Category Archives: Basketball

01.09.13
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Maloofs to sell Kings to Seattle group headed by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer

Yahoo! Sports NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski has the breaking story.

Didn’t expect the Maloofs to act this quickly, but it lines up with all of the rumbling coming out of Seattle. Celebration in one town equals heartbreak in another. What will it mean for Sacramento’s future in terms of pro sports? Mayor Kevin Johnson could pivot towards the A’s, though A’s ownership hasn’t shown interest so far.

More as the situation develops.

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Update 2:00 PM – CBS Sacramento reporter Steve Large tweeted something different from the prevailing reports on the way up to Seattle.

It’s the Maloofs. Expect nothing less than a big, ugly mess.

01.08.13
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News for 1/8/13

The days are starting to get longer, and we’re five weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting. Huzzah.

  • The Alameda County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet in closed session today to talk about the Raiders’ lease. I wonder if they’ll also take up Lew Wolff’s recent request for an extension. [East Bay Citizen/Steven Tavares]
  • The Coliseum Authority hasn’t yet published its annual financials. In the past two years, that document has been available the first week of the year. Perhaps that will come out later today as well. The next open meeting is scheduled for 1/25.
  • The City of Oakland lost $3 million in previously used redevelopment funds to the state. That may cause a series of layoffs or other cuts. [SF Gate/Matthai Kuruvila]
  • Lew Wolff had a no-news interview in this week’s Silicon Valley Business Journal. (Note: “San Jose” has been dropped from publication title) [SV Business Journal/Greg Baumann]
  • Wolff’s real estate investment company Maritz Wolff sold another hotel last month. This time it was the Ritz Carlton in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, MO. Price was not disclosed. In case you weren’t aware, Phil “Flip” Maritz, Wolff’s longtime partner, has a minority stake in the A’s. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tim Bryant]
  • Dodgers ownership is said to be split on whether to partner up with Fox or Time Warner on a new RSN deal that could be worth upwards of $6 billion. [LA Times/Steve Dilbeck]
  • The Mets completed $450 million of desperately needed debt refinancing and got an infusion of $160 million that is expected to be used on day-to-day operations. The team now has $700 million in debt against the Mets’ network SNY alone. More analysis of the Mets’ financial picture here. [NY Times/Richard Sandomir | Capital New York/Howard Medgal]
  • Out of the fiscal cliff bill news was an item that aroused anger: $78 million in tax breaks for NASCAR racetracks. The crux of the deal is that track owners can accelerate writing off their investments in seven years as opposed to fifteen. [NY Times/Mary Pilon]
  • Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms’ deadline seemed to come and go without an arena deal. He is expected to make a statement later today. Update 8:00 AM – Sessoms has declared the project dead for now as the city will not go to the state General Assembly to request $150 million in arena funding. [WAVY-10/Mila Mimica, Virginian-Pilot, Aaron Applegate]
  • San Diego power players including Steve Cushman are turning their attention to either a new or revamped Qualcomm Stadium at the current Mission Valley site. The new vision looks a lot like the Coliseum City plan, but with a large residential component. I think they could accomplish quite a bit at Qualcomm just by demolishing and rebuilding only the lower deck. [San Diego Union Tribune]
  • Talks are heating up to bring the Washington Redskins back to the District from the Maryland suburbs. There’s supposedly no public money to draw from as the District is running up against its own debt ceiling. That doesn’t mean someone couldn’t hatch his own Coliseum City plan at RFK. An idea being discussed is the sale of the Brutalist headquarters of the FBI, moving the Bureau out to the FedEx Field site, then taking the proceeds of land sales and development proceeds to build the new stadium at RFK. One of the people leading the charge: Marion Barry, who is on the DC City Council. [Washington Post/Tim Craig]
  • The Merc Editorial Board laments the true victims of the dysfunctional relationship between the NHL and its players, the businesses and workers near HP Pavilion. [SJ Mercury News]

More as it comes.

