Well, it’s good news for Vikings fans: the bill to fund a new stadium in Minneapolis
survived its final hurdle, passing in the State Senate, ensuring that the
Vikings will stay put for years to come.
Under the final bill, the share of construction costs for the Vikings
and the NFL will be $447 million; $348 million will come from the state and the
City of Minneapolis will pony up $150 million.
Now that Minnesota, and the rest of us, can move on, let’s
jump back to where we left off yesterday
with our look at stadium financing. You’ll
recall that we covered the first mean to finance construction of new venues—100%
public funds through the sale of bonds—and then we looked at how Cowboys
Stadium was paid for—with a mix of public and private funds. Today, we examine a second example of the
latter, and move on to our third means of financing…
Santa Clara Stadium:
The San Francisco 49ers have called Candlestick Park home since
1971. Originally built as the stadium
for the MLB San Francisco Giants, it continued to be a multi-use park until the
Giants moved to their new home, AT&T Park in 2000. Situated Candlestick Point on the western
side of the San Francisco Bay, fans, players and the media have long complained
about the cold and windy conditions that, though not too extreme for football,
made attending baseball games almost unbearable, particularly in the early
years of the stadium (which first opened in 1960). Adapting the seating for football has
resulted in an unusual arrangement, leaving a large portion of the seats that
are in right field territory hidden behind a sideline grandstand during
football games.
In sharp contrast to the process that located, financed and
built Cowboys Stadium, the journey toward Santa Clara Stadium was longer and
had some hairpin turns. In 2006—nine years
after a first failed attempt to get a new stadium plan off the ground—the 49ers
put forward a plan to build a new stadium at the same site, Candlestick Point,
at an estimated cost of a little over $900 million. However, as in previous discussions over the
previous decade, disputes with the San Francisco officials arose concerning the
precise location of the venue, which was to include retail space and housing. Much of the dispute centered on the team’s
concern over traffic to and from the new stadium, especially given the
additional traffic for the retail and housing developments; the city simply
failed to provide an adequate solution beyond the existing two-lane road that
was the only route between the stadium and the freeway.
It's not that far |
The club’s dealings with the City of Santa Clara has been
much less contentious by comparison, and the terms of the financing for the
stadium seem more than fair. Under a
voter-approved proposal, called “Measure J,” the city owns the property on
which the stadium will be built, and will lease the land to the team for the
stadium. The city has secured an $850
million loan for construction, and the team will be responsible for any
construction costs exceeding that amount.
The city’s stake will also be paid for with a hotel tax and funds (capped)
from the city’s Redevelopment Agency.
Remember from the last post how Jerry Jones and the Cowboys
received a $150 million loan from the NFL through the league’s “G-3”
program? Well, in February, the NFL
approved a $200 million loan to the Niners in the next generation of the
program, “G-4”. In case you were wondering,
loans taken from these programs are paid back through certain types of receipts
from ticket sales.
UPDATE: A dark, but small, cloud is threatening the sunny outlook on the development of the Santa Clara stadium. In late June 2012, the Santa Clara County Oversight Board voted to withdraw $30 million, which had been approved by Santa Clara voters, from funding of the new stadium. The Oversight Board is a newly created body that determines how property taxes from redevelopment zones, the source of the earmarked funds, are spent. The explanation? Officials said that they wanted to use the money to pay teachers--a version of the guns vs. books debate. This move came as a surprise to the officials in the city of Santa Clara as well as the 49ers, who quickly filed a lawsuit to keep the county from taking back the money. However, if the team loses the battle, they will simply absorb the cost, which amounts to less than 3% of the stadium's total cost.
UPDATE: A dark, but small, cloud is threatening the sunny outlook on the development of the Santa Clara stadium. In late June 2012, the Santa Clara County Oversight Board voted to withdraw $30 million, which had been approved by Santa Clara voters, from funding of the new stadium. The Oversight Board is a newly created body that determines how property taxes from redevelopment zones, the source of the earmarked funds, are spent. The explanation? Officials said that they wanted to use the money to pay teachers--a version of the guns vs. books debate. This move came as a surprise to the officials in the city of Santa Clara as well as the 49ers, who quickly filed a lawsuit to keep the county from taking back the money. However, if the team loses the battle, they will simply absorb the cost, which amounts to less than 3% of the stadium's total cost.
100% Private Funding
Now we come to third, and most rare, form of stadium financing
(at least in the NFL)—all-private funds.
The latest football mecca to be built purely with private money is the
new Met Life Stadium—home to both the New York Jets and the New York Giants.
As is the case with other stadiums, Met Life Stadium is, on
paper, owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, and the teams
are in a lease with the Authority to use it.
Built in East Rutherford, New Jersey, right next to the former Giants
Stadium, the complex is the first project representing a 50/50 partnership
between two teams. The only real hitch
in the deal is that, under the terms of the lease, if one team decides to move
out, the other team has to stay for the remainder of the lease. Time will only tell if this creates any New
York-caliber drama in the years to come.
You know how roommates can be…
When the Jets proposed a new stadium plan for a location in
Manhattan, it fell through because of the amount of public funding that would
be required. Once they decided to
partner with the Giants, there was no real drama on determining location—they just
opted to build next to Giants Stadium. I
guess things just go more smoothly when you don’t need the government to foot
the bill (perhaps a model for how things should work in other aspects of life?
Hmmm…). Good thing for local authorities,
too, as the total construction cost came to $1.6 billion, the most expensive
NFL venue ever built. Opening private
wallets did not give builders a blank check, however. One sacrifice that had to be made was leaving
off a dome, which meant saying “fuggedaboutit” to indoor events, like the Final
Four—one major event developers had been hoping to host at the new place.
Met Life Stadium does, however, boast the largest permanent
seating capacity for football games, at 82,566.
It’s most striking feature is its outer layer of aluminum that has
interior lighting so that the stadium’s colors can be changed depending on
which team is playing at home.
The stadium for a Jets home game... |
Unlike other stadiums that had to accommodate additional
teams, or even other sports, after construction, Met Life Stadium can be easily
converted from the home field for the Jets to the home field for the
Giants. The FieldTurf in each end zone
is rolled up by ground crews and replaced with different FieldTurf bearing the
other team’s name and logo. The NFL logo
appears a midfield, instead of team logos, so that’s one less thing that needs
changing. And the stadium sports four
locker rooms, two at each end—one for the Giants, one for the Jets, and two for
visitors. Since the visiting team is
housed at the locker room at the opposite end of the home team, the home team
can use the visitor’s locker room at its side on game day.
So, did you ever think that so much went into building big
donuts of concrete filled with hard seats?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Have a question you want answered, a correction or a comment?