For those of you seeking alternate platforms, Field of Schemes is now also available at and probably more to come as soon as I've finished typing this.

The Spurs owners are holding a rally tomorrow in support of their campaign to be gifted ~$750m in tax money for a new arena, and the key guest will be their mascot, who I'm assuming will threaten to come to your house if you don't vote for the subsidy.

Arena glut is a thing! The fact Sixers owner Josh Harris backed out of a dueling-arenas scenario in Philly makes it less likely that Chisholm would attempt one in Boston, and in what would almost certainly be a less central location for transit as well.

The SA Report didn't call any of the people who would be the most useful: sports economists or local budget analysts who could discuss what return on investment, if any, San Antonio and Bexar County can expect to get from $750m in Spurs arena subsidies.

Browns execs and the Ohio Department of Transportation are "in discussions" on reducing the height of the team's proposed stadium next to an airport, but it's "unclear" whether those talks will lead anywhere. The Browns may yet file an appeal in court.

The San Jose council didn't determine where to find $325m for the Sharks beyond "bonds and higher hotel taxes," and 1) these would need to go before voters and 2) "bonds" isn't a way to pay for anything, you then have to figure how to pay off the bonds.

Now that everyone in Sacramento hates him and nobody believes he's really moving to Vegas with construction costs soaring, John Fisher has moved up the timeline for playing games in Vegas(ish), but only for two series in June, when it will be sweltering.

We're used to hearing hosting a Super Bowl is a boon to a city economy, though it very much is not. But the idea that putting the Titans on "the Mount Rushmore of NFL franchises" makes them "a completely different organization" breaks new ground in stupid.

In the first round of the Spurs' Project Marvel arena battle, the San Antonio council has spoken, and its verdict is "Nothing says 'I love you' like half a billion dollars in public money so you can boost your sports team's profits."

For anyone familiar with Chapter 4 (The Art of the Steal) from Field of Schemes, the Spurs arena debate will be painfully familiar: promising illusory economic benefits and warning of phantom move threats are two staples of sports owners' subsidy playbook.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam can still file an appeal or move the stadium away from the airport, but delays could force the Browns to negotiate a lease extension — assuming he can get past other suits on using unclaimed private funds and violating its lease.

The city-Sharks memo is largely a PR document, but "$357m in city money plus we reduce your rent plus the year after next we start planning for a whole new arena" is already heading in a pretty spendy direction.

San Antonio officials defended the arrangement as "there is kind of an ethical wall between the work that CSL does" and the Spurs — "we hired a company owned by the people asking us for $650m" sounds even worse, so sure, let's go with "ethical wall."

Detroit City FC CEO/professional lobbyist Sean Mann says his stadium will pay full property taxes but the surrounding development will not, plus will seek "city and state support for infrastructure and programmatic build out," maybe hold the yays for now?

UPDATE: Geoff Propheter has estimated the value of 70 years of lease options plus 26 acres of added land, and it's: $2B in present value, give or take. So Ryan Smith is set to get ~$3B in public money overall, depending how he plays his cards threatening to opt out of his lease.

Because it's lease options, Jazz/Mammoth owner Ryan Smith can threaten not to renew if he wants to demand more public money later on. A perfect "grift that keeps on giving" scenario, then, maybe not what your city council should approve with little debate.

Spending around $1B to build MLB's smallest stadium in its smallest market and hoping the A's would earn it back seemed dubious from the start, and it's only more so now that it'll be more like $1.5B and Vegas tourism is down.

Bears execs clearly don't want to build a new stadium unless it comes with sacks of public cash; whether they couldn't make it work without taxpayer help and would have to stay put at Soldier Field, only they and their investment bankers know for sure.

In seeking a freeze on property taxes for "megaprojects," Bears president Kevin Warren said team owners are "not trying to avoid paying taxes," which is impressive for a bill that would only do one thing: lower the team's taxes.

Spurs lawyer Bobby Perez said the team won't consider sharing any arena revenue to help pay the public's costs because Spurs owner Peter Holt will be using it to pay off his own costs, taxpayers will just have to make it up in volume or something.

The WNBA demanding expansion cities get dibs on the Connecticut Sun is . nuts? I'm going with nuts. When the Liberty moved from NYC to White Plains to Brooklyn, nobody at the league suggested the team be put up for bid to move to Austin or Nashville.