"Radical opponents"? You mean 50 years of economic research that consistently finds sports venues of all forms, location, and funding strategies fail to pay off. No worries, "what Portland is at risk of experiencing is completely without precedent." THIS ONE WILL BE DIFFERENT!

Oh dear.

100% privately funded [record scratch] ... and here come the tax breaks.

As @timharford.ft.com has said, "Sometimes, we want to be fooled."

When you cite Nashville, Austin and Kalamazoo as the relocation options, it sure sounds like you're bluffing.

Good to see Portland elected leaders stand their ground.

I often wonder why there hasn't been a big journalistic expose on the ridiculousness of these "economic impact" figures that community leaders trot out. I'm not aware of a single case where the presented numbers weren't totally made-up nonsense. It's an odd collective blind spot.

"our research"... Yeah, when you just make up the numbers, it's pretty easy to keep them consistent.

This is team propaganda, not a realistic description of the Whitecap's financial state. How do the owners expect to sell a team for $500 million if they've really lost this much money? Answer: The team isn't losing money.

The reason why teams don't want their stadium subsidies decided directly by voters is that citizens don't support them. A majority of the electorate won't fit in the owner's box, but there's enough room for state and local representatives.

RE: World Cup tickets in Atlanta. I got this e-mail yesterday. ...Nope!

LOL

Missouri politicians gettin' a good whiff.

There is no deadline.

When you hire a private consultant to conduct an economic impact "study"

Beware of fiscal illusion.

That's a new one.

The only obit about Ted Turner you need to read.

What? You're telling me that a sports event isn't living up to the economic hype promoted by the event promoters?

Apparently, $2 billion in subsidies for the Gulch weren't enough to stimulate neighboring economic development. It's almost as if public development "incentives" don't work.

So, Ohio's Plan B to hand over $600 million in public money for the new Browns stadium is to get it from gambling receipts. In other words, have poor people pay for the Haslam's (net worth ~$10 billion) new luxury play palace.

No, this isn't how this works. New stadiums don't enlarge your budget for your fantasy roster, it generates cold hard cash for the owner. Owners don't lack credit: if winning boosts profits, they'll invest in the roster. A new stadium doesn't change this.

Super Bowl site selection isn't about the best location, it's done to reward local officials who worked to funnel taxpayer dollars to the NFL.

Because people accuse me of not going there, I went to The Battery today. Gorgeous sunny day. 70 degrees. This is what I experienced.

There's no such thing as found public money. Government stadium contributions are a cost to taxpayer, no matter what funding bucket they come out of.

How is this "a great win" for Ohio? THE BROWNS ARE ALREADY IN OHIO.

Ugh, this framing: the Haslams are "providing nearly two-thirds of he funding"? How about reporting taxpayers covering nearly $1 billion of the cost, which is the relevant figure ($900 million and the team is seeking more). Don't do this.

Twitter randos when you point out that their city is on the small side for hosting a major-league team.

City council members contemplating their votes

Surprise, the $1.26 billion in taxpayer money going to build the Titans stadium isn't enough. Now $300 million of tax revenue is needed to bail out the development...which is supposed to self-fund the stadium. If only someone had warned them.🤔 www.newschannel5.com/news/newscha...

Ohioan's dollars are hard at work gold-plating the new Browns stadium.

Bradbury's iron law of stadium finance: the cost of a publicly funded stadium only goes up.

Opposing legislation that all research consistently demonstrates to be bad policy isn't "playing politics," it's informed decision-making. That should be praised, not ridiculed.

"it’s not just that we didn’t get what we hoped for. It’s that we fell for the hype to begin with. Not only did we lose out on the jackpot we thought was coming our way, we feel duped for believing in it."

Oh, the irony of Governor Kelly calling out anyone else for making "false promises," after she backed a billionaire stadium giveaway based on her own *false promises* of economic returns.

As former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue once said, "Once the bridges have been burned and people get turned off on a sports franchise, years of loyalty is not respected and it is difficult to get it back." www.nytimes.com/1995/03/16/s...

2 years ago, today. Time is a flat circle.

At this point we are in the cheap talk threat stage. Being the 5th major-league team in a smaller Las Vegas seems less than ideal. Vancouver is a strong market. Yeah, the owners want a new stadium. Who doesn't, these days?

If you consider yourself a fiscal conservative, and you support spending $400 million on a new White House ballroom, I have some news for you. You are not a fiscal conservative, not even a little bit.

Wow it’s just the same shit over and over again! The KC business owners who believed the made up numbers were rightfully upset when the Draft weekend was a major flop. It just feels like no one will ever learn

"A ghost town"