Category Archives: Football

05.06.11
by

News for 5/6/11 (updated)

After the rush of last week, this week is fairly light on news.

The Dodgers and Frank McCourt continue to make headlines off the field, managing to overshadow Andre Ethier’s 2930-game hitting streak.

  • It’s been widely reported that the team will not be able to make payroll on May 31, which will force MLB to bail the Dodgers out. Right now all financial decisions are going through MLB appointee Tom Schieffer. McCourt’s argument has been that Bud Selig’s unwillingness to approve a new media deal from Fox is causing this problem. It is likely that MLB will loan the team money to take care of payroll for the rest of the season, but the price paid will be the complete takeover of the team.
  • McCourt’s newly hired Vice Chairman, Steve Sokoroff, is McCourt’s trash-talking heel. Earlier in the week, Sokoroff accused Schieffer of not acting promptly to approve a security increase at Dodger Stadium in the wake of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Schieffer supplied an email to MLB showing that he approved the request in two minutes, which understandably got MLB very upset. McCourt was forced to apologize for Sokoroff, and probably lost whatever allies he had within the league in the process.
  • A rumor gaining traction has the NFL looking at the Dodger Stadium site as a future stadium home, either by replacing or sitting alongside the existing ballpark. AEG would be the party to make it happen. Whether it’s a swap or two stadia, the concept doesn’t make much sense from AEG’s perspective. One of the reasons to have a domed football stadium is that it serves a second, nearly as important purpose: it replaces and extends the convention center. A ballpark or any open-air stadium won’t work for that purpose. What’s more, AEG probably isn’t interested in pushing a bunch of pedestrian and vehicle traffic to Chavez Ravine, they’d like to keep it downtown. If anything, a football stadium at Chavez Ravine next to Dodger Stadium without any links to AEG might make the most sense of any deal. A NFL stadium could follow the same cost-saving construction principles (building into a hill) employed at Dodger Stadium and advertised for the City of Industry stadium, while displacing only 1,200 parking spaces and utilizing other existing infrastructure at the same time.
  • Even the financial investigation is getting bogged down. MLB wants hard or disc copies of financial records. The Dodgers will only allow auditors access to a “virtual data room” from which nothing can be removed. The IAEA had an easier time getting through inspections in Iraq than this.

The planned Las Vegas National Sports Center could move from Downtown to The Strip, right behind Mandalay Bay. Texas developer Chris Milam bought a large, undeveloped lot across the I-15 freeway from Mandalay Bay and has already signed the Las Vegas 51’s AAA franchise to move down there. Updated 9:33 PM – The 51’s have been sold to Milam, making the impetus to build LVNSC greater.

During the last A’s-Angels series in Anaheim, did anyone notice how the batter’s eye was redone? Instead of a tarp and a painted wall, there appears to be some turf up top and trees up front. I wonder if anyone’s done an analysis to see how batter’s eye changes affect team batting pre/post.

OT – Gus Johnson won’t be working CBS’s NCAA hoops tourney coverage anymore. Not cool.

Updated 9:44 PM – Look to next week for things to heat up a little as the next owners meetings are set for Wednesday and Thursday. The Dodgers may be the #1 discussion topic even though they aren’t on the agenda, with the Mets and a potential new minority owner #2. CBA framework will probably be close to finalized, and the A’s/Rays’ situations might make the talks (don’t count on it). From the LA Times’ Bill Shaikin:

The Dodgers’ situation is not on the agenda for next week’s meeting, and no action is expected with regard to the team, according to two people familiar with plans for the meeting but not authorized to discuss them publicly.

However, the Dodgers currently lack the cash to meet the May 31 payroll, a scenario that could trigger an ownership change, a legal confrontation between McCourt and Selig, or both.

If the Dodgers fail to meet the payroll, the commissioner’s office would pay the salaries, with McCourt almost certainly asked to sell the team. If he were to refuse, the league constitution specifically provides for “involuntary termination” of the franchise if the owner fails to repay any debts to the league within 30 days.

