One of the questions that should be raised after the United States Justice Department arrested 14 individuals connected to FIFA on corruption charges is this. Will the justice department stop with the probing of sports with FIFA or are there more investigations to come?
About three and a half years ago, the United States government decided to look into the financing of the Miami baseball park by launching a Security Exchange Commission probe. That was some hype over how the agency was going to look at a paper trail that included correspondence between Miami elected and appointed officials and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig along with the then Florida Marlins and now Miami Marlins ownership. The estimated cost to Miami taxpayers of the Marlins facility that opened up in 2012, about $2.4 billion over a forty year period. The SEC probe of the Marlins Stadium seems to have faded into oblivion. There just seemed to have been a lack of openness in the details of the Miami stadium and the same can be said for many other stadium projects.
There is a curious item coming out of San Diego about the stadium transparency issue. The Voice of San Diego has reached out to Carson, California officials asking for some information about the proposed football stadium that is supposed to house the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders at some point in the near future. The Voice of San Diego wants to see some documentation of talks between Carson and the San Diego Chargers ownership. That seems to be a normal request in journalism except there seems to be something amiss from the Carson, California politicians. There are no notes available from meetings, seems no one thought it would be a good idea to take notes. The Voice of San Diego is now suing Carson because the public has a right to know and it strains credibility that there is no paper trial. The FIFA probe may open doors to openness.
Mr. Evan Weiner is a sports journalist/commentator known for his columns about the business and politics of sports. He was the winner of the United States Sports Academy’s 2010 Ronald Reagan Media Award.