Category Archives: Football

01.06.12
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What happens after 2013?

You’re probably aware that the leases for both the Raiders and A’s run out after their 2013 seasons are completed. Problem is for both that neither team can move into a new facility before 2015, whether it’s in Oakland, Santa Clara, or San Jose. Both teams have limited options to play elsewhere, and City and County still have a large mortgage to pay off. It would seem that a simple one-year extension – perhaps with an option year or two – would be simple to ratify.

However, things are not always that simple. The icy relationship between Oakland and the A’s has some within Oakland feeling that they were misled the last time the lease was negotiated, so they may be a much tougher nut to crack this time around. Chances are that the A’s will be paying a good deal more than the $1 million they’ve been averaging, if only to cover the cost of field conversion. The Coliseum Authority has been talking with the Raiders for some time, but Coliseum City doesn’t appear any closer to fruition now than it did over a year ago, when the Authority bought the Home Base site and unveiled the now-evolved plan. With all of that in mind, it’s a good time to explore the teams’ options after the 2013 season.

Raiders

No matter what the two football teams are saying about pursuing separate facilities or not sharing one somewhere, there’s no reason to think that they aren’t getting pressure from Roger Goodell and the other NFL team owners to shack up. There’s little practical reason for them not to do it, since they’d have less debt service to deal with and they would be able to join up instead of compete for precious limited G-4 loan money. Even if they came together, there’s still a year between the end of the Coliseum lease and a new one in Santa Clara or Oakland simply due to the required construction time. What to do then?

  • If a new stadium were being built at the Coliseum complex, it’d be simple. There’d already be a pre-arranged lease extension for the bridge year, and the new stadium would be configured to minimize impact on the existing Coliseum.
  • If the existing Coliseum were being gutted, the Raiders would have to endure one year of reduced capacity (47,000) and come back to a practically new stadium. 2014 could be the bridge year and leave 19-20 months to complete everything.
  • If the Raiders chose to go to Santa Clara, which to me would be a last-minute decision for the franchise, they could either rely on goodwill with Oakland and Alameda County to get the 2014 lease in place, especially if they “promise” that the Santa Clara move wasn’t permanent.
  • It seems highly unlikely that the Raiders would play 2014 in either Candlestick Park, Cal’s Memorial Stadium or Stanford Stadium. The colleges don’t want the headaches, and the ‘Stick would only be an option if the Coli were unavailable for some reason.

One strategic issue for me is, Did Oakland/Alameda County push for a Coliseum revamp? A new stadium may be prohibitively expensive, whereas a revamp could provide all of the necessary amenities for half the cost. Does the NFL consider the Coliseum damaged goods? The G-4 loan program specifies funding for existing facilities, and it’s believed that the Bills will try to use this funding for Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium, and that place can’t be measurably worse than the Coliseum (especially in its football guise).

The A’s could conceivably throw a wrench into the works by negotiating on a new facility at the Coliseum (like that’s going to happen under this ownership group). There would be enough land to build a new ballpark at the Home Base/Malibu site, and the existing Coliseum could be left intact for 2014. Or if the A’s tried to save money by leveraging what they could from the current Coliseum, the Raiders would be forced out.

Athletics

Mutual distrust between the team and City/County leads me to believe that any lease negotiations won’t be sunny. The A’s would need a facility for at least a year. Renting out Cashman Field for two series, as was done when Mt. Davis was being built, won’t fly for an entire season. Oakland wouldn’t have much incentive for renewal if they knew the team were leaving immediately after the lease was up, unless they got a lot of money for that one year or there was enough negative PR that came with refusing the A’s request out of spite. Unlike the Raiders, the A’s options would be wildly varied and mostly suboptimal.

  • Expansion of 4,200-seat San Jose Municipal Stadium to even 15-20,000 seats is impractical because the team facilities are clearly nowhere close to major league standards. Improving these enough to make it acceptable would probably cost $15-20 million, which would be crazy to pay for one year of play and little return on that investment.
  • The Earthquakes’ 18,000-seat stadium is soccer-specific, and MLS is not going to go along with sharing yet another facility.
  • Building another stadium alongside the Quakes’ stadium at Airport West would require a new EIR and probably wouldn’t go anywhere politically.
  • There’s the possibility of sharing AT&T Park for a year, but that would be entirely up to the Giants. There’s also a logistical issue at play. When Shea Stadium was used by both the Mets and Yankees for a year while Yankee Stadium was getting rebuilt, it already had enough team facilities because it was built as a multipurpose stadium. AT&T Park has only two clubhouses and scant room to build new ones. Where would the A’s or their road opponents go?
  • The A’s could play a season at the River Cats’ Raley Field in West Sacramento, but it’s even more limited than AT&T Park. At least there’d be a political path towards making it work as a temporary facility.
  • Candlestick’s pretty much “stuck” in its football configuration, so it’s unlikely that the A’s would play there.

