Neil deMause

Why the Islanders’ exhibition game in Brooklyn probably doesn’t mean they’re moving there, and why it wouldn’t do much for Brooklyn if they did:

​Things have been mostly quiet on the New York Islanders arena front since their public vote for a new home in the 516 crashed and burned spectacularly last summer. That all changed yesterday afternoon, however, with the announcement that the team has scheduled an exhibition game against the Devils at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center for October 2, just four days after the new home of the Brooklyn Nets (keep saying it, you’ll get used to it) gets its official inauguration by way of a concert by the team’s co-owner… [read more]

If you’ve been sitting there wondering “What does the new baseball collective bargaining agreement mean for the Mets’ possible trade of David Wright?” then wait no longer, your prayers have been answered:

​The new five-year collective bargaining agreement signed by baseball owners and players yesterday features a list of tweaks to rules big and small: Among other things, fair/foul calls can now be overruled by instant replay, teams can activate a 26th man for doubleheaders, and those shatter-prone maple bats are outlawed for all new major leaguers — meaning that one day baseball history will mark, along with “Mariano Rivera: last player to wear #42″ and “Burleigh Grimes: last player to throw a legal spitball,” someone’s name alongside “last player to legally pierce his teammate’s chest with a bat splinter.”

The big-ticket items, though, are around the June player draft and free agent compensation, which have each undergone some major refinements… [read more]

Now that the Yankees have been bounced from the playoffs, does this mean New York City is missing out on a postseason economic windfall? Naaaaaah:

​Now that the baseball season for Yankee fans comes down to what-ifs (Why couldn’t Joaquin Benoit have thrown that last pitch just three feet higher?), it seems like adding insult to injury to suggest that a suddenly postseason-free October could batter New York’s fragile economy as well.

Yet that’s the upshot of a report by the New York City Economic Development Commission that, as noted in yesterday’s Daily News, projected that each ALCS home game played at I Can’t Believe It’s Not Yankee Stadium would bring in $12.6 million to the local economy. World Series games came in at $20 million a pop, said the study — which would mean that A-Rod’s feeble hacks last night helped cost the city as much as $110 million… [read more]

With the NBA lockout almost ready to swallow the regular season, I look at the evidence for what the impact will be on local economies in NBA cities. The answer: not a whole heckuva lot.

After another fruitless round of talks between the players and owners, it looks like the start of the NBA season—if not the whole thing—will soon be wiped out. It’s not only hoops fans who are anxious at the prospect of a lost season. By all accounts, cities with NBA franchises have also been cringing in terror. With the start of the season a month away, we’ve already seen predictions of a “devastating” impact on Charlotte, N.C., businesses, a $55 million loss to the city of Indianapolis, and certain disaster for sports bars in Portland, Ore… [read more]

Now that the Yankees have built a new stadium and three new parking garages at tremendous expense (not all of it theirs), what do they need? Fewer parking garages!

With the new ballfields intended to replace those bulldozed five years ago to make way for Yankee Stadium: The Next Generation finally nearing completion — look, you can even see them now on Google Maps! — it’s time to finally turn the page on the ugly battle over the park-stealing, $2.3 billion stadium project, right? Or it would be, if not for the fact that the convoluted financing of the stadium looks like it’s going to have repercussions into the second Baldwin administration.

In the latest twist, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who’s largely stayed out of the Yankees fray — it was his predecessor, Adolfo Carrion, who lobbied heavily for the stadium and fired community board members who opposed him — yesterday released a “request for expressions of interest” for any developers who might want to build a conference center and hotel near the stadium site… [read more]

I’ve blogged a bit about the sports ticket bubble, but haven’t had the space to sink my teeth into the question of whether ticket prices are continuing to deflate, and if so what that will mean for the sports industry. Until now:

A few months ago, it seemed like Major League Baseball was in the throes of a ticket apocalypse. Through the first two weeks of the season, six teams had set all-time single-game lows at their current homes. The surprising Cleveland Indians led the American League Central in the standings, but remained in the cellar at the turnstiles. The New York Yankees, whose ultrapricey new stadium has been beset by empty seats since it opened in 2009, hosted record-low crowds for four games in a row. It was as if fans, having quietly absorbed more than a decade of price hikes and the advent of $9 beers, had spontaneously decided to go on strike…. [read more]

My Nation article on why cities keep pursuing sports stadiums and arenas against all economic good sense is now out from under the paywall, so go and read it now! Especially if you’re, say, a member of the Los Angeles city council.

Answer: Or what.

​So Nassau County held its vote on the $400 million New York Islanders arena plan yesterday, and for team owner Charles Wang things went about as well as … it’s tempting to say “as well as a typical Islanders game,” but that’d be cruel. In any case, the final vote was 57-43% against funding a new arena (plus a new minor-league baseball stadium for an as-yet nonexistent Atlantic League team) with a 4% property tax hike, one that just might have been illegal… [read more]

My article on, well, why mayors love sports stadiums is out in the new special sports issue of The Nation, guest-edited by the inimitable Dave Zirin — unfortunately, it’s behind the web paywall, so unless you’re a subscriber you’ll need to buy an actual copy to read it.

Much of the rest of the issue is online for all, though; check it out, if only to admire me sharing a table of contents with Noam Chomsky, John Sayles, and Mark Cuban.

With just one week to go before the New York Islanders arena referendum, New Yorkers are beginning to take notice that there’s a team called the Islanders, and they’re having some kind of arena referendum:

Today’s Daily News features an editorial on next Monday’s New York Islanders arena vote, which is notable for a couple of reasons: One, it’s a rare acknowledgment by the New York media that there is, indeed, a sport known as hockey; and two, it’s an even rarer admission that there’s another hockey team in the area in addition to the Rangers and that one in New Jersey that wins Stanley Cups every so often, a team that otherwise survives in New York sports lingo only in the archaic expression “Potvin sucks!”… [read more]