01.07.13
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Comparison of current (2013) CBAs

A few years ago I did a comparison of CBAs. Now that the NHL deal framework is in place, it’s time to update the table. Here’s what we have now.

MLB remains the only major pro sports league in the US/Canada that has no salary cap.

MLB remains the only major pro sports league in the US/Canada that has no salary cap. NHL cap and NBA salary floor figures are for 2013-14 season.

The untold story is league debt. The NFL is far and away the richest league, but it also has a massive amount of debt. In 2008 that figure was $9.5 billion and has only grown with the expensive new stadia in New Jersey, Arlington, and Santa Clara. MLB’s credit facility, which is meant as a short-term solution for teams, had $1 billion going into this summer and issued $300 million more since then. None of the leagues are in jeopardy because of their respective debt positions because in most cases, that debt is backed by long term TV deals. Individual teams are at greater risk due to the lack of revenue stability in weaker markets, which is frequently the case in the NHL.

Luxury tax structures implemented in MLB and the NBA have worked to reign in many free-spending teams. The NY Knicks are under the NBA’s luxury tax threshold for the first time in recent memory, and the Yankees are set to follow suit in baseball.

All of this goes to show that for all of the talk of economic parity in pro sports, there are instances of haves and have-nots everywhere. It’s unavoidable, and thanks to CBAs that will run for as long as a decade, it’s enshrined. Cheers!

01.04.13
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Virginia Beach gives Kings a Monday deadline for arena deal

Spurred by a desire to flesh out a financing plan by requesting state funds, Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms has imposed a deadline of Monday for the Maloofs to commit to move the Sacramento Kings to Sessoms’ fair city. The Maloof family, which has little cash and few options, probably isn’t happy about being put in a spot like this. Nevertheless, this may be the Maloofs’ best chance to hold onto the team while getting a new arena in the process, something that isn’t happening in Sacramento since they don’t have the funds to put up their share.

The news has piqued the interest of observers in Seattle, who are ready to pounce on the Kings if the Maloofs try to work out a deal there, or worse for them, sell. The weekend news post had an item about the Maloofs floating a $500 million asking price for the franchise. While an eyepopping number, it’s pretty close to what the franchise could fetch on the open market. If Chris Hansen were to want to finalize a deal ASAP, $500 million would probably do it (Clay Bennett paid $350 million for the Sonics-Thunder in 2006). He and his partners may even be more motivated by the NHL’s ongoing lockout, which has arguably depressed league and franchise values, especially relative to NBA properties. Better to initially pay more for the more stable sport, may be the thinking.

Meanwhile, Hansen continues to buy land in the SoDo area in preparation for an arena deal. There’s a rumor of an announcement in Seattle for next week, though it may not be substantive.

The Kings have a deadline of March 1 to apply for relocation. It’s in the best interest of the Maloofs to keep as many options on the table as possible, so a real commitment to move at this early stage would be surprising to say the least. As we get to March, however, speculation and negotiations with multiple cities will be hot and heavy. Smart move by Mayor Sessoms to try get out of a potential bidding war, but we all know that things don’t normally work that way. The Maloofs remain the wildcard, so there’s no telling what will happen next.

01.02.13
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Kaiser Permanente Arena review

Back of KP Arena at sunset, downtown Santa Cruz in background

Back of KP Arena at sunset, downtown Santa Cruz in background

The area between downtown Santa Cruz and the Boardwalk is mostly defined by Beach Hill, upon which numerous old Victorians sit shoulder-to-shoulder with low-slung motels and newer condos. Between Beach Hill and Laurel Street, the area is much less defined. What was once light industrial is now an odd mix of commercial, adapted warehouses, and motels (of course). It’s within that context that Kaiser Permanente Arena, the new home of the D-League Santa Cruz Warriors, fits reasonably well. It’s not a particularly handsome building as from far away it appears slab-sided and unadorned. Few windows puncture the steel cladded exterior, and upon a closer look the walls’ corrugated look is just an update on the old steel building built in the area 50 years ago. And the white roof lacks distinction. Not that anyone was expecting serious architectural character – it is, after all, a $5.6 million, temporary structure. At that price, maybe the best thing to do would be to get some volunteers to put up a mural on the Front Street side during the offseason.