The Raiders could throw a wrench into any 2014 lease plans if they agreed to rebuild the Coliseum, so that’s yet another complication. Unless cooler heads prevail, the A’s will be in a tough spot figuring out what to do for 2014. At this early juncture, my guess is that the A’s and the Coliseum Authority will figure something out, but the A’s will pay handsomely for the privilege. If something interferes, 2014 is up in the air for the A’s, and there’s no telling where they’d land. And if a delay forces them to not open Cisco Field until 2016? Yikes.

01.05.12
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News for 1/5/12

Not the busiest week. Some news is coming in.

The Dodgers and MLB will start entertaining bids towards the end of the month. So far eight groups have been emerged:

  • Orel Hershiser, Steve Garvey, and pet food magnate Joey Herrick
  • Peter O’Malley
  • Fred Claire, Ben Hwang, and Andy Dolich
  • Dennis Gilbert, Larry King, and Jason Rees
  • Mark Cuban
  • Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten, and Mark Walter
  • Joe Torre and Rick Caruso (Torre quit his MLB executive position to be the frontman for the bid)
  • Time Warner

It should be competitive. In addition, Judge Leonard Stark is expected to rule next week on whether the Dodgers’ future TV rights can be sold with the team. For those thinking one of the losing groups could easily pick up the A’s if Lew Wolff is denied San Jose, I have to bring it up again: it’ll cost at least $400 million for the team (when including the premium) and $500 million for a ballpark (privately financed, of course). If Mark Cuban is balking at the Dodgers’ price tag at $1 billion, why would he put $900 million into Oakland? These guys aren’t in it to lose money.

More news:

  • Lowell Cohn provides a counterpoint to my appearance on Athletics After Dark. Or a vitriolic diatribe. You decide.
  • Governor Jerry Brown presented his new budget today, which would eliminate 3,000 jobs and consolidate numerous agencies.
  • Redevelopment agencies are set to officially shut down by February 1. Legislation is in the pipeline to extend that deadline to tax day, April 15. Good luck with that.
  • The replacement railings being installed at Rangers Ballpark will cost the team $1.1 million. They’re part of a $12 million package of improvements, much of them located in the outfield area.
  • The Minnesota Vikings’ lease at the H.H.H. Metrodome ended with their last game of the season. They have said that they will not move forward with a lease renewal unless they get state help on a new stadium. The Vikes continue to tout their Arden Hills plan, while also looking at stadium sites closer to downtown Minneapolis.
  • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to reclaim Manhattan’s Javits Convention Center in order to allow for redevelopment, while allowing a developer to build a replacement convention center at the old Aqueduct race track in Queens. Matthew Yglesias wonders what the value proposition is for building the really large facilities, as opposed to the smaller ones often included in hotels.
  • The SF chapter of the Sierra Club filed a second appeal against the America’s Cup waterfront project, halting construction until a hearing for the appeal is held later this month.
  • Added 1/6 1:00 AM – Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal takes a look a development in the area between HP Pavilion and the ballpark site.

That’s all for now.

01.03.12
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KQED Forum talks franchises

Last week I got a call from the folks at KQED’s Forum program to see if I’d be interested in being on today’s show. Then yesterday, I received word that their panel was full so I wouldn’t be needed for the show. That’s just as well, because it was a pretty good show hosted by Joshua Johnson and with guests Susan Slusser, Mark Purdy, and Glenn Dickey. Giants CEO Larry Baer also chimes in later in the hour. If you haven’t listened to it yet, do so. Below are the embedded player and an MP3 link.

MP3 Audio

A couple of observations:

  • Purdy mentioned that he talked to sources on the MLB panel. According to them, the Giants’ contractually are not tied to South Bay territorial rights.
  • Baer is content with a two-team market as long as the market definitions stay as is. Pressed on what defines the South Bay, Baer hemmed and hawed, finally mumbling that it includes San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. He also talked Warriors, saying that he’s going along with the process to evaluate options in both Oakland and San Francisco.
  • The 49ers and the potential for a new referendum on the revised stadium deal were discussed, especially by callers. I don’t think there’s enough political will to make that happen, but you never know.

