at a team that may move there. At the federal level, there’s really no current need for any type of break — especially as these teams are benefitting tremendously from the explosion of legalized sports wagering.

With more and more states allowing betting programs based on professional sports and with the leagues finding more and more ways to convert the previously-illegal activity (in all states but Nevada) into a major revenue streams, these teams and league will make more and more and more money. The franchises will have more and more and more value. Thus, there’s less and less (and less) reason for taxpayer money to be devoted to private businesses to make ends meet when, to borrow a line from an old Eddie Murphy routine, the ends are meeting like a mutherf–ker.

 

[Exe Gesis]

D.C. residents strongly oppose taxpayer funds for new Commanders stadium​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 23, 2022, 1:12 PM EST

The Washington Commanders want a new stadium. They may have a hard time putting it in Washington, unless the team is willing to pay for it.
The same Washington Post poll regarding local reaction to the team’s new name also asked the same 904 local residents whether they favor or opposing using public funds for a new stadium in the city.
Of those who responded, 67 percent — more than two thirds — oppose the use of public funds. Only 30 percent favor the idea, with a mere two percent having no opinion.
“We are not — and I would not suggest — that we finance a stadium,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said earlier this month, via the Post. Instead, she has expressed a willingness to making the land available and ready, but that the team would have to fund and build the stadium.
The unique geography of the area makes Virginia and Maryland potential candidates for a new venue. As it often does, money (specifically, the availability of free money) will influence the decision, greatly. In D.C., it looks like there definitely won’t be any

 

[Exe Gesis]

Report: Commanders considering three sites in Virginia for new stadium​

Posted by Charean Williams on February 25, 2022, 7:43 PM EST

The Commanders are eyeing three sites in Virginia for their new stadium and entertainment complex, The Washington Post reports.

The newspaper viewed planning documents prepared for the project.

The team has had discussions with Virginia officials for months about building its new facility there. One possibility is in Loudoun County, the closest to D.C. of the three sites and the only one accessible by Metro, with the other two options in Prince William County.

The Commanders still are engaged in talks with Maryland and D.C. officials, but Virginia’s efforts appear further along. Virginia’s General Assembly is working on legislation to create a football stadium authority that would oversee financing and construction of the project. Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has expressed support for the complex, would have to sign off on the bill that would allow the stadium authority to sell bonds to help fund roughly $1 billion of the project.

The “mini-city” would include a state-of-the-art stadium at the centerpiece of an envisioned complex that would include a resort and conference center with an accompanying amphitheater, a cinema, a nightclub, additional retail and office space and housing. All three sites have a 700,000-square foot footprint that also would accommodate a new training facility for the Commanders, per The Post.

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

Bills close in on deal for new stadium​

Posted by Mike Florio on March 4, 2022, 9:45 AM EST

When it comes to building a new stadium in Buffalo, it’s almost time to destroy a table.

According to Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, a deal is “nearly at hand” to build a new home for the Bills.

Per the report, the various parties are closing in on a cost-sharing arrangement “that would be among the most team-friendly splits in recent NFL memory.” In other words, the billionaires once again will be sticking someone else with the bulk of the tab for their brand-new venue.

The deal isn’t done, and nothing is ever done until it’s done. But it’s getting there. And the total public contribution could exceed more than $1 billion, with roughly $850 million going to the actual stadium construction costs.

At a time when fewer and fewer citizens believe taxpayer money should be devoted to the playgrounds of the American oligarchs, the ability of Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula to shake so much cash out of the public coffers is impressive. Even if some Western New York residents would call the commandeering of so much public money for the project depressing.

But it would be even more depressing to lose the team. And the simple fact remains that, if Buffalo and Erie County weren’t willing to foot most of the bill, some other city/county/state would, if that means luring an NFL team to town.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Stadium deal for Bills is expected by April 1​

Posted by Mike Florio on March 6, 2022, 1:45 PM EST

The Bills and the powers-that-be in New York are working toward a deal for a new stadium. On Friday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul acknowledged that the agreement will be reached soon.

Via Tim O’Shei of the Buffalo News, Hochul said Friday that the deal will be done by April 1, in time for the annual budget.

Roughly $850 million in public money will be devoted to the new stadium. Hochul defended that commitment by accurately pointing out that “teams have other options.” She also reportedly alluded to the fact that roughly a dozen other markets could support an NFL franchise.

“That’s why we’re negotiating very intently, to make sure we have the right outcome for this community,” Hochul said.

So, basically, the Bills never had to make the threat in order to convey the promise of potential relocation. They don’t need to bluff. Everyone knows how it works. If a team’s current market isn’t wiling to show up to the new-stadium party with a big sack of taxpayer money, some other city will.

And it doesn’t take a dozen. It only takes one

 

[Exe Gesis]

Titans working on plans to build new stadium next to Nissan​

The Associated Press

MARCH 11, 2022 8:36 AM

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

The Tennessee Titans have gone from trying to modernize Nissan Stadium to working on plans for a new stadium right next door after renovation costs more than doubled to $1.2 billion.

Burke Nihill, the Titans' president, discussed the team's plans Thursday at a Metro Sports Authority board meeting, according to The Tennessean. The Titans currently are working with Metro Nashville officials on the design and costs of building a new stadium on Nissan's parking lots between the stadium and Interstate 24.

Nihill noted inflation is driving costs higher, and both Nashville and the Titans want to finish work in time for the 2026 season.

“We're trying to move wisely but with a sense of urgency,” Nihill said. “There's a path forward that, if we have alignment by the fall, we could have a new stadium open (by 2026). It's aggressive, but we believe it's in play.”

Nashville is among the cities bidding to host the 2026 World Cup with FIFA officials having toured Nissan Stadium and Music City last September.
The Titans originally planned to renovate the stadium built for $292 million that opened in 1999 on a 30-year lease. Nashville officials have been working on plans for a year to redevelop hundreds of acres around Nissan Stadium on the east bank of the Cumberland River.

That included renovating Nissan Stadium, with the first estimate $600 million. That doubled when contractors found issues such as the prefabricated concrete used to build the stadium that is aging and difficult to renovate. Other infrastructure also is wearing out.

Nihill said a new stadium is the better value in the long run.

“This is a very basic building in the eyes of the NFL,” Nihill said. “This is one of the bottom 20% of buildings in the NFL built before 9/11. Security enhancements adopted by the NFL haven't been added.”

Nihill estimated that reaching a deal for the new stadium, how to pay for it and design the new building could take more than a year. Construction should take 31 months.

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[drd23]

Ownership puts up a 3rd of the costs but will almost certainly get almost all of the value…