Entrance and box office

Entrance and box office

The temporary basketball arena used in the London Olympics proved to be a good venue, which should’ve reduced doubts on the viability of a similar project in Santa Cruz. What raised eyebrows was the extremely aggressive timeframe to develop the arena, including fewer than three months of construction. (This picture of the arena site was taken during the summer.) It’s that operative word, temporary, that made it all possible. You see, temporary facilities can (up to a point) be built without undergoing the very time-consuming CEQA or EIR process. As a result, there were no 18 months of planning commission and city council meetings or study sessions. The public feedback process was truncated and not formalized. No new infrastructure was required. It just… happened. For good and ill, that’s how it went down. The hope here is that the team is popular enough during that time to justify a new permanent home. Such a facility will be much more expensive and require the CEQA process, but by that time it may be worth it. And while a 3,000-person arena is one or two orders of magnitude less impactful than a 25,000-seat temporary ballpark, what the Warriors and the City of Santa Cruz have successfully executed is a great example for the A’s if Lew Wolff were to consider building his own temporary facility.

Seating sections are freestanding, and the camera position is makeshift.

Seating sections are freestanding, and the midcourt camera position is makeshift.

While this is a temporary building, it was built to last as long as 10 years. The “tent” portion is limited to the roof, a tensile fabric supported by a lightweight truss system. The steel walls extend 25 feet high and are anchored to concrete footings. Three concession stands are located in the corners, while restrooms and team locker rooms are located outside in modular buildings (trailers). The main scoreboard has a small video board attached, and the scorers’ table is one of those fancy ones with electronic signage. Lighting is simple and optimized for basketball. The court is parquet and is the minimum size required. There are suites or a big fancy club. It’s bare bones. There’s a cautionary tale in doing things cheaply and quickly with the Kings and the two ARCO Arenas, but the expectations for KP Arena and the Santa Cruz Warriors are much lower. KP Arena’s capacity is half of most of the arenas in the D-League, though with average leaguewide attendance of 3,000 per game in previous seasons, a 3,000-seat arena may be just right. If anything, KP Arena may have the most in common with the Maine Red Claws’ home, the Portland Expo Building. Coincidentally, the Expo was built almost a century before KP Arena.

What's that guy in the festive hat got in his hand?

What’s that guy in the festive hat got in his hand?

I didn’t sample concessions, so I can’t say anything about those. There were no fountain drinks, so everything was served in a container. That included cans of beer, which were not opened and poured but rather served on their own. Even more unusual, there was an actual beer vendor walking around in the stands, ready to sell thirsty fans $7 cans of Coors Light or Blue Moon. I was so pleasantly surprised that I tweeted out this observation, promptly followed by this response:

I looked into ABC regulations and this appears to be correct. There isn’t really a law on the books that prohibits beer vendors in the stands, it’s just that operators are VERY afraid of losing their liquor licenses. Better to make it a little more inconvenient than to risk losing a license over some guy buying a bunch of beers and handing them to minors in plain view. An element of plausible deniability has to be assumed.

View from Section H, Row 13

View from Section H, Row 13

The game itself was better than your average D-League competition, as the Surf Dubs are a pretty athletic and cohesive unit. They dominated the first three quarters, with the lead surpassing 20 at times. Only during a typical letdown during the fourth did the Sioux Falls Skyforce climb back to within single digits. If you haven’t watched a D-League game, the best way to characterize it is that the majority of the players are 2-3 inches shorter than the optimal height for their respective positions in the NBA. That means a lot of 6’7″ power forwards and 6’1″ shooting guards. All teams have the option to take a 1st or 2nd-year player and stash him on their affiliate’s roster to give him some run. Not many fouls were called, so stoppages were kept to a minimum. Time of the game was well short of the NBA typical 2:30 running time. My game ticket, which was the cheapest tier, was $15. Better tickets were priced at $25 and $35. Courtside and the first several rows (seatbacks) were not available.

