The San Antonio Spurs want a new arena. That isn’t new or shocking news. But if you want actual news on this subject? Good luck. For the last year or so, the Spurs and city officials have kept every possible detail out of public view if it pertains to a new arena. No discussions. No interviews. Just silence. Now, will taxpayers end up paying quite a bit? Sure. But they won’t know about it until a deal is done first. How can this be legal? We are talking about taxpayer money. We are talking about city officials and negotiators…the people who are supposed to be on our side. Yet, the public has zero input on any part of giving someone or something several million, if not a billion, taxpayer dollars?
Recently, a piece of land that is rumored to be the place that the Spurs want to build their new arena at, was declared a state landmark and therefore can’t be given to the team at this moment.
“Plans to build a new stadium for the San Antonio Spurs downtown at Hemisfair are on hold after the Texas Historical Commission on Friday designated the aging Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) a state antiquities landmark. The designation means the University of Texas at San Antonio, the owners of the 18,000-square-foot building, must consult the commission before making any changes, including tearing down to make way for an arena. The land where the ITC sits is rumored to be the future site of a new Spurs arena” – SACurrent, 11/28/24
This same piece of land was given to the city of San Antonio in February, with an option to buy or lease it. That is all that we know about the vote or any information about the vote because nobody is talking to the public. Why? As the San Antonio Current writes, these team and city plans remain “vague” due to a “slew of non-disclosure agreements”.
But it happens all over the country. Before FC Cincinnati began pushing city officials to let the team build a soccer-only stadium and receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, FC Cincinnati approached several city officials asking them to sign NDA’s that would restrict them from talking about any of the stadium details before the entire thing was agreed upon.
“Two of the three Hamilton County commissioners have signed nondisclosure agreements with FC Cincinnati that bar them from discussing details of the team’s plans for a new soccer stadium…FC Cincinnati has been making the rounds in recent months seeking support for building a $200 million, soccer-only stadium” — Cincinnati Enquirer, 06/21/17
Yet at this same time, team officials would NOT TELL THE PUBLIC HOW MUCH they were asking for a new stadium. So how in the hell would anyone know before an agreement is done? That is the point. The only time that you realize what is going on, it is too late. FC Cincinnati tried to claim that they only did this because of super-secret info that the MLS didn’t want out into the public…as if that can’t simply be blacked out. Furthermore, if you want to see a real joke, go read over FC Cincinnati’s Community Benefits Agreement. Virtually nothing is guaranteed. NDA’s if anyone wants any information. There is even a limit as to how often you can ask for information, which I find incredible. How dare you asked me twice! My favorite part is what happens if a business takes taxpayer money, then ignores all the hiring rules. Well, first the company can explain why they are ignoring the rules…then, well, nothing really.
In Kansas City, the person who is supposed to be on the taxpayer’s side, the city negotiator, decided it was best to keep the public in the dark while the Kansas City Chiefs demanded millions of public dollars. In fact, the city negotiator struggled to remember who had actually signed an NDA, whether other city staff had also signed or even if there was a list somewhere of people that signed the NDA. Brilliant. Don’t worry about those pesky details.
In Buffalo, the State of New York and city of Buffalo agreed to give the Bills over $800 million taxpayer dollars. But wait, the city and state claim that the Community Benefits Agreement that was also signed makes up for any money given to the team! Wait a second, wasn’t the public kept out of all negotiations for the CBA? And why did the city force those who worked on the CBA to sign NDA’s? An NDA that confused some city officials, who didn’t know whether they could talk to one another about any issues that they had with the CBA. How could anyone not be super excited about this CBA? It says nothing about where money will be spent and has an oversight board appointed by the team/city. What could possibly go wrong? As one CBA expert explained to the Buffalo News, this CBA is laughable to start with because “it doesn’t even have…minimal levels of enforceability”.