04.28.11
by

News for 4/28/11

It would appear that new Coliseum naming rights holder Overstock.com is the snake to current signage/broadcast sponsor and hedge fund Kingsford Capital’s mongoose. Or vice-versa. Weird.

The 49ers made two big announcements yesterday. They brought in mega-agency CAA to handle its naming rights search. That comes after Santa Clara authorized the team to start selling said naming rights. The 49ers also hired former Facebook and YouTube CFO Gideon Yu to become its Chief Strategy Officer. Yu may have been bored working at venture capital firm Khosla Ventures. You know how in the past I wrote wondering how the 49ers were going to finance the Santa Clara stadium? Well, this hiring proves that there’s some truth to it, and Tim Kawakami agrees. The Yorks are having to search far and wide, looking into perhaps novel or unexplored revenue streams to pay for the stadium. For Santa Clara taxpayers’ sakes, I hope they hit a vein of gold (preferably not on their uniforms).

It’s a bad time for online security. Sony’s PlayStation Network was severely breached last week and is still down for rebuilding. Now according to Deadspin, the New York Yankees accidentally leaked a file containing the names of 20,000 season ticket and plan holders. No credit card info was in the file, but plenty of personal information was. It didn’t get everyone, though. The suiteholders and high rollers in the really expensive (and often empty) club seats were not affected. It’s good to be the king. Also, the number of tickets sold (2.1 million) and revenue pulled in just for the non-premium sections ($131 million) are absolutely staggering.

Speaking of staggering, Frank McCourt visited New York to lobby Bud Selig to approve his own personal TARP bailout by Fox. The plan, which would have included $300 million upfront that would have gone straight into team equity, was not approved by the commissioner. That prompted McCourt to hold a 30-minute press conference in which he railed on Selig, calling his actions “un-American.” Listen to the audio. There are some serious theatre of the absurd elements. I thought it was all quite entertaining until I realized that the slow legal process that will tie up MLB and the Dodgers for the next two years will cause Selig to extend his term yet again, probably through 2013-14. I was instantly depressed.

Escondido’s AAA ballpark plan for the Padres may turn into a tech business park if Mayor Sam Abed has his way. Now that was quick.

Doctors are trying to reduce medication to Bryan Stow so that he can emerge out of his coma. #rootingforhim

Two different visions for old deflated domes:

  • The H.H.H. Metrodome is quickly getting its roof repaired. The new roof by Birdair won’t end Zygi Wilf’s quest for a new Vikings Stadium. It will be there in time for the Vikings’ 2011 season, assuming that the league starts on time. The replacement is being paid for by the stadium’s insurance, so there’s no new public cost.
  • B.C. Place in Vancouver is getting a unique cable-supported retractable roof built on top of the existing stadium, replacing the original roof. Construction of the roof and related improvements started shortly after last year’s Winter Olympics, with the price tag rising from $350 million to $458 million and now $563 million. The remodeled, reroofed venue will be home to both the B.C. Lions CFL team and the Vancouver Whitecaps MLS team.

Google Earth rendering of the new B.C. Place. Next to it is Rogers Arena.

More news today as it gets reported.

Added 11:40 AM – BART is workshopping different types of seats for its trains. The agency was prompted in response to rising cleaning costs for the fabric covers on the existing seats. They’re also playing around with narrower seats with less legroom, which I’m sure is a crowd pleaser. This change follows a switch from carpeted floors to rubberized floors, which is ongoing. Personally, I think wide and tall vinyl seats, such as those used on Caltrain’s Baby Bullet cars, would work well.

04.13.11
by

News for 4/13/11

Cal Baseball is safe for at least the next 7-10 years, thanks to relentless fundraising efforts.

Tonight marks the last NBA game to ever be played in Sacramento, at least for the foreseeable future.

