The (#MLS2LV) Show Will Go On

Last month, we were treated to "visions of stadium splendor". All of a sudden, a Downtown soccer stadium became the magic elixir that could somehow catapult Las Vegas into nirvana...

Until reality set in. And then, all of a sudden, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman's (I) MLS dreams came crashing down. Once independent experts started poking through the Cordish-Findlay stadium proposal, they found some nasty red alarms. So Mayor Goodman, Cordish, and Findlay announced a new plan.



But is the new plan enough to assuage Las Vegas City Council Members and Las Vegas residents who have been worried about the city being left with the short end of the stick while Cordish & Findlay laugh all the way to the bank (with all those taxpayer provided subsidies)?



Just might it... If it includes $250 million worth of "Downtown investment"?

Maybe. The Las Vegas City Council just voted 6-1 to grant another 2 month extension to Cordish & Findlay. Apparently, the promise to "enhance Symphony Park" is worth both $250 million and a 2 month extension.

However, this just takes us back to the fundamental question at hand. If Cordish can afford $250 million to "enhance Symphony Park", why are Cordish executives and Justin Findlay still demanding public subsidies? Oh, yes. That's right. Their "profit margins are too thin" without public funding.

Last we checked, Cordish & Findlay are still demanding a $3 million per year annual subsidy from the City of Las Vegas. And last we checked, Council Member Lois Tarkanian (D) has promised to vote against any stadium proposal involving any public subsidies.

So what's it going to be? Will Cordish & Findlay finally drop their demands for the City of Las Vegas to essentially pay them to build a soccer stadium on city land? Or will they try yet another scheme to try to flip Council Member Tarkanian's vote? All we know now is that this show will go on to December.

Visions of Stadium Splendor

Uh oh. Maybe no goal?

In recent weeks, Las Vegas City Hall has been heating up as speculation has been ramping up over a proposed soccer stadium Downtown. Findlay Sports & Entertainment and The Cordish Companies have been hyping the cache of a prestigious sports stadium in the heart of "The Entertainment Capital of the World". Yet while they and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman (I) have been hyping the razzle-dazzle of this stadium, others have been asking the tough questions. How many will actually attend games here? What are the real revenue projections? And how much will Las Vegas taxpayers have to pay for this?



Now, we know Cordish wants $3 million per year from the City of Las Vegas in addition to all the other subsidies Cordish & Findlay are demanding from city government (such as the ~$130 million they want the city to chip into stadium construction). That money would come from hotel tax revenues. Mayor Carolyn Goodman actually admitted it earlier this month on his show, even as she was claiming room tax revenue "isn't tax dollars, it's tourist dollars".

Last night, Las Vegas Council Member Lois Tarkanian (D) told Jon Ralston she would not vote for the Cordish-Findlay Stadium if the vote was today. She mentioned the issue of those hotel room tax revenues, and in particular how those room tax funds are used to maintain Las Vegas city parks. Council Members Bob Beers (R) and Bob Coffin (D) have already been sounding the alarms on this, and Tarkanian added that the city is just about to finish repaying bonds for parks in Northwest Las Vegas.



And the City of Las Vegas just recently raised user fees for youth sports leagues to use city parks. So how much will Las Vegas residents actually have to pay for this stadium?

Las Vegas isn't the only municipal company chasing after a MLS team. And when we look at the history other sports stadium subsidy deals, the outlook turns from merely very concerning to downright frightening.



Look, we're not against soccer. Far from it. And no, Mayor Goodman, we're not all just "naysayers". We're realists. And all we're asking for are the real numbers behind this stadium proposal.

We can see why Cordish won't talk to anyone and Findlay only agrees to "happy talk". However, Las Vegas city officials don't answer to Cordish and Findlay. They answer to Las Vegas residents. So they should not be afraid to drop the spin and start talking about the reality behind these visions of stadium splendor.

Goal?

Last night, the City of Las Vegas held its first of a series of six community town hall meetings at Centennial Hills Community Center. Why? Well... Goal!

