NFL settles with St. Louis for $790 million

 In "Stadiums and arenas as the enabling infrastructure for "money-making" platforms" (2014), we discussed owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals point that stadiums and arenas "are platforms" for the teams.  To me that means that public entities providing funding for such deserve some recompense when teams sell.

Miami had a clause wrt receiving a portion of the revenue from the sale of the baseball team because of public funding of the stadium ("Sports teams shenanigans in Columbus Ohio and Miami," 2018), but it turns out they settled for a paltry sum, about $5 million ("Miami-Dade commissioners approve Marlins settlement after Loria agrees to pay more," Miami Herald), which makes the $790 million settlement in St. Louis quite remarkable, even if 40% will be scooped up by the law firms representing the city, county and stadium authority.

While St. Louis had a good case that the NFL contravened their guidelines for relocation ("Business of Football: The NFL Is Losing Its Lawsuit Against St. Louis, But Has Been in Situations Like This Before," Sports Illustrated), and they could probably have gotten more money if they went to court, by contrast the NFL could have fought the case, appealed etc., making a payout many years away ("Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL will pay St. Louis $790 million as part of a settlement for moving the team to Los Angeles," AP, "Did other NFL teams secretly help St. Louis with suit against Rams?," Los Angeles Times).

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-- "Framework of characteristics that support successful community development in association with the development of professional sports facilities," 2021

Since this piece was published, new hockey arenas have opened in Seattle (Climate Pledge Arena) and Long Island (UBS Arena.  As mentioned ("Seattle Kraken expansion hockey team sets new standard for transit benefits in transportation demand management: free transit with ticket"), the Seattle Arena is particularly noteworthy for how it includes free transit use with tickets for games (hockey and women's basketball) and other ticketed events (concerts, etc.).

The Buffalo Bills football team is looking for money for a new stadium ("Bills want new stadium to be completely funded by taxpayer money," NBC Sports).  An interesting report commissioned for the team in its negotiations discusses two options, a suburban location where they are now, or downtown.  I was shocked that the ancillary revenues to the city from a downtown location were so minimal ("Study recommends new Bills stadium, silent on Orchard Park vs. Buffalo location," Buffalo News).

The owners of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Sports Group, are going to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins ("In selling franchise to Fenway Sports Group, Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins found 'a vision that aligns with ours'").

Speaking of public funding "deserving" a cut of a sale, the primary owner of the Penguins is Mario Lemiux, a former player who because of deferred salary was a large creditor of the team, which went bankrupt, and he was able to get control of the team.

And the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks basketball teams are valued at more than $5 billion ("Are the Knicks and Lakers Really Worth $5 Billion?," New York Times, "FROM KNICKS TO PELICANS: 2021 NBA FRANCHISE VALUATIONS RANKING LIST," Sportico).

The Sportico website has a dedicated tab for articles on team valuations.