Pre- and postgame traffic was bad in the immediate area (Front and Laurel), attributable to much of the crowd staying until the end and dispersing to numerous parking lots spread throughout downtown. Most of the nearby parking cost $10. Remote lots (a mile away) had $5 parking, including the County Government Center. A trolley operated between the arena and County. I came in via the Hwy 17 Express bus, a commuter express route that runs between the Metro Center bus terminal and Diridon Station in San Jose ($5 each way, including WiFi). To gauge how bad the situation was, I went to the wharf and circled back around 45 minutes after the game ended. Traffic appeared to be at normal levels. Noise is a problem. The PA system wasn’t terribly loud inside, but when the doors are open the crowd and music get blasted out into the neighborhood. This is largely because there’s no foyer in KP Arena to act as a buffer. Once a fan gets through security, he’s practically on the court.

Postgame autograph session

Postgame autograph session

Presentation was solid. The ninja-turtle-like mascot spent less time than I expected in the crowd. There was a troupe of Warrior Girls. Lowlight of the game was the anthem singer, who started off in the wrong key, phrased the first verse in a bizarre manner, and completely forgot the second verse, forcing a nearby official to come in and get her back on track after she begged, “Help me out” into the mic. To their credit, the crowd didn’t boo her and treated her respectfully.

Twenty years ago I enrolled as a freshman at UC-Santa Cruz. Even three years after Loma Prieta, the city was still struggling to rebuild. Pacific Avenue (then known as the Pacific Garden Mall) was decimated. As one of those “weird” cities akin to Austin and Portland, Santa Cruz struggled with its need to rebuild, its counterculture element struggling against the desire of big corporate interests to enter the fray after local business were displaced, and the general lack of major amenities. Back then, if you told me that in 2012 a pro basketball team would be playing in a brand new arena near the place I got a pair of woofers for a rebuilt speaker project, I would’ve asked if you were high. Eventually, that’s what progress looks like. Bookshop Santa Cruz and other bookstores were threatened by Borders, which itself was driven into the ground by Amazon. No major department or retail chain stores came in, but there now is a Starbucks on Pacific and a Trader Joe’s on Front. The city and university have been linked more politically than fully integrated, and the D-III status of the sports program at UCSC didn’t help that. I was curious to see how the community would respond. They’ve sold out the first four home games and have sold 1,000 season tickets. Naturally, some of the fans came from out of the town, an assumption reinforced by questions I was asked by others asking for directions. It’s encouraging to see such a great response by Santa Cruz fans, who have been craving some kind of steady entertainment during the winter months. Now they’ve got it, and the team is actually pretty good. Who could ask for more?

12.29.12
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News for the End of 2012

It’s a light end of the year newswise, yet there are enough nuggets to put together a post.