Or at least, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman (I) and some City Council Members are hoping they're about to hit a big goal with a proposed Downtown soccer stadium. However, not everyone seems to be sold on this. Las Vegas city officials looked ready to give a "pep talk", but a number of residents were ready to grill officials over the numbers behind this grandiose proposal.



Las Vegas city taxpayers are being asked to chip in nearly $130 million towards the estimated $410 million price tag for the new stadium. A number of financial experts are now stepping forward to explain the many risks the city will take if it decides to partially subsidize The Cordish Companies' and Findlay Sports & Entertainment's desired Downtown stadium. After all, the city will ultimately be on the hook for at least $82 million even if the stadium succeeds in attracting a well performing Major League Soccer (MLS) team and selling out plenty of games... And that's still a major if.

Over the years, Dr. Judith Grant Long has been crunching the numbers on the public costs of "public-private partnership" sports stadiums. She's revealed the hidden costs of these stadium deals, such as "free land", lease discounts, and tax exemptions. Yet so far, the City of Las Vegas isn't noting any of these costs in its "financial analysis" of the stadium plan.

In 2012, Bloomberg News revealed that Americans had spent $4 billion subsidizing sports stadiums since 1986. And what have we received in turn? Oh, about $10 billion in additional costs while sports team owners laugh all the way to the bank.

There are plenty of good reasons for Las Vegas city residents to be skeptical about this latest stadium proposal. Remember when the City of Henderson ran into trouble over a stadium plan that Chris Milam was never going to get off the ground? While the Cordish-Findlay Las Vegas soccer stadium plan doesn't approach that level of fraud (or at least, not yet), there are already a number of warning signs on the high costs the City of Las Vegas will have to incur for it. And so far, there's little evidence suggesting this stadium will actually "pay for itself". After all, no publically subsidized stadium ever truly has.

Perhaps now that Tesla scored the sweetheart deal of a lifetime from the State of Nevada, Cordish & Findlay now want in on the corporate welfare gravy train. What exactly is the goal of Mayor Goodman and the stadium cheerleaders? That's the key question that City Council Members and Las Vegas city residents must ask at the upcoming town halls.

Foul

Right now, a whole lot of Americans are watching the World Cup. And why not? Team USA is performing surprisingly well in Brazil. And right now, millions of Americans are trying to figure out whatever excuse they can latch onto in order to watch the games.

So we have a whole lot of Americans rooting for the American soccer team. How much more patriotic can we get? According to G-O-TEA soccer team reject washed up troll soon-to-be-unemployed circus clown pundit extraordinaire Ann Coulter, this isn't patriotic at all. And why's that? Oh, Latin@ Americans immigrants love soccer! And of course, this column wouldn't be from Ann Coulter unless it had some extra xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, and plain old stupidity tossed in for "good measure".



Believe it or not, Ann Coulter and her fellow fire breathing G-O-TEA pundits from hell are dictating immigration policy in the lower House of Congress. Of course, this is not really a surprise to those of us who have been keeping track of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Marlboro) smoke signals. It's been evident for some time that House G-O-TEA "leaders" care more about their pyrrhic political victories than they do about accomplishing anything in their chamber. Even though it's now been a year since the US Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), they've made it clear that they'd rather waste taxpayers' time & money trying to impeach President Obama on frivolous law suits.

And speaking of those frivolous law suits, it's increasingly looking like they will be targeting DACA. Oh, yes. That's right. They're going there again. They're once again demanding the deportations of DREAMers.



Never mind that these Americans want the same opportunity to succeed that all the rest of us take for granted. Never mind that American families continue to be torn apart while the House continues to block bipartisan legislation that the Senate passed a year ago. And never mind that passing CIR would actually benefit our economy. No, House G-O-TEA "leaders" would rather continue pandering to their 21st Century Know Nothing base with dirty underwear, vendettas against Spanish language media, and attacks on the entire Latin American region (??!!) than accomplish anything worthwhile.

Oh, and of course, they're now attacking soccer... Because immigration. Yet in a bizarre way, it makes sense why they now hate soccer. They just don't their foul called out.