As part of the new federal budget pact reached over the weekend, Congress is looking at numerous transit projects as low-hanging fruit for cuts including California’s High Speed Rail project and BART-to-Silicon Valley. It’s not enough to kill those projects, but it could stretch out planning while the projects try again for scarce federal funding in the future. BART-to-SV faces a lawsuit from a Milpitas industrial park owner whose access may be severely affected by construction of the line next to the property. The property owner wants an injunction against any further work until the issue is addressed.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is getting creative in figuring out ways to overcome the City’s $58 million budget deficit, which is $12 million more than when she came into office. In addition to a $80/year parcel tax, Quan is looking at short-term financing of the City’s retired police and firefighters’ pension plan. The Contra Costa Times’ Daniel Borenstein has a scathing critique of the pension refinancing plan and the City’s previous (largely failed) attempts to rein in the costs. The more you read about the plan, the more it looks like the Raiders’ Coliseum deal, full of overly optimistic projections and heavy on risk to the City. The current budget shortfall doesn’t have any material impact on any Oakland ballpark efforts, but decisions made now that could adversely impact fiscal feasibility down the road could have a huge impact.

OnMilwaukee.com has the first in a series of articles remembering the efforts needed and political battles waged to build Miller Park.

A study by the University of Toronto claims that the NHL is subsidizing numerous US-based teams and that Canada could support as many as 12 franchises (double the current number) thanks to high demand north of the border. I’d like to read this study before passing judgment.

A bill to authorize a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings has been introduced. However, it will not be heard until after April 26 and will have only a month to get through the legislature. Pundits are not giving the bill much of a chance of passing.

Two, count ’em, two ballparks are opening in Omaha over the next week. Werner Park, 9,000-capacity new suburban home of the Omaha Storm Chasers (AAA-Royals), seemed to be built in record time. TD Ameritrade Park in downtown Omaha, which is the new home of the College World Series, will host its first game next Tuesday when Creighton University hosts Nebraska (TV: CBS Sports Network/CBS College Sports). The 24,000-seat ballpark can expand to 35,000 for the CWS, though officials are quick to point out that even with the size, the ballpark is not a major league park.

A word on the Giants-Dodgers-Bryan Stow situation. As much as it’s heartwarming to see the outpouring of support for Stow, who remains in a coma following his beating following an Opening Day game two weeks ago, it’s important to remember that wasn’t the first incident, and sadly it won’t be the last. Two months ago, 20-year-old San Carlos resident Taylor Buckley pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter three years after the 2008 “sucker punch” killing of Anthony Giraudo outside a Giants game at AT&T Park. If anything, I’m surprised these incidents don’t happen more often. I look back at all of the A’s-Yankees games at the Coliseum, the Giants-Dodgers games at both AT&T and the ‘Stick, and I remember multiple fistfights and fans tumbling down the steps. More often than not, security gets there in time to stop the truly tragic from happening. Unfortunately, all it takes is for someone to hit his head on the edge of a concrete step, or for some thug to wait until he’s out in the parking lot to be an idiot, and then it’s a tragedy. It’s brutal and senseless, yet the line between a small no-harm skirmish and a tragedy can be so small. I want to believe in the better angels of our nature. Sometimes it’s not easy.

Lastly, and on a bittersweet note, the baseball season in Japan is starting, three weeks late and a month after the earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant ordeal began.

04.04.11
by

Santa Clara to authorize 49ers to sell naming rights

On Tuesday, Santa Clara’s City Council/Stadium Authority is expected to approve a small procedural change in the financing for the 49ers stadium. The change is fairly simple: Allow the 49ers to sell the naming rights to the stadium instead of the Stadium Authority. Doing so could reduce overhead for the Authority, which is important since it has no money of its own with which to operate.

