they become a ball and chain around their ankle.
Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs & Dodgers each own their own stadium.
When Rupert Murdoch purchased the Dodgers from Walter O'Malley, Dodger Stadium was 30-40 years old. Although it is still considered a baseball cathedral, it lacked many of the modern amenities that new ballparks have.
One such amenity that Dodger Stadium lacked was luxury boxes. So Murdoch commissioned a study to determine what it would take to retro-fit luxury boxes at Dodger Stadium. About 6 months later, the commission responded with approximately $300M.
Murdoch was irate. Why would he spend $300M for luxury boxes when the cost of a brand new stadium would cost about $300M.
So he approached the LA City supervisors and asked if the city of LA could build the Dodgers a new stadium in Hollywood Park. Their response was epic. LA City supervisors told Murdoch to build a new stadium himself in the parking lot next to Dodger Stadium, then tear down Dodger Stadium and make that your new parking lot.
Murdoch sold that Dodgers after that.
Teams that don't own their own stadium are pitting city governments against each other, basically making the team a free agent.
Here in San Diego, I was part of a group that would meet with Padres executive management when they were trying to get Petco Park built.
They were trying to get the city to pay for the park and the Padres would get all profits for 30 years. After 30 years, they'll ask San Diego for more stadium concessions and if they don't get it, they'll start shopping themselves around. Hey, Salt Lake, you don't have an MLB team, build us a stadium and well move there. Portland, you used to be our AAA team, build us a new stadium and we might move there. Besides we already share our spring training facility with the Mariners, so we'll fit right in with the Pacific NW. Sacramento or Las Vega$ are you interested in an MLB team?
At one of our meetings with the Padres exec, I told both Larry Luchino and John Moores, in no uncertain terms that they should build their own stadium. I don't mind floating the bonds to pay for the stadium, but you now have a mortgage to pay back like the rest of us. Luchino said the Padres can't do it themselves and that there has to be a partnership with the city, for this to workout.
John Moores was later told, by the SEC, to vacate the CEO position at Peregrine, in exchange for no prison time, after bilking investors for over $600M including his own employees.
Petco Park cost a little less than $300M while Moores walked away with a little over $600M, yet he could not afford to pay for Petco Park himself.
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