  • The A’s are getting closer to a deal to play at Hohokam Stadium, the current spring training home of the Cubs. An announcement is expected to be made in January. The City of Mesa will contribute at least $15 million of the $20 million cost of renovations to Hohokam and Fitch Park, with the team and city splitting costs between $15 million and $20 million and then the A’s paying for the rest. When the announcement is made, I’ll devote a post or two to the transition and the differences between Hohokam and Phoenix Muni. [Arizona Republic/Gary Nelson]
  • For the two spring training games being held at the Alamodome at the end of March, no lower deck ticket can be had for less than $35 (plus Ticketmaster fees, natch). If you have time, watch the Alamo Bowl today and imagine what a baseball game would look like in there. Consider that the first row down the third base line will be several feet above the field.
  • Minnesota’s Hennepin County and the District of Columbia have pulled in greater tax revenues than expected for their respective ballparks. In Washington, city leaders have chosen in the past to pay for other budget items, whereas in Minneapolis they’re paying off ballpark debt early. In the case of Target Field, ballpark debt could be retired 5-10 years early – at long as the Twin Cities doesn’t turn into Detroit or Cleveland in the next decade. Or Cincinnati for that matter. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune/Rochelle Olson | Washington Times/Tom Howell Jr.]
  • Maury Brown estimates that revenue sharing for the 2012 MLB season is around $400 million. If you look at the history of teams and their relative financial status, there are usually 10-12 who constantly are on the receiving (welfare) end, including the A’s towards the higher end. By that measure, I figure that the A’s check for this year has to be in the $40-45 million range. [Biz of Baseball/Maury Brown]
  • AT&T Park is the #1 ballpark in America when it comes to Facebook and foursquare check-ins. What about the Oakland Coliseum? I mean, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum? I mean, Oakland Stadium? I mean, O.co Coliseum? Um, nevermind. [ESPN/Bill Speros]
  • Take time to read @muppet151‘s request for the Victory Court EIR. It is on point. [TwitLonger]
  • Honestly, I should add an “Oakland dog park” item to the counter. This is laughably ridiculous. [SF Chronicle/Matthai Kuruvila]
  • If you’re not working or too hungover, head to the Exploratorium on Wednesday. That’s the last day in the wonderful Palace of Fine Arts location before it moves to Pier 15. It’s also FREE.
  • The NHL and NHLPA had conference calls to set up further talks. They’re running neck-and-neck with Congress for the most dysfuctional situation right now. Here’s the current NHL proposal. [ESPN/Katie Strang]
  • The Maloofs continue to say that they won’t sell the Kings, but privately say that they would sell for $500 million. [USA Today/Sam Amick]

Unless something major happens, this is the last post of the year. See you on the other side. Until then, have a safe and happy New Year.

12.21.12
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Santa Cruz Warriors Arena Ready To Go

The D-League Santa Cruz Warriors held their first practice at Kaiser Permanente Arena in downtown Santa Cruz on Thursday. Their inaugural home game at the arena is sold out. They have a mascot – a sea turtle with a vaguely familiar ninja look. Blake Griffin’s less-talented brother, Taylor, is a starter at forward. And the Warriors lead their division despite not having played a home game yet. All of that has created a great sense of anticipation as the first game is played at KPA on Sunday.

The “tent arena” will hold just under 2,500 fans, smaller than any of the NCAA Division-I arenas in the Bay Area. Individual tickets are priced from $15 to $35, with more expensive courtside seats apparently already sold out for most games, if not the entire season.

While the debate over the fiscal soundness of the arena deal will continue in politically hyperactive Santa Cruz, the other big issues are how long the novelty of having a pro sports team in Santa Cruz will last, and what happens when that novelty fades. For now, there’s some real excitement about the Surf-Dubs. For that, congratulations to the team and Warriors ownership. They got it done quick and had real partners in the City of Santa Cruz and the Seaside Company. Without that partnership, there’s no way the arena gets built in 100 days. I’ll be out there in the New Year to catch a game or two.

12.19.12
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News for 12/19/12

Update 9:00 PM – In case you missed it, the good folks at Next Media Animation in Taiwan posted their pithy take on the A’s signing of Japanese shortstop Hiroyushi Nakajima.