I need to do a full relisten to see if there’s anything else, as I didn’t bother to take notes.

12.29.11
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Taking stock as the post-redevelopment era begins

It’s never too early to declare winners and losers that were made as a result of today’s earthshattering news.

First the losers:

  • Backers of the Victory Court site. The site was heavily dependent on tax increment (redevelopment funds) to buy the land and pay for improvements. Now that’s out of the question.
  • The City of Oakland. Strategically, it chose to sit back and wait for the originally passed “pay-to-play” ransom plan, which was scuttled today. Now they not only have no way to do redevelopment, they’re stuck trying to figure out how to fill in major holes that have just opened in the City’s budget that were filled by a large redevelopment operating budget.
  • San Jose Redevelopment Agency. As far as old school redevelopment goes, the City is now handcuffed with no way to raise funds. Of course, the City had already been choking the life out of SJRA by finishing several projects, laying off staff, and not taking on new projects. One word: prescient.
  • Affordable housing advocates. Not directly related to stadium building, but it’s a big point of emphasis for redevelopment backers. And consider this: any large mixed-use plan including residential development in any major city in California would require an affordable housing component. Who’s gonna subsidize that now? Already, San Diego is looking for a legislative means to bring back a scaled down version of redevelopment with a focus on affordable housing.
  • Oakland Raiders. Any options the Raiders may have been considering elsewhere in Bay Area (aside from the Coliseum and Santa Clara) have to be considered nonstarters at this point.
  • Redevelopment agency employees. Many agencies had planned for the “pay-to-play” scenario. This is armageddon. Good luck to them.
  • Anyone with a downtown gentrification initiative. Those projects are now for the birds.

The winners:

  • Lew Wolff and Baseball San Jose. If Wolff and his people were secretly rooting for redevelopment to wither and die, they certainly weren’t showing it. But the decision today has such wide ranging, powerful effects on municipalities throughout the state, that’s it’s easy to envision Lew Wolff sitting in his office, thinking, Okay, that narrows the field. With the MLB panel’s report distributed prior to today’s news, they probably laid out several scenarios, and the owners have to be aware by now the ramifications – if not by the panel’s report, then by the news reports. And that plays right into Wolff’s plans. If there was ever a tipping point event for a decision on San Jose, this is it.
  • San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. It was Reed who oversaw the winding down of SJRA and the creation of SJDDA (SJ Diridon Development Authority) to sidestep the state raid. There may be a legal challenge against SJDDA, but where will it come from? The State doesn’t have the resources to start going after dozens, if not hundreds of redevelopment agencies. Santa Clara County might, but it seems the County got what it wanted by having redevelopment eliminated. Everything else is a matter of negotiation. As noted before: prescient.
  • San Francisco 49ers and Santa Clara. They got their tasks done before the end of the year. Now it’s a matter of selling suites and seat licenses, plus getting the Raiders on board.
  • Your local municipality’s General Fund and local schools. While the State will get a portion of the newly realized tax increment, part of it will be returned to cities, counties, and school districts. For cities with very large redevelopment areas such as San Jose and Oakland, this could actually mean a windfall of sorts, or at least a way to shore up their budgets. How much will it help? That’s for the bean counters to figure out.
  • Governor Jerry Brown. The beautiful irony of this situation is that Jerry Brown used redevelopment in Oakland as a stepping stone to get him back in power in Sacramento. Now he’s killed redevelopment. That’s an experienced politician.

Too early to tell:

  • San Francisco Giants. The death of redevelopment may tip MLB in the A’s favor. Then again, it may not. One thing to consider: the Giants overtures towards the Warriors about getting an arena in Mission Bay may be negatively affected by the ruling.
  • Backers of the Coliseum City plan. The Coliseum is part of a separate joint-powers agreement which allows the Coliseum Authority to raise money for its own projects. The track record isn’t great (Mt. Davis) but the power remains. Still, Coliseum City came about as part of a major planning and redevelopment initiative in and around the Coliseum and Airport. Now at least half of that project has been rendered irrelevant, which could have cascading effects on the Coliseum. On one hand, the Coliseum could be considered one of the only places with land where something could get done. On the other hand, the Coliseum is still pretty much limited to contributing site and infrastructure improvements, with little ability to contribute directly to any new facility or refurbishment. It’s also at the mercy of private developers to flesh out Coliseum City, which given the area, is definitely not a given.