Under the terms of the agreement (PDF), the 49ers – er, Stadco – would have 2 years to get the naming rights deal done before the task reverts back to the Authority. If a broker is used and is successful in getting the deal, it would get 5% of the top. The top of what, you ask? Well, the City isn’t willing to say. But they and the team have had a number in mind going back to when the stadium concept was hatched. Remember this?

$7 million a year for 40 years. That’s $280 million, or 40% of the $700 million naming rights deal announced two months ago between AEG and Farmers. The 49ers could be gunning for a higher figure because of what the Farmers Field deal represents. Then again, TBA Stadium won’t be domed so it won’t be flexible enough to hold nearly as many events, so perhaps a 40% deal is in order. If the 49ers have an on-the-DL Raiders agreement in their back pocket, it could provide impetus towards a higher number. Any increase over that $7 million per year figure could reduce pressure to sell Seat Builder Licenses (PSLs), which could in turn make financing the whole thing much more feasible.

The article mentions Yahoo! as a neighbor, though not as a naming rights partner. In 2007 I heard that Yahoo! was the likely candidate, though the company has since been knocked down several pegs and is still in a state of recovery. At this point they may not be the best choice, though they are certainly no fly-by-night operation. Intel may be a better partner, as would – you guessed it – Cisco. Both Intel and Cisco advertise heavily on ESPN and on other national sports broadcasts, so this would be right up their alley. However, you have to wonder about what Cisco’s possible deal with the A’s represents. Is Cisco’s naming rights worth more if the ballpark is in San Jose, not Fremont, and not tied to a land deal? Possibly. Would Intel or Cisco pay more than twice as much for naming rights to a NFL stadium than a MLB ballpark? That’s unclear. As much as I thought that the days of throwing funny money at stadia were over, the Farmers deal went and reset the playing field – even if it never gets built. We’ll find out over the next couple of years if it’s merely an outlier or the start of a trend.

On a tangentially related note, the Florida Marlins are looking to get a naming rights deal for its domed ballpark done sometime within the next month.

03.22.11
by

Santa Clara gives 49ers $4 million for stadium project

It’s all starting to get a little unseemly at this point.

The Merc’s Mike Rosenberg and Lisa Fernandez report that the City Santa Clara, in its haste to lock in the 49ers stadium deal, gave the team $4 million for the project. That’s a huge turnaround from what was intended a few weeks ago: the team would advance the City money to kick off the work. Back in February I wrote this as part of the Redevapocalypse post:

$40 million doesn’t seem like a big deal as it’s less then 5% of the project cost. It’s still a lot of money to raise and a big enough gap to throw a wrench into the works. There’s a chance that both parties could figure out a way to bridge the gap but it’s not going to happen immediately, and unless it’s the team pledging to cover it completely, any contractual details will require renewed scrutiny.

That renewed scrutiny amounted to two hours to review the new contract (PDF). There are some interesting nuggets in the document:

  • The organization the 49ers have set up to take care of their side of the agreement is Forty Niners Stadium, LLC, shortened to Stadco throughout.
  • The money is getting shifted around due to a bunch of predevelopment work being done by Stadco for the stadium project.
  • An additional $1.6 million was transferred from the City to the Agency (a.k.a Stadium Authority per the agreement) to take care of development fees.
  • Up to $40 million can be spent by Stadco with the promise that it will be covered by the Agency. Essentially this is a loan or advance per the terms. Interest is 8.5%.
  • The work described is your garden variety utilities relocation and street reconfiguration stuff, as described in the final stadium project description.

Is it as bad as the Irwindale giveaway? No, because the 49ers – I mean Stadco – are actually doing work. Al Davis didn’t promise to do anything for Irwindale. Still, it looks really, really bad and really, really rushed to go about things this way. If the stadium never proceeds past this initial stage, the City will have spent a lot of money on infrastructure changes that will not be helpful for any replacement project.