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News is fairly light, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

  • After the summer defeat of multiple bills attempting to revive redevelopment in some form, another has surfaced in SB 33, introduced by State Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis). The bill’s purpose is to create infrastructure financing districts, in which projects could get infrastructure such as roads, sewers, and other public facilities built. There is no stipulation about building stadia. Regardless, creation of an IFD could be an important piece of the puzzle as some stadium projects require utilities to be moved or other unsexy work.
  • The Dodgers are working with Fox Sports and Time Warner Cable on their ultra-rich upcoming TV deal. The sticking point is the structure of the deal, which has to work within the confines of a federal bankruptcy court’s decision to cap the Dodgers’ TV money subject to revenue sharing at $84 million. To work within the rules, the network may “force” the team to acquire an equity stake in the network, which would allow the network to pay an annual TV rights fee and a dividend. This is a similar arrangement to what the Giants and Yankees currently have with their respective networks. The Angels and Lakers are each paid a flat fee annually, which to date has been the normal arrangement. [LA Times/Bill Shaikin]
  • The cost of the mostly unseen renovations at Dodger Stadium will be $100 million. Key to this is expansion of clubhouse facilities, including the visiting clubhouse. [LA Times/Steve Dilbeck]
  • Robert Bobb may return to Oakland again, this time as the compliance director for the city’s negotiated settlement to prevent Oakland Police Department from falling into receivership. Bobb could potentially oversee all of OPD and report to federal judge Thelton Henderson on reforms being implemented throughout the department. Bobb was last hired by Oakland to fix its budget a few years ago. The position is meant to be temporary. [SF Chronicle/Matier & Ross]
  • Somehow the Oakland City Council had an hours-long discussion over whether to approve a dog park at Astro Park, and adjourned without making a decision. Think about it. A dog park created gridlock and indecision. [Oakland Tribune/Matthew Artz]
  • I don’t normally keep track of international soccer economics, but this was an eye-opener: Premier League champions Manchester City incurred a $158 million loss during the 2011-12 season. $113 million of that was transfer fees to buy players from other teams. That loss was actually half of the $307 million loss in 2012-13. Remarkably, the club is debt free because the owner, oil tycoon Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has funded all expenditures out of pocket since he bought the team in 2008.
  • CSN Bay Area/California’s Brodie Brazil took a tour of the under construction 49ers stadium, which is a third complete.
  • Unable to come to an agreement in the Nats-O’s struggle over MASN, MLB may be bringing in buyers for the TV rights for the two clubs. Remember that the whole point of creating MASN was to placate Peter Angelos when the Expos were moved to DC. Commissioner Selig probably has this mess in mind while considering what to do with the Giants and A’s. [Washington Post/James Wagner]
  • The Rays ballpark plan at Carillon is for all intents and purposes, dead. At least that’s what the developer who pitched the plan says. There currently is no plan in the works for a new ballpark within St. Petersburg, where the Rays are locked into a lease at Tropicana Field. [Tampa Bay Times/Stephen Nohlgren]
  • The Sacramento Kings have to commit to Virginia Beach by January if a deal to move there is to commence. [KTXL-40/Dennis Shanahan]
  • The Edmonton Oilers have a deadline of six weeks from now to reach a deal on a new arena to replace aging Rexall Centre. Like Virginia Beach, Edmonton’s arena plan has a nine-figure funding gap.
  • The Yankees are going with Ticketmaster instead of MLB subsidiary StubHub as its official ticket scalper reseller. They’re also instituting a price floor on resold tickets, because otherwise their normal first-sale gouging looks worse by comparison. [Deadspin/Tom Ley]

More as it comes.

12.17.12
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Gameplan: San Francisco

Walter O’Malley famously moved the Dodgers out of Brooklyn because Ebbets Field was too small, and there was little parking immediately around it. The former is easy to explain. The latter, back in the 50’s, was a matter of pulling in the more affluent suburban customer. Typically that customer was white, and followed Robert Moses’s new network of highways and expressways out to Long Island. While Ebbets Field was close to NYC subway lines, it was over a mile from the nearest Long Island Rail Road station. Attracted by free land on which to build a legacy ballpark, O’Malley headed west to Los Angeles with Horace Stoneham going to San Francisco.

