A new round of stadium construction is underway for professional sports teams in the US, and taxpayers will help foot the multi-billion dollar bill.
The construction boom has left teams looking for both repairs and luxury additions. Some teams have sought new public financing for the projects – with mixed support – even as debt from the last round of renovations a few decades ago continues to be paid off.
This year alone, The Associated Press counted a dozen stadium projects that had been unveiled or were already underway for Major League Baseball and franchises. This does not include additional projects for professional basketball, hockey and football teams.
Here's a look at the emerging cycle of stadium projects and some of the motivations behind them.
As 2023 began, multi-year stadium renovations were already underway for the New Orleans Saints team and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. Subsequently, more teams joined the trend, at a rate of almost one per month.
– In January, the Cleveland Guardians announced plans for a roughly $200 million renovation of their baseball stadium over the next three years, significantly supported by public funding.
— In February, the Chicago Bears purchased a former suburban horse track as a potential site for a new stadium and surrounding development. That's happening despite the fact that the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority still owes $589 million through 2032 on government bonds issued 20 years ago to renovate the Bears' current stadium.
– In April, the Nashville City Council approved $760 million in local bonds, along with $500 million in state bonds, all to help finance a new $2.1 billion football stadium for the Tennessee Titans. As part of the deal, the Titans agreed to pay off the remaining $30 million in public debt owed for their current stadium, which opened in 1999.
— In May, the Buffalo Bills began construction on a new football stadium. The AP reported in August that cost overruns had increased the expected price from $1.4 billion to nearly $1.7 billion. The portion paid by New York and Erie County remains unchanged at $850 million.
— In June, the Jacksonville Jaguars unveiled designs to renovate their football stadium at a cost of up to $1.4 billion, with as much as $700 million going toward developing the surrounding area. The Jaguars are seeking a roughly 50-50 financial split with the city, similar to a model recently used to build an adjacent amphitheater and practice facility. The remaining $38 million in public debt from these projects is not expected to be paid off until 2047.
– In August, the Kansas City Royals unveiled two options for a new $1 billion baseball stadium, part of an overall $2 billion development that could include hundreds of millions of public funds. Royals owner John Sherman hopes to have a new stadium open by 2028. That would take three years for Jackson County, Missouri, to pay off the remaining $265 million in public debt from the latest renovations to the city's current side-by-side stadiums. the Royals and Kansas City Chiefs.
– In September, the Tampa Bay Rays unveiled plans for a $1.3 billion baseball stadium as the centerpiece of a $6.5 billion project in St. Petersburg, Florida, that also includes housing, retail, restaurants and a Black History Museum. The team expects the city and county to cover $730 million of the costs.
— In November, Major League Baseball owners approved the relocation of the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas. That came five months after Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a law providing $380 million in public financing for a $1.5 billion stadium. The remaining $13.5 million in public debt on the A's current stadium in California will not be paid off until February 2025.
– In December, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed a law providing approximately $500 million in public funds to help renovate the Milwaukee Brewers baseball stadium, which opened in 2001.
– Later in December, the Baltimore Ravens announced a $430 million publicly funded renovation of their football stadium, which would take place over three years.
While there are no specific plans, several other teams are also exploring stadium renovations, including the Arizona Diamondbacks and Baltimore Orioles baseball teams and the Carolina Panthers and Cincinnati Bengals football teams.
Georgia's professional baseball and football teams each moved to new stadiums in 2017.
The Atlanta Falcons moved into a $1.6 billion downtown stadium built — with the help of hundreds of millions of public dollars — next to their old stadium, which had imploded after a 25-year lifespan.
The Atlanta Braves moved from a downtown stadium originally built for the 1996 Olympics to a new ballpark in the suburbs. Cobb County officials committed about $300 million in public funds, which covered just under half the cost of the new stadium.
As elsewhere, results were mixed.
JC Bradbury, an economist from Kennesaw State University, studied the impact of the Braves' move to a stadium surrounded by residential, retail, entertainment and commercial developments. He found that an increase in local sales tax revenues was consistent with increased economic activity, but not enough to cover government subsidies for the stadium.
Some residents were also angry that they couldn't vote on the grant that helped fund it. The chairman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners subsequently lost his re-election bid in 2016.
Stadium projects often gain political support because of the implicit threat of sports teams moving elsewhere. Although relocations are unusual, several relocations have occurred in the past decade.
The St. Louis Rams football team left its publicly funded domed stadium for a palatial, privately funded facility in Los Angeles that opened in 2020. They share the stadium with the Chargers football team, which left its home in San Diego.
That same year, the Las Vegas Raiders also began playing in a new stadium in a new hometown, leaving behind a facility in Oakland, California that had been renovated at taxpayer expense in the 1990s to lure the Raiders back from Los Angeles. It was the same stadium used by the A's, who were recently cleared to move.
When Wisconsin lawmakers considered government aid to renovate the Brewers' ballpark, some feared they too might move. A Major League Baseball official testified that the league was not “trying to create free agent markets” so that “owners can get top dollar.”
“Our preference is to keep the franchises where they are,” said MLB Chief Financial Officer Bob Starkey. “But at the end of the day, we're not going to do anything that's short-sighted.”