It was hard enough getting something built in California with the state of the economy. Now, if you don’t at least have something already underway or an existing facility or land from which to base improvements, you may as well not show up. Redevelopment as an industry is over. Now bring on the new industry of “creatively” financing traditionally redevelopment-oriented projects.

12.19.11
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South Bay Stuff

January is getting closer. We might actually hear some good news. We should hear one way or another.

The Merc’s Tracy Seipel exposed Stand for San Jose as a farce. I’ve written enough about them. Read down in the Facebook comments for a statement from the plaintiff Eileen Hannan, who is now crying foul as she claims she was ambushed by Seipel in her questioning. If you can’t take the heat… Just a reminder, the A’s coming to SJ doesn’t necessarily mean the little Giants have to leave. If that happens, the decision will be made by the big club in SF, the owner.

On a sad note, Tony Lima, the artist responsible for all of the hand-painted artwork at San Jose Municipal Stadium, is in failing health due to cancer. His work was always endearing, sometimes whimsical, and helped make the family friendly atmosphere at Muni.

The Orioles announced changes to Camden Yards to enhance the fan experience, including a new centerfield viewing area, dropping the height of the rightfield wall a little, and six sculptures of great O’s of the past.

Sports Business Journal’s Daniel Kaplan reports that the 49ers sold a “low nine figures” share of the team to a Silicon Valley exec in order to help finance the Santa Clara stadium. In a followup, he thinks it’s someone at Facebook though he can’t confirm it. If the Raiders want to build their own stadium, they may have to do the same even though they’ve been selling off shares for some time.

Later today – a BART article.

12.14.11
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News for 12/14/11

A boatload of news has been piling up.

  • Matier and Ross “reveal” that the real party behind the Stand for San Jose lawsuit is, in fact, the San Francisco Giants. Glad to know that Larry Baer and company are so concerned with traffic in downtown San Jose. (SFGate)
  • The San Jose Earthquakes have gotten their development permit, so they are one step closer to breaking ground. (SBNation/Quake, Rattle and Roll)
  • VTA approved $772 million for the BART-to-Silicon Valley project. This funding is contingent on federal matching funds, for which a decision is due in February. Incentives in the bidding could allow the first phase, which ends at the Berryessa/Flea Market site in North San Jose, to be opened as much as 18 months ahead of schedule in 2016. Berryessa is three miles from Diridon and there is no light rail transfer from there, so unless there is a special bus or existing routes are realigned, the best bet may be to transfer to light rail at the Great Mall. A post dedicated to this subject is due in the future. (Gary Richards, Merc)
  • Santa Clara’s City Council approved $850 million in loans for its Stadium Authority to take out for the 49ers stadium. The money won’t actually be raised unless the NFL chips in with its $150 million share.
  • The Merc’s Tim Kawakami tweets that the 49ers “might land a naming-rights deal with a green technology company…” Okay.
  • Now that Tesla is gearing up for production at the old NUMMI plant and Union Pacific decided not to use land there for a big train/intermodal yard, Fremont is looking deep into ways to redevelop the land, the same way Oakland is looking at the Coliseum area. The 850 acres in question could be developed in a mixed use manner with up to 3,000 homes. Unlike Oakland, Fremont’s tendency to think small may keep things rather humble in nature, though that could change if some sort of anchor element were part of the planning. Like, oh, a stadium. (Matt Artz, Argus. Note: Good luck to Matt on his switch to the never boring Oakland city beat.)
  • MLB may be getting ready to seize control of the Mets because the team is losing money like crazy. Let’s see, maybe a little after the Dodgers are sold in April/May? (John Harper, NY Daily News)
  • Ever wonder where money from concerts and non-game events goes? This article tries to figure it out. (Tom Lyden, FOX 9 Twin Cities)
  • Marlins ballpark news: There may be a scandal about shotty welds and falsified inspections on the retractable roof (Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald); See pictures inside and outside the stadium (Joe Capozzi, Palm Beach Post; Juan Gonzalez, Stadium Page); the Marlins are getting rid of their sideshow dance troupes of skinny girls and fat guys (Juan C. Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel)
  • Robert Bobb is back in DC after two years as the Detroit Public Schools financial czar. What’s he doing? Consulting, of course.
  • Qualcomm is changing the name of Qualcomm Stadium to “Snapdragon Stadium” for 11 days to give a marketing boost for its mobile chipset. (Terry Lefton, Sports Business Journal)
  • The NFL announced extensions of its TV deals through 2022. Changes include an expanded Thursday night package on NFL Network and NBC getting rights to the Thanksgiving night game. Combined value of all TV deals is $4.3 billion a year, enough to take care of every team’s annual payroll without ever selling a ticket. (NFL Communications, Variety)

That’s it for now.