The ever continuing trend of ballparks moving from the suburbs to downtown has been aped by arena development. No NBA arena in the last 30 years has been built outside a downtown area or urban core, as it makes sense to take advantage of existing transit and parking infrastructure. True to form, the Warriors’ planned arena is in downtown San Francisco, steps from Muni and within walking distance of both BART and Caltrain. There’s still worry about the amount of traffic the South Beach area will see due to the annually expected 2 million additional visitors. While the W’s will take care of the high-roller types (suite holders, VIPs), all other fans will be largely left to look for parking several minutes away, or more smartly, use transit. That will cause transit use to increase (good) while potentially negatively affecting service (bad).

And while the Giants and NIMBYs exercise a lot of concern over the impact of the arena, the City of San Francisco and the Warriors would do wise to take a page from what the City of San Jose did to get their EIR approved and certified. The solution is simple: Don’t approve any* new parking in the area and expand neighborhood parking policies to include arena events. When the traffic studies come out, they will envision multiple scenarios, including one in which practically no new general parking is built. That makes sense, because there is no land on which to build a large new garage (Seawall Lot 330 is too small). With no place to park, fans will be forced to use parking garages in the Financial District or the garages used throughout SOMA for Giants games. Most arenas would require 7,000 spaces to fulfill requirements. In the SF arena’s case, given the existing transit splits, that requirement could be easily cut in half. 3,500 spaces can be covered by existing garages within a half-mile or so.

This is a proven model in San Jose. which built a 1,600-space lot next to HP Pavilion, but depends on thousands of spaces elsewhere in Downtown which as much as 2/3 mile away. Piggybacking on this idea, the City approved the latest supplemental EIR for the Diridon ballpark by stipulating that there would be minimal parking around it. Existing neighborhood parking policy enforcement would continue, and in some cases, would have to be more strictly enforced. The onus would be on SF to ensure that enforcement is rigid. That’s been an issue in the past at HP Pavilion.

A two year gap exists between the planned openings of the Warriors arena (2017) and the Central Subway (2019). It’s expected that the Central Subway will take some of the commuters from north of Market Street and parts north off the congested Embarcadero line, which takes a roundabout 10-minute path to Caltrain. The T-Third line on the Central Subway is too far away from the arena site to shuttle Warriors and concert fans, but the reduction in commuters on the Embarcadero should free things up for those fans. And remember – the arena crowd is about 40% the size of a sold-out AT&T Park. The area can handle it.

The advice to SF, then, is: Don’t bend over backwards for anyone on this. Be patient, let the process move forward, take the necessary planning and mitigation steps, broker with the numerous governmental groups, and get it done. This isn’t your first rodeo.

11.16.12
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News for 11/16/12

Belated congratulations to Bob Melvin for winning AL Manager of the Year. While there’s no photographic evidence, Melvin’s daughter Alexi admitted to pieing him in the face recently. All in celebration, of course.

On to the news.

  • MLB’s big three national television contracts were approved this week during the owners meetings. Apparently this was so anticlimactic that only a single tweet about the news emerged, from Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal.
  • As mentioned yesterday, all ballots in Alameda County have been counted. With that, Measure B1 appears to have been narrowly defeated by less than 700 votes. Perhaps the backers had a false sense of security due to the lack of fervent opposition. Back to the drawing board, I guess. [Contra Costa Times/Denis Cuff]
  • Fox is fixin’ to buy a big piece of the YES Network. Not the Yankees’ piece, the part owned by Goldman Sachs and Providence Equity. The network is worth as much as $3 billion, making the two-thirds share up for grabs worth $2 billion. [NY Times/Amy Chosick, Michael Cieply]
  • The Rangers have announced that they will play two exhibition games at San Antonio’s Alamodome in March. The stadium’s only full-time tenants are the UTSA college football team and the AFL’s San Antonio Talons. The seating bowl layout (see pic below) makes it even less baseball friendly than previous square/rectilinear multipurpose domes like the Metrodome and Kingdome because it has a very limited number of corner seats. It’s also a bit narrower along the football sidelines than the Metrodome and not all of the rows retract, making the right field line dimension perhaps as small as 280 feet. Backers of MLB to San Antonio see this as a good sign, but the arrangement is a double-edged sword. Just as the Cowboys staged training camp in the same Alamodome multiple times, the Ryans are doing this to reaffirm the brand throughout the state, not to promote MLB there. After all, the Rangers have some solid TV money to protect.  [San Antonio Express News/Josh Baugh]

Picture of one side of the Alamodome stands retracted for a 2010 Dallas Cowboys training camp session. Picture from Sports Nickel.

