Your analogy is perfect. Guess what, the NFL is an HOA. The billionaires that own the teams shouldn’t be able to just make unilateral decisions that affect millions of other people just because it is ‘their’ team. If they don’t like that, they shouldn’t have bought the team in the first place.
Unilateral?
The local politicians have no say in what these HOA members, NFL teams in your description, do in their city, county or state?
Best thing to do is get rid of the politicians that are giving these exemptions to the teams.
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Yes, they do. That is the point. My statement was in reference to the original post that said owners should be able to do whatever they see fit, because they own the team. full stop.
If it falls under the guidelines of the HOA, you can do whatever tf you want… If the “millions of people” want say over the team, then they can go be like GB and purchase a team for themselves. If they don’t want to be taxed to fund a team, then move… Freedom is always the best answer IMO. You want control over property that isn’t yours, tough cookies. If you’re advocating for people not being taxed to fund a team, then I’m all for it… But I’m for people not being taxed at all, so that’s easy for me 
■■■■ the government
I flew into Jackson Hole, WY over Labor Day. Our driver was telling us that the millionaires were complaining that they were being forced out by the billionaires.
Arrowhead is 78k and sells out routinely. The area that Arrowhead draws from is big enough to hold a higher capacity, but I think high capacity stadiums are now considered a dinosaur and only happen with college football. Michigan, Penn State, OSU, etc want the biggest stadiums imaginable for the bragging rights. However with football stadiums all now becoming multipurpose, having an 80k stadium for concerns screws up accoustics or creates poor viewing angles for other events like basketball, etc. More importantly, you can make a lot more money selling cozy suites than you can selling seats in the same space. That’s my thought anyways.
edit: I tried to keep this short. It was not successful…
This gets really tricky to explain well, but regionally speaking, not much will change. I will try to keep this as simple as I understand it, but this move has been building for a few years. The Chiefs wanted to build a new stadium, or at minimum make some REAL updates to Arrowhead. As people have said, it’s a very old building at this point, very basic and even though it’s had a lot of very good cosmetics and upgrades, it’s still very dated in terms of structure.
The Chiefs wanted help financing the stadium changes. Twice, it went to votes to have Jackson county help pay for updates. People said no, the Hunt’s are rich, pay for your own shit (I don’t disagree here). Adding in some local politics, Kansas City has been financially mismanaged for years. They had their own Kwame Kilpatrick scandal with their previous mayor Frank White who swindled a ton of money into his own pockets, then was recalled. The new mayor is a classic leftist, who even though all evidence shows crime is increasing in Kansas City, he denies its happening and starts dropping racial bias every time someone presents him clear evidence. Only reason I bring this up is, a big reason why Kansas City and Jackson County residents voted against tax help to support the Chiefs is of course that money would also go straight to politician pockets. They didn’t want their money getting directed partially to the Chiefs, but mostly to corrupt officials who all have their hand out and then beg for more. So that’s a chunk of the reason why the 2 votes to support the Chiefs failed.
Kansas basically came in with a much sweeter deal, and has the tax base to support helping finance the stadium project. Wyandotte County (Kansas City Kansas location) has already been very successful using STAR bonds in order to build very lucrative shopping districts, Hollywood Casino and the Kansas Speedway NASCAR track, and paying back the loans well ahead of time. Basically, they’ve proven they can handle the money and make sure it’s spent properly. Once the deals between KCMO and the Chiefs/Royals started breaking down, Kansas swooped in and made the offer that couldn’t be refused. At that point, KCMO was on the outside looking in and tried a few late night deals but couldn’t come close to offering what KCKS was offering.
At the end of the day, it’s all business. The politics only play a part, it’s not left vs right, its what poor organizations cause to happen. If Jackson County wasn’t a financial mismagement hellhole, Jackson County voters would most likely have paid the taxes and been fine doing so. In the end, Kansas and Wyandotte County won out because they have proven they can make it work and invest the money properly. The Chiefs won because they got what they wanted, the taxpayers funding their new stadium. Be angry at the rich all you like, this was about people vs financial mismagement at the end of the day. The Chiefs, Royals, Lockton and other businesses are leaving a mismanaged county for a more desireable location.
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Actually, they haven’t. They have wanted someone else’s dime to do it for them.
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Its not about selling out a football stadium. Its about selling out all the events.
Ford Field hold about 65k for NFL games.
70+k for concerts
80+k for basketball/ Wrestling/ UFC
Having 10k more for NFL would also mean 10+k for those other events.
Most of those events dont want a stadium that large.
Thats the difference. ESPECIALLY in an area like KC.
Sure the metro area is decent 31st in usa at 2.2m
but Western Missouri and all of Kansas only has a population of 6.5m
So a very small population for a 5+ hour drive.
Atlanta’s stadium is bigger than LA’s. Chicago has the smallest at 61,000+….there are no more stadiums that have 55-60 thousand in seating capacity!
Bravo sir… Bravo
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I know they want dome and possibility of hosting a SB, but if i was a cheif fan id want a rebuild of arrowhead on steroids!
Sorry i ment under around 65 +\-
My point is its about a modern stadium.
Its more based on Marketable area vs NFL success.
Theres well under 8m people within 6 hour drive of KC. Excluding St Louis.
Every other large stadium has that many people within a 1 hr drive.
most of the newer stadiums are or will be around 66k For NFL and 70-75k for events.
Buffalo is event cutting down from 72 to 63. Because buffalo isnt a huge market. Because sure they can sell it out for the NFL. But for other events. You have: Boston, New York, New Jersey and Philly all within a short drive.
To go back further the Lions played at Briggs field better known as Tiger Stadium. Then they moved to Pontiac. The Lions should have never left the city of Detroit to begin with.
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Buffalo is closer to Detroit than all the areas you named
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Detroit was falling apart to be fair. The American auto industry was collapsing rapidly with low end Asian imports and high end European imports flooding the market. All during multiple oil and steel crisis.
It COULD have worked IF, the Lions and Pistons did what some cities are doing now, Like Kansas city, La, dallas etc. build not just the stadiums out in the “Suburbs” but also a whole entertainment complex, malls, casinos, hotels, etc all in the same area.
Those are your options now.
Either put all the stadiums downtown. Or make a whole complex in the outskirts.
in ~20 or so years when the teams decide they need a new stadium. It will likely go out west, Romulus/ Bellville. Lots of land. Close to both airports. Build a whole complex out there.
Unless that amazing District ever gets finished… or even started
Marketing. To get to detroit you have to pass Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
Buffalos market (again entertainment events not NFL) is the northern Appalachian mountains. In other words. No market.
East is the big cities.
Northeast is forest / mountains
South is forest/ Mountains
West is Canada
Southwest is rust belt.
Hence the major downsizing.
I was just responding to you “shorter drive” comment…
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