12.06.11
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Cedar Fair retains Great America ownership, everyone’s happy

JMA Ventures, the 49ers-affiliated company that was set to buy Great America from them park operator Cedar Fair, is not going through with the purchase after all. That means that the park will stay a Cedar Fair property, which seems to be just fine with all concerned parties. In addition, Cedar Fair and the 49ers appear to have come up with an agreement to keep both entities happy for the foreseeable future. From Cedar Fair’s press release:

The Company also announced that it has reached a long-term agreement with the San Francisco 49ers related to the construction of the stadium and parking for NFL and other stadium-related events for the life of the new stadium. The agreement is still subject to the execution of a definitive agreement and the approval of the Stadium Authority and related approvals from the City of Santa Clara.

It’s yet another one of those small details that needs to be worked out for the Santa Clara stadium to move forward. I’m just guessing here, but it appears that prior to the start of the lawsuit which triggered all of this, Cedar Fair laid down its cards and said, “You can shut us up if you buy the park.” The 49ers, not wanting another obstacle, acceded to the demand and put together its bid. After both parties sat down to figure everything out, the 49ers realized it wasn’t their core competency and looked for another way to make it work. Cedar Fair then dictated terms (undisclosed), the 49ers agreed after some haggling, and the two parties signed on the line which is dotted. Now I’m curious to see what new Great America-specific terms are in the 49ers stadium lease, not that there aren’t enough terms to hash out.

12.02.11
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NFL, 49ers bring in the big guns for stadium financing

Congratulations are in order to the 49ers and the City of Santa Clara for lining up all of the necessary financing for their now-$1.02 billion Santa Clara stadium. The Merc’s Mike Rosenberg reports that a consortium of lenders including Bank of America, US Bank, and Goldman Sachs will be providing the bulk of the financing, $850 million. The rest will come from the NFL and the City’s redevelopment funds.

It all sounds promising, but forgive me for being skeptical about this:

Essentially, the two sides are betting that the stadium will create so much profit that they will be able to pay off the loans over about 25 years. If that money doesn’t materialize, the 49ers are on the hook to pay the difference in higher rent payments to the city.

I’d have to thoroughly read the terms of the 75-page agreement to know how iron-clad that is. A rough read right now shows that the way it’s set up, the City-run, quasi-governmental Stadium Authority will lease the stadium to “Stadco”, an entity created by the 49ers to manage the stadium. Stadco will then sublease the stadium to the team itself. I suppose the point of this is to provide some amount of insulation for both the City and 49ers. Here’s some relevant language from Section 8.6:

The recourse of any lender of any construction or permanent financing obtained by Stadco shall be limited so that no City, Agency or Stadium Authority funds, assets, or operating revenues or City enterprise funds will be used as collateral. For other sources of Stadco funds described in the Final Financing Plan that are not loans, Stadco shall provide to the Stadium Authority for its review and approval, evidence, reasonably satisfactory to the Stadium Authority, that such funds shall be available as of the Close of Escrow to pay Development Costs.

This seems to be good for the City from the standpoint of protecting it upfront, as Stadco is responsible for rounding up the financing. As long as the 49ers can meet their revenue projections to pay off the $60 million or so in debt service annually, plus other stadium costs. Of course, that’s been my question from the beginning. At this point I don’t think Santa Clara will be stuck in a position like Oakland/Alameda County or Hamilton County in Ohio, simply because the broader Valley economy should remain strong. Nevertheless, Section 19 covers a default situation by either Stadco or the Stadium Authority. If the 49ers can’t come up with the dough, it’ll be a sign that the team is in such financial straits that the team would descend into bankruptcy, and in that case the team would have to be sold and the courts will decide what to do next (see: Frank McCourt).

11.13.11
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Weekend Merc items about A’s, 49ers + Gas pipeline info

Nothing new on the A’s front, whether it’s the Merc’s Internal Affairs folks reading something into the oft-linked column by the NY Daily News’ Bill Madden, or a throwaway, unattributable line by Gary Radnich. When IA reached out to Lew Wolff, he told them he has not gotten any approval to move the franchise to San Jose, definitive or tacit.