03.14.11
by

News for 3/14/11

Today’s hearing for Santa Clara County and the City of San Jose may set the stage for a proper settlement between the two parties over $62.9 million in redevelopment funds owed to the county. The Merc’s Karen de Sá has the details, including this bit from County Supervisor Dave Cortese, who has long been a ballpark backer:

“This is what we call a straight breach of contract, it’s not that much different than if somebody got behind on their car or house payments — you gotta settle up,” said board president Dave Cortese. “The difference is, this isn’t money for a car payment, this is money that needs to go toward all the services the county provides, everything from emergency rooms to a regional park service, libraries and courthouses. There’s no end to the hardship that would result in us being out of pocket $63 million.”

City Attorney Rick Doyle is among those who believe a deal can be reached by Wednesday, which is when the State Legislature is supposed to hear the new budget proposal.

Santa Clara is set to wrap up its work to protect RDA funds for the 49ers stadium project tomorrow.

San Diego is considering a Diridon-like transfer of 135 RDA-owned properties to the City.

Longtime NY Times baseball writer and anti-blog curmudgeon Murray Chass keeps up the weekly trickle of nationally-sourced articles pushing for the A’s to move south. This one follows a widely used AP piece last week. I sense a strategy in there… Chass’s column comes two years after a similar entry at his site, the difference this time being the appearance of Bill Neukom on the scene.

Jonah Keri’s new book about the Moneyball-style rise of the Tampa Bay Rays is out. The book is titled The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First.

Added 3/15 1:00 AM – In Sunday’s edition of the Chronicle, Matier and Ross reported that Denver attorney Paul Jacobs was hired by Oakland to be its lead negotiator for the Victory Court project. The $455 per hour hiring, which wasn’t publicized immediately because it was done in closed session, is a big deal because Jacobs is prominent in the Western US for working on stadium deals. His biggest claims to fame are his role in putting together the resources that eventually created the Colorado Rockies, and the ballpark and land development deal around PETCO Park. As is often the case in the stadium game, Jacobs isn’t batting 1.000. More recently he worked on the aborted Pacific Commons project in Fremont and was retained by the City of Oceanside in its efforts to figure out a football stadium deal for the Chargers. One thing I’m curious about is whether or not the firm Barrett Sports Group was brought in. The last two links include mentions of Barrett Sports Group, the “other half” to Jacobs, with both hired as a package deal of sorts. Jacobs handles the real estate stuff, while BSG takes care of facility planning and financing. BSG counts A’s and Giants ownership as two of its many current or former private sector clients.

03.01.11
by

Judge rules NFL can’t take TV advance during lockout

In a development that can only be described as a victory for the players, US District Court judge David Doty ruled that a special master mistakenly allowed the NFL to keep $4 billion in TV revenue for the upcoming season, despite the threat of a lengthy work stoppage. The money is considered an advance as the various TV networks would be owed additional weeks to match the contract. based on how many weeks of the season are eventually played. The money has been in escrow while this issue was waiting for resolution, and the league looked at the funds as a potential warchest.

While the league is expected to appeal, the possibility that the owners would not have access to these funds is a huge hit to their offseason strategy of hoping to break the union over time by having a financial advantage (not that they don’t already have one). It’s possible that there will be more pressure on them to make a deal should the ruling stand.

02.20.11
by

Santa Clara to create Authority, sew up stadium money

Pressed by the uncertain future of redevelopment, Santa Clara is set to move the 49ers stadium project forward by making two major actions this Tuesday:

  • “Memorialize” the terms of the stadium development agreement. This would effectively put the deal under contract and allow the City to start raising the initial $40 million for the project.
  • Create the quasi-public Stadium Authority that would be responsible for getting loans/bonds for $330 million needed to finish the stadium.

The article by the Merc’s Lisa Fernandez has the scoop. Despite bullet #1 above, there remains a chance that a wholesale shutdown of RDA activities could render Santa Clara incapable of raising the money. That seems unlikely given the gaps in budget proposals among the State Senate, Assembly, and the Governor – at least as it relates to redevelopment in general. Should that shutdown occur it could be up to the 49ers to raise the money, for which they were going to provide a partial advance to the RDA anyway.

