Thanks to a spectacularly bad lease negotiated by St. Louis pols, the Rams have the right to a “top tier” stadium as long as they stay near the Gateway Arch. This week, St. Louis found out just what “top tier” (top eight) means. The City gulped and tabulated just how much it’ll cost for the [...]

As of yesterday’s Minnesota legislature-approved stadium plan for the Vikings, Minnesotans have approved some $1.85 billion in new venues since 2005-06. Only a year ago it was believed that the Vikings drew the short straw as the University of Minnesota’s football program (TCF Bank Stadium) and the Minnesota Twins (Target Field) got funding before the [...]

Good stuff: The Kings arena deal was officially declared dead on Friday. Perhaps they were waiting for rigor mortis to fully set in. The team will stay for another year, after that? Who knows? I’m not generally a fan of boycott efforts, but if Kings fans really wanted to stick it to the Maloofs with [...]

A very clever strategy is emanating from facility operator Anschutz Entertainment Group. It’s a two-pronged affair based in Sacramento and Oakland. The movement draws upon what can be considered serious deficiencies in both markets in their inability to attract certain types of events and visitors. Most importantly, it offers hope to both cities, which are [...]

You have to hand it to Roger Goodell. He has a playbook for getting stadium deals moving, and by God it works. Goodell lets the team owner come up with a proposal, and if it stalls he comes in with Goldman Sachs in tow and/or a threat to move, implied or otherwise. As a result, [...]

I’m leaving for San Diego on Wednesday, so I won’t have a chance to check out the 49ers’ groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday. So I decided to walk by the construction site to see what’s going on. Demolition has been completed, and a large section of the site has been graded and paved. A crew worked [...]

A year ago, the Coliseum Authority inked a deal with internet retailer Overstock.com for naming rights at the Coliseum. That led to a further renaming from Overstock.com Coliseum to O.co Coliseum, which rolls off the tongue like so many classic stadium names like CMGI Field, PSINet Stadium, or 3Com Park. Apparently the A’s have been [...]

For the end of the week: The NBA is stepping in to pay $3.25 million in predevelopment costs on the Sacramento ESC project after the Maloofs refused, saying that they shouldn’t have to pay since they’re tenants. It sure sounds like the Maloofs don’t see themselves as stakeholders in the arena, which is a bad [...]

What’s the pic? It’s a ramp leading to an underground service tunnel for the abandoned stadium next to ARCO Arena/Power Balance Pavilion. Overgrown with grass and trees, the foundation is practically invisible except for unfinished rebar columns sticking up from the concrete foundation. The arena and its stillborn brother would never have come to fruition without [...]

Feels like we need this since the week has been dominated by the PR war. The A’s announced today that they will have a private entrance for season ticket holders. The terms are that you’ll need the credential from your season ticket book along with your ticket to use the entrance. In addition, for any [...]