stadiums – blog

A Brief History Of David Beckham's Futile Attempts To Build An MLS Stadium In Miami

Miami has not had an MLS team since the Miami Fusion closed down in 2001. A joint bid between Barcelona and Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure failed in 2009, and the league stayed out of Florida until Orlando SC entered the league in 2015. Five years ago, MLS czar Don Garber first broached the idea of plopping an…

Opening Of New Rams And Chargers Stadium Pushed Back A Year Because Of Rain

Drought-stricken California was drenched in record-breaking waves of rainfall this winter. Dams broke, long-parched rivers swelled up with new life, and dormant colonies of wildflowers surfaced for the first time in decades. Life has been good and green for Californians. Not so much if you’re building an NFL stadium.

Unpaid Water Bills Briefly Put Ravens And Orioles Stadiums In Jeopardy

Baltimore held its annual tax sale earlier this week, where bidders could vie for the right to take on unpaid taxes and water bills from property owners in exchange for the right to charge those owners interest or possibly foreclose on property if the bills remain unpaid. In theory, this allows the city of Baltimore…

The Braves Will Wring An Extra $30 Million Out Of Taxpayers For Traffic Control

The Atlanta Braves began this season playing in a shiny new stadium located out in Cobb County. The new ballpark cost local taxpayers nearly $400 million, and at one point, the county was forced to raise taxes to pay for public parks because they’d overpaid so severely for the stadium, which is already seeing…

This Is The Saddest Attempted Stadium Grift I've Ever Seen

Earlier this week, the NCAA announced that the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be returning in 2022 to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the first time in over 30 years. The bid to bring back first- and second-round games was won by the owners of the former Riverfront Coliseum, the largest indoor venue in…

Florida's Go-To Stadium Economist Is A Hack, A Shill, And Also Not An Economist

If you are even a casual Deadspin reader, you know a couple of truths: Stadiums and arenas provide little-to-no economic benefit to their communities, and studies written to support public funding for stadiums and arenas are almost universally bogus. Tampa CBS-affiliate WTSP found a frightening collision of these two…

Joe Louis Arena Was Crude And Perfect

Whenever I feel exhausted or beat down, I hop on Youtube and watch Darren McCarty drop a natural hat trick on Patrick Roy.

Oakland Taxpayers Will Still Be On The Hook For $163 Million After The Raiders And Warriors Leave

When the city of Oakland brought the Raiders back from Los Angeles in 1995, then-mayor Elihu Harris enticed Al Davis with $200 million in improvements to the Oakland Coliseum. The city paid for the construction with taxpayer-backed bonds, and their initial plan was to pay off the bond by selling personal seat licenses…

Report: Arizona Coyotes Exploring Possible Relocation To The Pacific Northwest

The Arizona Coyotes are not happy with their situation in Glendale. The team had the framework of a plan to move to Tempe until late last week, when Arizona State pulled out of a potential deal. Taxpayers still owe $150 million on the Coyotes’ 14-year-old stadium, but owner Anthony LeBlanc is going to push for a new…

Sacramento's MLS Bid Possibly Derailed By Last-Second Ownership Coup

Of the 12 cities that formally applied to be part of the next round of MLS expansion today, Sacramento has perhaps the strongest case. Or at least they did, until its team’s owner made a bid that possibly excluded the city’s highly successful team.

Electricity Turned Off At Rio's Maracanã Stadium After Olympic Organizers Can't Pay Bill

Two weeks ago we wrote about the decaying state of Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic facilities and noted that the Maracanã stadium, despite missing seats and dealing with a mold problem, was still hosting club soccer. The stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, and it’s one of the most famous stadiums in the…

Report: The Chargers Are Finally Announcing That They'll Head To L.A.

I hope you enjoyed last season’s dose of terrible football and unlivable stadium conditions, Los Angeles residents, because you’re in for twice the fun next season!