Because Of Course It Is
New Broncos owner Rob Walton was asked about his priorities as the new owner. The stadium came up almost immediately. Of course it did. Fucking stadiums. The older I get the more of a scam they make themselves out to be. They seem like ways for owners to flex and make money rather than anything else. Because they are!
John Oliver did a good bit on it several years ago that’s worth watching if you missed it, but in summary: it’s fucking bullshit. Billionaire owners make city residents fund the construction of massive buildings from which they basically keep all the revenue from. Fans and residents don’t see any of that benefit, which makes it doubly insulting for any resident who doesn’t care about sports.
Stadiums don’t really boost surrounding areas. They don’t really provide longterm employment or quality employment opportunities. For the most part, the stadiums just fucking sit there, unused, the vast majority of the year. For shits and giggles I went to the Broncos site and looked at the calendar for 2022. There are 365 days in a year. The Broncos stadium has scheduled activities there for 22 days. For 94% of the year, the stadium is a lifeless husk of concrete and metal that Denver residents paid for instead of the billionaires at the top. Expecting the stadium to be in use every day is obviously a bit much, but for a venue the people paid for, shouldn’t they get more opportunities to use it?
Theoretically, if the Broncos upgrade, that would be part of the advantages. More events. Metlife, for example, has a better usage rate even ignoring the extra 8 games per year. Metlife was also one of the few stadiums that was privately funded. But it’s not enough to justify this. Owners have been taking advantage of cities and using sports teams as investments for a ridiculous amount of time. Dipshit failsons and evil businessmen looking to get extra revenue shouldn’t be able to hold taxpayers and cities hostage to pay for their own little giant empty playgrounds. It’s bullshit. How many stories have we seen over the years of this happening. St. Louis was robbed. San Diego stood up for itself and was robbed. Los Angeles itself got robbed twice, and then had to pay for Kroenke’s new palace. Oakland got robbed. Baltimore got robbed, and then robbed Cleveland a decade later. These stadiums get put up too fast, aren’t designed for the long term, and then the cycle repeats itself in a couple decades or less.
I’m not enough of an economist to really provide a solution, and every situation has its own quirks and problems (for example, Metlife was not funded by New Jersey, it was funded by the owners of the Jets and Giants, one of the few good moves they’ve made). But it’s pretty easy to see that we are getting taken advantage of and at the very least, the city should have to pay significantly less, if they pay at all, and should also have more ownership over the stadiums themselves. Fans are what give these teams meaning and value. They should get more from it.
“Metlife was also one of the few stadiums that But it’s not enough to justify this.”
Seemed like you had a point to make here? Feel free to delete this comment after you fix it, I’m just legit curious what you were about to say with this.
It was privately funded instead of taxpayer funded. Same goes for JerryWorld.
Same with the Patriots at Gillette Stadium.
It’s a nationwide prisoners’ dilemma. If every city got together and said “we won’t fund your playgrounds anymore”, this would end.
But as long as one teamless city is willing to spend, every city with a team has to pay up or risk losing their team to a city that will.
Bigger cities already have an out though, and a few have used it. Boston for example told the Pats they weren’t getting any money because they knew the Patriots would lose more money on relocation than they’d make on a new building, even a building they didn’t have to pay for.
Also, say hello to your 2028 Birmingham Broncos.
lmao Birmingham. Hell, Michigan will get an NFL team before Birmingham
I’m genuinely wondering if you don’t know or are just throwing some harsh shade at the Motor City Kitties.
Yes
You forgot to add Buffalo to the list. When the Bills had leaked a comment about Austin potentially needing a team, my first thought had been “I could still route for them from long distance, please go ahead and save us that fee.” Alas, New York State/Erie County are putting up $850 million for a venue that will likely not even be used 4 times a year outside of football….
Houston as well. Bud Adams demanded upgrades to the Astrodome that cost more than the whole stadium itself originally did. He got them.
5 years after they were complete, he demanded a new stadium. He got it as well… in Nashville (and embarrassed Memphis on the trip east).
