The NFL stadium game has recently kicked into high gear, with team owners hoping to “keep up with the (Jerry) Joneses” as franchise valuations and profits soar. That hasn’t stopped teams from passing much of the costs onto taxpayers and local governments.
Which teams are planning or building new stadiums?
There are two new NFL stadiums currently under construction. The Buffalo Bills plan to move into New Highmark Stadium in 2026. The total of $850 million in public funding from New York State and Erie County was an NFL record.
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The Tennessee Titans broke that mark when they started building their new home. The Titans will receive $1.26 billion in public funding from the city of Nashville and the state of Tennessee. They should be moving into their new digs before the 2027 season,
Five other teams are in various stages of negotiations and planning for their new homes. The Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders and Denver Broncos have all chosen new sites. Only the Kansas City Chiefs are still in search of a location and are actively fielding offers for public assistance from prospective hosts.
How has the method for funding stadiums changed?
Journalist Neil deMause has been studying and writing about stadium finances for three decades. He wrote the book Field of Schemes along with author Joanna Cagan, and continues to run a website of the same name, which is updated almost daily with news and information on various projects. He said the sports owners’ “playbook” continues to be relevant.
“Very little has changed. We keep updating the book, Field of Schemes, and it’s the same story, same thing going on,” deMause said. “Just the numbers go up. You know, 30 years ago, we were talking about $200, $300 million in public money. And now we’re talking about $1 billion, $2 billion in public funds.”
The Broncos and the City of Denver are touting a new, completely privately-funded stadium in the Burnham Yards area of the city, paid for by the team’s Walton-Penner ownership group. The mayor of Denver, Mike Johnston, is on board.
“We will have a brand new NFL stadium with a retractable roof where we can host a Super Bowl and taxpayers don’t pay a dollar for it,” Johnston told FOX31 Denver. “So for us, the ability to have an ownership group who says we’re going to privately pay for the stadium, privately pay to acquire the land, that is a huge win-win for the city, to be getting a 50-year extension of the Broncos franchise in Denver.”
Does “privately funded” really mean just that?
The “taxpayers don’t pay a dollar for it” has become such a mantra for the Broncos and the city of Denver that NFL analyst Troy Aikman recently mentioned it on Monday Night Football. While that statement may be accurate regarding the actual stadium and the land it’s built on, the public will likely be on the hook for hundreds of millions in infrastructure improvements and a planned mixed-use development project that will surround the proposed stadium. Those facts are not publicized and often overlooked, said deMause.
“The one thing I think that has changed over the years is that the costs have become more hidden,” deMause said. “I think the team owners and the officials who work with them have realized that it sounds worse to give a check, a taxpayer check, to the team for the stadium than to say, okay, we’re not going to give you that, but we will give you money for infrastructure. We will give you tax breaks. We will give you a break on land costs.”
A domed or retractable roof will be included in six of the seven new stadiums being built or planned. The Kansas City Chiefs and other teams say they want to be able to host concerts and other sports-related events year-round. The big draw, as Denver’s Mayor Johnston points out, is the possibility of hosting a Super Bowl. But that singular event may not be as lucrative as it’s often portrayed.
“The fact that Arlington Heights in Illinois is talking about, well, ‘we’re going to build a roof on a Chicago Bears stadium and then we’re going to get the Super Bowl.’” deMause said. “You will undoubtedly get a Super Bowl. Are you going to get more than one Super Bowl in anybody’s lifetime? Probably not, because there are just way too many cities out there that want one.”
Why do teams often threaten to relocate?
The Bears say their stadium is going to be privately funded, but they are seeking $855 million in public money for infrastructure improvements as well as tax breaks from state and local governments.
The Cleveland Browns have already moved out of the city once, back in 1996, and are planning to move out of their current downtown home of more than 25 years, in part because the state legislature approved $600 million in funding for their new stadium in Brook Park, Ohio. The team asked the city for more than $1 billion in public money, which city leaders refused to pay.
Moving is the fallback threat for owners who don’t get what they want from local leaders, no matter how they attempt to spin their need for public assistance, deMause said.
“As Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the White Sox, said famously, right. After getting a new stadium in Chicago years ago, by flying down to Tampa Bay and flying back. When he was asked later, Were you really going to move there? He said, ‘Well, a savvy negotiator creates leverage.’”
The owners’ playbook is still working, and as recent new deals suggest, the costs for cities and fans to keep their favorite teams from leaving keep going up.
