Home Ethics Buddy Can Ya Spare a Half Billion Dollars for Air Conditioning?

Buddy Can Ya Spare a Half Billion Dollars for Air Conditioning?

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Buddy Can Ya Spare a Half Billion Dollars for Air Conditioning?
Qualcomm Stadium during Chargers' playoff game against New England, 1/14/07. By Bspangenberg - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3351662

A pair of high stakes stadium votes will take place November 8, one in San Diego and the other in Arlington, Texas. For San Diego Chargers’ customers and fans, November 8 could be the day when they learn if the team remains in San Diego or moves to Los Angeles. It seems it is all or nothing, either the Spanos family gets a new San Diego stadium or the team relocates.

It is not known whether the Spanos family makes or loses money annually on the investment, a National Football League franchise. The Chargers ownership faces a steep hurdle in getting approval for the more than a billion dollars’ worth of subsidies as under California law, two-thirds of the voters have to say yes to the expenditure.

Meanwhile, there seems to be no threat that the Arlington-based Texas Rangers franchise ownership group is ready to move should voters say no to continuing a sales tax that was put into place to partially fund Arlington’s Dallas Cowboys football facility but there is a nervousness that voters might say no to subsidizing a new stadium to replace a 22-year-old stadium that has no air conditioning with a facility that comes with a roof and will be air conditioned.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has come up with a new plan to convince voters that a 22-year-old facility is outdated because of the lack of air conditioning and that makes for a less competitive team on the field.

“From a playing perspective, the heat wears you down playing in it game after game,” Manfred said. “And it also makes it harder in getting players to play here. I think the climate issues have been here for a long, long time.”

Perhaps Manfred needs to rethink his premise or look at the standings as only the Chicago Cubs baseball team has a better record than Texas.

By Evan Weiner For The Politics Of Sports Business.

This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.

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