Its better. Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium doesn’t need replaced, but it still gonna cost less than a billion dollars to bring it up to NFL Standards. They emphasized that its not falling apart like Riverfront Stadium was 22 years into its life, but it does need serviced.
Even if the stadium isn’t falling apart, they still ask for money.
FivePoints Vids did an episode on why new stadiums are so staggeringly expensive even adjusted for inflation: https://youtu.be/FD6Nrm0n37Y
tl:dw Most of the added cost is wiring. There is 100x more wiring in new construction compared to pre-2010.
not sure if this merits a whole comic but would love to see something about the weather reporter roasting the cowboys
One option might be getting states to pass laws restricting funding to situations where the city gets a real ownership stake inthe enterprise or something like that to ensure that they actually see a return on investment. But all of this is a product of a larger problem, which is the monopolistic nature of American professional sports. The thing is that the European model isn’t amazing either as it often leads to a few teams completely dominating. It’s definitely better in that players have more power and that teams have less but I would say sports are better when they are competitive. (Although the relegation system means that there is still an interesting amount of tension even for worse teams)
The domination stems largely from foreign money tho, the english premier league especialy is basicaly pay to play. I agree its a big problem that has been growing for a long time and is increasingly difficult to get rid off.
There is however 2 major ironic things id like to point out: the PL is also the most competitive of the big 5 soccer leagues thanks to so many sponsors throwing their money around (Kinda like the Lance Armstrong situation: Sure he cheated but everyone else did too so it was a “fair” competition after all) On the other hand you have our german Bundesliga who has a 50%+1 ownership rule preventing clubs selling out to investors entirely yet Bayern München is entirely DOMINATING that league for a decade to the point that the other teams just play for 2nd place now.
Imho they all are still competitive tho, just not in a way americans are used too (ie win championship or be the loser) Its all about the slots for the Champions League or Europa League and those run pretty deep (6th&7th place in Bundesliga iirc) And then ofc theres the relegation battles which can be some of the most heated and intense. Imagine the Browns, Lions, Jags and Jets fighting each other over who gets to stay in the league, except this time they actualy have an incentive to play for wins cause the loser gets relegated to the canadian league (sorry Canada) and not rewarded with the most valuable pick in the draft.
I need a comic about the broncos new stadium having a built in Walmart
SoFi stadium is getting tax breaks, not tax money. Kroenke screwed St Louis and the NFL, but LA taxpayers got it easy.
Funnily enough, for all that Kroenke has done wrong in the NFL/Sports/Life, the Stadium deal WASN’T one of them. It apparently was entirely privately funded, even the ground itself was purchased by Kroenke. It’s legitimately one of maybe 2 ways he’s not a bottom tier owner, and it’s in a way that makes him arguably the best owner in the league in that one respect.
Which is REALLY surprising considering all the other ways he’s a complete piece of shit.
He had to do it that way to beat the Chargers/Raiders bid. Also now he gets to pocket all the Chargers’ rent money
Dave, this is actually something that Kannapolis, NC’s minor league baseball team figured out. The stadium is owned by the City of Kannapolis and is a city park with playground, chairs and concessions every day it’s not in use by the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. (STILL A SHITTY NAME DAMMIT). I think all stadiums should work that way.
Thats their actual team name???
Honest to god, Idk how you fuck up naming a sports team this badly considering BOTH the Kannapolis Cannons AND Kannapolis Ballers would be better…..
Then again a room full of people unironically chose, and someone who makes more money in a year than I will in a lifetime signed off on it, the Commies as Washingtons new name so yeah…..
LA didn’t pay for Kroenke’s stadium. He paid for all of it himself. But that brings me to something I wanted to point out. Even for stadiums that are fully privately funded, like the one in LA and Jerryworld, the cities still gave them sweetheart real estate deals on the land and tax breaks, so while they may not be paying for them directly, they’re also not getting anything out of them other than the economic development that may or may not happen.
I understand why smaller cities and/or declining cities bend over but why don’t bigger cities hold their ground. Moving the team will cost more money.