In Arizona, the Diamondbacks use NDA’s to stop anyone from finding out that they are talking to other cities, all the while claiming that they only want to stay in Arizona. This happened in 2019 when the local Phoenix press got hold of documents showing how the Diamondbacks agreed to a secret agreement with Las Vegas to follow up on “certain mutually beneficial opportunities”. The Diamondbacks also had another city in Nevada, Henderson, sign an NDA about maybe bringing the team to that area. The Arizona Republic said it best…if locals around Phoenix paid $240+ million to build a new ballpark for the team in 1998…and this team is valued by Sportico at $1.36 billion, continuing many years of skyrocketing growth in value…why can’t the team build its own ballpark?
Even minor league teams are doing this. The Hillsboro Hops demanded $120 million from taxpayers to fix the ballpark or else they would leave. The city ended up giving the team $150 million…because why not? We have many questions that we want answered about this entire thing. But oh shucks, everyone involved in the deal signed an NDA. In 2017, the Pawtucket Red Sox wanted almost $40 million in taxpayer money for a new ballpark. The owners gave local committee leaders some financial information, but not everything that they wanted. For example, profit-and-loss statements. Local officials said they needed this information so that they could see whether the team was solvent and could pay back money possibly being given to them. The team demanded NDA’s be signed by city/state leaders and when they weren’t, the owners refused to give any more information out because of “sensitive proprietary information”. What absolute garbage. I did love when a local committee leader told the team outright, either give us the financial documents or “otherwise, she said, they should pay for the new stadium on their own”. I want to applaud the State of Arkansas. MLB demanded NDA’s be signed by city officials in Springfield, Arkansas when a dispute came up about who would pay for ballpark upgrades for the minor league team, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. A city attorney reminded MLB and the team that NDA’s with taxpayer money is illegal in the state.
I also want to give a big screw-you to the local leaders in Prince William, Virginia. In 2022, the Commanders wanted to build a new practice facility and possibly a new stadium in an undisclosed location in Prince William. According to InsideNOVA, the team had been meeting with local officials and state leaders “since late last year”. The price of all of this? $3 billion and counting, according to state legislators. What were our elected officials saying or doing? Nothing. They couldn’t because they were “under a non-disclosure agreement”. So, rather than the public being told what their money would be going to in the future, we are told things like the following “answers”. When asked for additional details about this proposal, several Board of County Supervisors gave “vague responses”, another “declined to comment on specifics”, a city supervisor whose district includes one of the locations for a new Commanders stadium “declined to comment” and several other city supervisors “did not return requests for comment”.
I will admit that I laughed out loud when I read that Victus Advisors signed an NDA before doing an economic impact report for the Tampa Bay Rays. I laughed because Victus is one of several companies that sports teams pay to write a so-called economic impact report that claims how a new arena, ballpark, or stadium will bring billions upon billions of new money to whatever local area. All of this is based on not a single spec of evidence or actual math. It is quite astonishing. Here, Victus claims that a new Rays ballpark could generate $12 billion dollars! Has any team ever done 1/12th that amount? No, but who cares! Even better, the city paid for half of this report and still couldn’t see it all due to the NBA… But good news, Victus claims that if they could have used some secret information given to them, the economic benefits could BE EVEN BIGGER!!! Specifically, the economics would “increase exponentially over 30 years”. The League of Women Voters of St. Petersburg Area wrote a short blog post essentially pointing out that regardless of where Victus is asked to do a report on a sports team/deal, they seem to answer the same way at all times…with “promises of economic development…worth the significant investment the City and County will make”. I loved how the League of Women also pointed out that the WAY that Victus gets its results is rejected by all actual economists.
When the Oklahoma City Thunder wanted a new arena, they had a company write a report claiming how rich everyone would get off a new stadium. The company? Victus! Nevermind that the team owners were giving virtually nothing out of their pockets. Taxpayers were giving the team $900 million taxpayer dollars while also paying for any cost overruns. Not to worry, though, the paid-by-the-team impact report showed millions being made by cities all around the new arena. Again, not a single piece of evidence provided showing how any of that would be possible. 22 economists got so fed up with the crap being given to Oklahoma City residents that they wrote a letter asking the city to go back to the bargaining table and to please stop using these reports as facts.