Ron Kirk knew how long the Reunion Arena replacement would last.
“Thirty years,” he said.
Kirk was the leading politician who led the American Airlines Center project from conception to construction. AAC's construction cost was $420 million and it opened in October 2001.
Both the Mavericks and Stars will soon be competing in the 2024 NBA Playoffs and 2024 NHL Playoffs, likely eliminating the AAC as the home base for both teams. That's insane.
No rational person would want to build a house, or even office space, without thinking twice before signing the 43 million documents required for construction, thinking, “In 30 years, it's over.'' ”No one would say that.
“That's the reality of modern sports,” Kirk, the former Dallas mayor, said in a recent interview. “You build a building, and when it reaches the end of its lifespan, you build a new one. That's what the owners want.”
And almost all of us continue to give it to them. Unless it's Auckland. San Diego. And now Kansas City. Northern Virginia. Probably Chicago too.
Will we finally see an era in sports when taxpayers across the country vote “NO” to approve these seemingly innocuous 0.00000003 tax increases to fund the construction of new stadiums and arenas? Maybe let's go hard.
The trend is there, but more data is needed.
Are KC, Oakland, and Virginia the new trend for sports stadiums?
This week's voters are Jackson County, Missouri Defeated a ballot measure that would have given hundreds of millions of dollars to both the Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Chiefs. This was essentially a 40-year tax increase to fund the Royals' new stadium in downtown KC, which was supposed to fund upgrades to the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium.
Both teams will play at venues that have been around for more than 50 years. By today's standards, they are in the Colosseum of Rome.
It's hard to imagine a scenario where the team leaves KC It's just as hard to imagine a scenario. After the ballot measure is defeated, KC gives whatever the team wants, acting as if they are a necessity in town.
This comes after the city of Oakland was unable to reach an agreement with the Athletics regarding a new stadium. The Athletics announced that he will leave Oakland after this season and play in Sacramento from 2025-27. The plan is to move to Las Vegas in 2028, but details of the new venue there are unclear.
Rob Manfred overseeing the clown circus surrounding the A's relocation is one of the greatest farces in North American sports history. Only MLB would be thrilled to see one of their teams play for three years in a 10,000-seat AAA ballpark 550 miles away from their destination.
— Damon Amendola (@DamonAmendo) April 4, 2024
Last year, the NBA's Washington Wizards and the NHL's Capitals announced plans to move from the Capital Center in Washington, D.C., to a new site in nearby Alexandria, Virginia.
In March, Alexandria city leaders announced that a proposed $2 billion sports and entertainment complex for both teams had been scrapped. Virginia taxpayers paid $1.5 billion in bonds.
Instead, the Caps/Wizards will remain in the venue that opened in 1997.
After years of battle between the city of San Diego and the Chargers over financing plans for a new stadium, the owners gave up and moved the team to Los Angeles in 2017.
In Chicago, both the Bears and White Sox are facing public funding to build new stadiums in a city known for its spectacular views of Lake Michigan, which has the second-highest debt of any major U.S. city. We are seeking financial support.
North Texas as test case for new sports stadium
Any proposal for a new home for the Stars and Mavericks would be a litmus test of America's generosity in subsidizing game venues to teams that get a disproportionate share of the revenue. As sports franchise valuations continue to defy logic, the public will likely have a hard time justifying giving them even more money.
Historically, Texans never say no To the new sports stadium. From Houston to Austin, San Antonio to Dallas and Fort Worth, every major Texas city has a heavily publicly funded venue. If we say no, every major sports league in North America has a problem.
When Mark Cuban was the Mavericks' majority owner, he openly discussed the future of the new venue after the team's contract with the AAC expired in 2031. His contract is exorbitant, so he's not worth leaving early. The new owners intend to honor the lease agreement, he said.
Although the building has aged well, it did have deficiencies that Stars and Mavs team officials complained about shortly after it opened. The biggest complaint was that then-Mavs owner Ross Perot Jr. focused on design rather than creating more space dedicated to concession sales. Where real money is generated.
Last year, Cuban sold a majority stake in the Mavs to the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (LVS), but the deadline for the team to leave the AAC is 2031. Construction of the new facility will likely depend on whether Texas legalizes gambling.
If passed, it could allow Las Vegas Sands to build a resort casino with an arena, with the Mavericks as the anchor tenant. The Dallas Business Journal reports that LVS already owns 259 acres of land near I-114 and Loop 12 in Irving, including the site of the former Texas Stadium. There is.
After the Cowboys left Texas Stadium in 2009, the city of Irving considered various proposals to reuse the venue. One of those proposals, complete with artist renderings, was a hotel/casino. This was at a time when the country's relationship with gambling was limited to just a few places.
The stadium was demolished in April 2010, and talk of a casino being built on the old site was thrown in the trash along with everything else.
The question is not if LVS plans to build this, but when will they ask Irving and Dallas County residents to contribute some money? yes. Whether or not those people will vote “yes” is no longer a given.
Justify the cost of another stadium
Since Texas Stadium was blown up, our cultivation areas have opened Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Globe Life Field in Arlington, and Ford Center in Frisco. All three were partially financed with public funds.
This is part of a trend that began around 1970, when cities across the country began subsidizing the construction of venues that only lasted about 30 to 35 years. Locally, Texas Stadium lasted his 38 years. Reunion Arena is celebrating its 21st anniversary. Arlington's Ballpark, now Choctaw Stadium, was the home of the Rangers from 1994 until 2019.
Elsewhere, the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis was built from 1984 to 2007. Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium was his home from 1965 to 1996. The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan, home of the Detroit Pistons, opened from 1998 to 2017.
This is the timeline of standard sports arenas across North America, where everything is built to be thrown away.
Ironically, our most famous venue is our old venue. LA's Rose Bowl (1922), Chicago's Wrigley Field (1914), Boston's Fenway Park (1912), and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (1909). These are ancient ruins compared to some of our other favorite sites, such as Dodgers Stadium (1955), Lambeau Field (1957), and Allen Fieldhouse in Kansas (1955).
You either play and operate in a glorious museum-cum-stadium that is a tourist attraction, or you “need” a new stadium with new-age amenities.
“The argument always is, we don't need to build it. We fought that when we did it here,” Kirk said. “We put in $125 million and there's over $3 billion in private investment[in AAC]. It worked beautifully.”
Prior to the construction of AAC, the area was an industrial hazard. literally. Since the building was built, it has been transformed into a mixed-use site of offices, residential space in the form of condos, and retail space with a bar and restaurant.
“A lot of the energy in the '90s was the sanctification of entire urban areas, not just in Dallas, but with families fleeing and businesses moving into the suburbs,” Kirk said. . “The only thing that brought people back to cities was arts, culture, sports, museums and concerts.
“This is a performing arts building. That's what you need to think about it.”
In the late '90s, Dallas taxpayers approved a 2% hotel tax and a 5% rental car tax to cover the remainder of the $125 million cost of building the arena. Tourism taxes have typically been the easiest way to get voters to approve these measures. They don't show the cost on the bill.
The city said the proceeds from the vote far exceeded expectations and paid off the debt much faster than expected. Arlington said the same about AT&T Stadium and Arlington Ballpark.
This is how franchises and leagues sell these offers to cities across the United States.
Smart economists can find a variety of pretty numbers that justify a “YES” vote just as easily as a “NO” vote.
After all, the decision makers are voters, not economists. Voters who have favored new stadiums and arenas for decades. Those days may be coming to an end.
The Las Vegas Sands Corporation and Dallas Mavericks will see for themselves.