02.04.11
by

Struggling in The Town

Let’s go back two weeks. Lost in the glorious vengeance that usually comes with an Al Davis press conference was a question about a future stadium from KPIX’s Kim Coyle. Davis admitted that he is not involved day-to-day in the work, but he pressed the notion that the Raiders need a new stadium… somewhere. Go 24 minutes into this video to get the question and response. Below is the text.

“The best place for a site is the Oakland Coliseum. It really is. Traffic-wise, the BART, all those amenities that go there – it’s the best place. BUT. If they can’t get it done, you’re gonna have to use other avenues. You’re gonna have to do other things. And we need a new stadium.”

“I mean we’re no different just like someone here brought up, being able to compete… If we’re going to be able to compete we need a new stadium.”

“And we want the Raider Nation, we want the fans out there, you gotta support us.”

“Someone said we had 22,000 (season tickets). We’re at the low end or close to the low end and we’ve gotta to do better. That’s just the facts.”

After the press conference officially ended, Davis talked a bit more. Asked about the impact of the new CBA and the extension of the regular season to 18 games, he said this:

“What does a club do that’s in a depressed area like Oakland, where we find out that the fans don’t have all the money we’re hoping they do?” Davis asked. “What do the Raiders do about 18 games, which means another home game? These are important things that we have to decide.”

So you have the short term danger of even more blackouts coming from greater ticket inventory, thanks to 18 games. Yet Davis is clear in favoring Oakland first, as opposed to immediately looking south to Santa Clara or even Los Angeles.

There’s the dilemma. The Coliseum is great from an accessibility standpoint. It is rich in history and legacy. Is that enough? Davis did something no other owner in the Bay Area is really willing to do – talk directly about the elephant in the room, Oakland’s struggles as a city. Unfortunately, to ignore Oakland’s issues is to ignore reality. Yes, there are great places to live within the city limits. Yes, it is only one-sixth of the East Bay’s population and is near many other wealthier cities. But it has issues that make it difficult to consider from the standpoint of funding a near billion-dollar stadium (not to mention a half-billion-dollar ballpark), and Davis has been feeling that pinch for a while. You’re not going to hear outsiders or “carpetbaggers” like Lew Wolff or Joe Lacob talk about this. They’ll dance around it as much as possible. Davis has nothing to lose at this point and has never edited or censored himself for good or bad. His opinion counts more than most other local owners because he’s part of the community, at least much more than Wolff or Lacob. Apparently Davis gets credit for giving the Coliseum a real college try – at his behest no less. If it’s too hard and the Raiders explore those “other avenues,” what then? Does that college try translate into greater goodwill? A shrug? Or will people remember only the endgame?

02.02.11
by

Are you ready for some football stadia?!?!

Ed Roski may have an EIR done, but AEG has the glitzy package in downtown LA, which may translate into the largest naming rights deal in sports history. The deal with Farmers Insurance starts at 30 years, $700 million and could escalate to at least $900 million over the same period if two NFL teams play there. It’s an absurdly, staggering large amount that actually has a chance of paying off if enough additional events provide the requisite exposure. Here’s a list of what they’re putting together:

  • At least 10 Chargers NFL home games every year
  • A new or relocated college bowl game (non-BCS) or a playoff game if a system is introduced
  • The Pac-12 championship game
  • A place in the college basketball site rotation (Final Four/regional finals)
  • A future NBA All Star Weekend
  • The X Games
  • At least one high profile boxing/MMA event every year

Plenty of “one-off” possibilities are out there, such as World Cup games. Other soccer/rugby exhibitions are likely. It won’t hurt that the stadium is planned to be a extension of Los Angeles Convention Center, and that it’ll get a frequent broadcast nod after groundbreaking thanks to national exposure from Staples Center events such as Lakers games and the Grammys.