  • The ballpark for the Midland Rockhounds (A’s AA affiliate) will soon be losing its naming rights partner. Citibank has been the sponsor since shortly after the ballpark opened. The ballpark sits as part of the nicely designed and manicured Scharbauer Sports Complex, alongside one of the best high school football stadia I’ve ever seen. It is the land of Friday Night Lights. [Midland Reporter-Telegram/Sara Higgins | Bud Swanson]
  • The Mariners are going a different route to make a splash in the offseason, unveiling plans for what will be the largest video/scoreboard in MLB. The display will measure 57 feet tall by 201.5 feet wide, with a resolution of 3840 x 1080. Effectively that’s two Full HD screens side-by-side. At 11,425 square feet, the display will be 70% larger than the display the Astros had installed at Minute Maid Park last year, and 30% larger than baseball’s largest current screen at Kauffman Stadium. Panasonic will be the manufacturer, displacing Daktronics. The display is part of a $15 million capital improvements fund, negotiated by Seattle/King County and the Mariners prior to the opening of Safeco Field. [MLB.com/Greg Johns]
  • Chris Hansen released renderings for his dream arena in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle. The concept, penned by 360 Architecture, is reminiscent of 360’s Sprint Center project in Kansas City. It’s meant to house both basketball and hockey teams. Unlike Sprint Center, Hansen’s arena won’t be built without commitments from existing NBA and/or NHL franchises. Ironically, the opposite is what occurred in Kansas City, as the city chose to plow forward with an arena with no permanent tenants. That would put KC and Seattle in direct competition for any future franchise moves. [KING 5/Chris Daniels, Travis Pittman | 360 Architecture]
  • Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton (DFL) played to populist roots earlier this week by decrying the Vikings’ plans to sell PSLs at their $1 billion stadium. Most everyone throughout the Twin Cities expressed confusion at this sentiment, since it was pretty clear from the beginning that PSLs were a crucial piece of the financing plan. [MN Gov. Dayton | Minneapolis Star-Tribune Editorial Board]
  • Perhaps just in time for the start of the Mike D’Antoni era in LA, DirecTV and Time Warner Sportsnet agreed to a carriage deal of the fledgling regional sports network. (Laker fans weren’t missing much the last two weeks anyway.) Terms were undisclosed, but TWCSN has been seeking $3.95 per subscriber per month, making the channel among the most expensive RSNs in the nation. [LA Times/Joe Flint]
  • The City of Reno swore in a new City Council this week, and with that came swift action. They nixed the narrowly approved debt restructuring/refinancing plan completed just before the election. That puts both the team and the city in a bind. The team is threatening to leave without a tax subsidy. The Council clearly wants nothing to do with the debt liability. This snag gives the two sides about a year to figure out some sort of solution before Aces ownership figures out a move. If the Aces leave, Reno would be stuck with the debt anyway. Already the city has stopped making debt payments, pushing its credit rating into junk status. [Reno Gazette Journal/Brian Duggan]
  • Did you know about the Sacramento Sports Commission? If you didn’t , then it matters little as it’s about to be dissolved. The commission’s job was to attract different types of sporting events and maintain relationships with governing bodies like the NCAA, so that Sacramento venues could remain in constant rotation for major events such as NCAA championships. The task will probably end up with Sacramento’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. One of the reasons for the dissolution is that SSC failed to repay a $400,000 loan taken out for the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships. [Sacramento Bee/Ryan Lillis]

That’s it for now. Feature on media coming over the weekend.