Over in Santa Clara, the City Council is set to approve $10 million for what it terms pre-construction work: site clearing, movement of utilities, etc. Since there is nothing but pavement at the site this shouldn’t be a big deal. Whatever controversy was stirred up about the stadium site’s proximity to a branch of the Hetch Hetchy pipeline has rightly disappeared. A PG&E gas transmission pipeline also runs through the Great America theme park proper, not the stadium site, so there should be no problem there. While the $10 million is a decent amount of money, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the total cost of the new stadium, which has not yet been fully financed and still has many questions about the Stadium Authority’s ability to get that funding (as long as the stadium remains a one-horse town). The detail in the article seems to belie the 49ers’ suggestions that they could open the stadium by the 2014 season. To understand what it would take, let’s plot how everything would have to work:

  • The article notes that the pre-construction phase will take five months starting in January.
  • Sometime in that five months, funding sources for at least the initial major phases of construction would have to be lined up.
  • Groundbreaking (not the “soft” form discussed in the article) would have to occur no later than May-July to make a September 2014 opening. This allows for minimal slack in the schedule.
  • Unlike the A’s plan for Cisco Field having limited finished or air-conditioned space, the 49ers stadium is expected to have a large amount of finished space because of its role as an extension of the Santa Clara Convention Center. That should make the project take a little longer to complete, though it shouldn’t affect the ability of the 49ers to host games there.

That said, the project continues to advertise a 2015 opening.

Speaking of gas pipelines, the issue of pipeline safety has gotten much greater attention since the San Bruno disaster over a year ago. For my own edification, I took a look at where the gas pipelines run relative to current and proposed stadium sites.

  • Oakland Coliseum Complex: A small pipeline spur runs across the Nimitz to Oracle Arena. It’s likely that this was done specifically to service the complex’s gas needs.
  • Victory Court: Pipeline adjacent to land running along UPRR tracks. Another pipeline branch runs along Fallon Street and Victory Court. This makes sense for a company that extensively uses gas in its business like Peerless Coffee, not sure how it benefits other area businesses.
  • Candlestick Park: No pipeline in the immediate area.
  • AT&T Park: No pipeline in the immediate area.
  • HP Pavilion: No pipeline in the immediate area.
  • Diridon South: No pipeline in the immediate area.

It may seem like a minor detail, but the cost and time required to relocate a transmission pipeline is a big deal. As we have seen in the aftermath of the San Bruno tragedy, there’s no excuse for cutting corners.

11.09.11
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News for 11/09/11

Tomorrow morning I’ll be in SF to check out oral arguments for the State vs. Redevelopment case. If I can liveblog it, I will.

The regular media (SFGate, Merc, MLB.com, KGO) covered yesterday’s proceedings fairly well, though I’m surprised there wasn’t a bigger mention of the discussion about the referendum requirement. No matter, the San Jose City Council formalized the requirement by amending the motion just before passing it. Still, I don’t think this is the last of the referendum discussion.

There’s other news on the ballpark/stadium front:

  • The Royals may or may not have agreement in place to sell the naming rights to venerable Kauffman Stadium.
  • Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is undergoing $12 million in renovations, including a major revamp of the area behind centerfield. Changes will include relocation of the suboptimally located visitor’s bullpen, the addition of an indoor club and several concession stands.
  • The University of Washington’s Husky Stadium just started a massive $250 million renovation project. The track will be removed, the field dropped four feet, and more seats will be added close to the field, similar to the changes at the LA Memorial Coliseum. In addition, new locker room and training facilities will be added, as well as premium seating options. Like the $321 million Cal Memorial Stadium renovations, these will be largely dependent on donations for funding. The Huskies will play next season at CenturyLink Field (formerly Qwest Field).
  • The Populous architect overseeing the 2022 Qatar World Cup project believes that the venues will not need air conditioning. The goal is to make the venues carbon neutral, something that made the winning Qatar bid attractive. A company called Arup Associates has a demo of the technology in place at a 500-seat stadium, though you could naturally be skeptical about the ability of the tech to scale to a venue with 100 times the spectators.
  • The Sacramento Bee’s Marcos Breton wonders what the ongoing NBA lockout means for the local arena effort.
  • A report on NPR’s Morning Edition goes over the economic impact of the lockout.
  • A’s naming rights sponsor Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) beat the Street today, which may signal an upswing for the networking giant. The stock was down during the regular session but up in after hours trading.

That’s all for now.