Even though Roski is putting up a fight for his City of Industry stadium concept, he can be forgiven for setting his sights elsewhere. Today he was a four hour drive away in Las Vegas, to unveil a unique stadium-arena concept at UNLV.

The stadium, which from the rendering above looks more like one of the vessel sinks my brother just installed at his house than typical sports architecture (not necessarily a bad thing), can function as either a 20,000-seat arena or a 40,000-seat stadium. It does this via a novel moving stand (the orange bowl) which retracts in and out based on the event. In arena mode, the stand moves in more than 200 feet and matches the other end, creating a round/oval seating bowl. For football the stand pulls out and exposes sideline seats, suites and club levels.

Roski’s partners in this venture are UNLV and Silverton Casino owner Craig Cavileer. The idea is first and foremost to have an on-campus home for the Runnin’ Rebels football team, which currently plays its home games eight miles away near the edge of town at Sam Boyd Stadium. The current venue also hosts a bowl game which would greatly benefit from being in an indoor venue, as a December night game in the desert isn’t always comfortable. Plus there’s nothing around the stadium.

Cavileer and UNLV are pitching the idea as a way to improve the campus, as it’s tied to an improved circulation plan, 3,000 new campus housing units, and a sizable retail/commercial component. Right now it’s common for travelers to pass the campus on the way to/from McCarran Airport, and the most prominent features are Thomas & Mack Center and the ocean of parking in front of the arena. If the plan comes to fruition, all of that parking would be turned into a new master planned community, with the new stadium as its anchor. Thomas & Mack would stay put as it’s still serviceable. No funding has been identified for the plan, so right now it’s in the earliest planning stages.

Given the site’s proximity to the airport, I’m curious if FAA height restrictions might come into play since the stadium may be only 1/2 mile from one of the runways.

When I first got word of the unveiling (thanks Dennis M.), I wasn’t sure if I had seen something like this before. Turns out I had, though not in person. Audio of the presentation had Cavileer mentioning renowned architect Dan Meis, who had done something like this before in Japan. The Saitama Super Arena is very much the same concept and was completed in 2000. While it doesn’t have a soccer/football tenant, it is unique in that it was designed to be able to stage American football exhibition games. That may sound weird but it makes perfect sense. If you go back to the 80’s/90’s you may remember that the Detroit Pistons played home games at the Pontiac Silverdome and the San Antonio Spurs played a few years at the Alamodome. The Georgia Dome was split into two venues for the 1996 Olympics, one half holding basketball and the other gymnastics. This unintentionally works well because an American football field’s width is 160 feet. Add 20-30 feet of buffer on each side to the width of the field and you basically get the length of a hockey arena or a regular indoor arena floor. All that needs to be done to stage basketball/hockey games is to put in the proper surface and add some portable seats.

At the Super Arena, an entire end is moved into place instead of collapsible risers. The change can take as little as 20 minutes to move the 15,000-ton, 9,000-seat stand.

As cool as it is, it’s not entirely ideal. 40,000 seats works for a second-tier NCAA football team and bowl game. It obviously won’t work for the NFL, not that the NFL is coming the Vegas anytime soon. There’s also an issue in the elongated configuration in that there are too many end seats and not enough sideline seats. Current design trends have end seats at a minimum. There’s probably a way to expand the footprint of the building in order to stuff more seats in there, but that’s not relevant to the UNLV concept.

I’m much more interested in the UNLV concept than Farmers Field, simply because it’s much more novel. If all of the involved parties can pull this off, it’ll be a great feather in Vegas’ cap. The preso describes a redevelopment (TIF) funding plan plus ancillary revenues. I never thought I’d see the rebirth of the “ballpark village” but there it is. Curiously, there is one thing missing from the preso – any mention of a pro franchise, like oh, the Sacramento Kings.