150M isn’t even close to covering a functioning public transit system in any major US city. Expansions of the subway in New York routinely run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and that’s just expansions. Even if you’re looking at buses only, if you start with the assumption that each bus runs about $100k, that’s a mere 1500 buses. The CTA in Chicago uses over 1800 buses–that only counts the ones currently in operation–so you’re still short on building bus stops, bus lanes, any kind of light rail system, and so on. Oh, and lots of the bus lines in Chicago stop running after a certain time; I couldn’t take the buses to go to any concerts, since nothing operated in my area between midnight and 5am.
Plus, you have ongoing operating expenses. Once a stadium is built, it’s usually operated by someone other than the city.
I’m not saying I’m in favor of stadiums, but whoever costed this needs to consult with a civil engineer to come up with a more realistic figure for comprehensive public transit for major cities.
Thank you for your more informed numbers! I had no idea that a basic city bus was half a million dollars; that seems outrageous, but it also seems outrageous that an F-150 can easily cost $80k.
It’s a pity that it’s so damn expensive to run light rail in established cities; it seems to make a lot more sense in the long run, but those numbers are really hard to swallow in the short run.
In London, Ontario, the city gave the transit commission $350M to spend on a new transit overhaul called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). It was the best plan possible for our city as our streets are too narrow to accommodate light rail and we sit on swampland at a low altitude above sea level which prevents a subway from being built. All the commission had to do was pour concrete for new bus pads and widen a couple of streets to add in a dedicated bus lane.
They blew half the money on consultations, construction fuck ups, and removal of fuck ups in 2022. They never finished BRT, bought themselves a brand new HQ at a cost of $120M, and now in 2023, they’re saying they’re $175M overbudget on BRT.
I get it but… The fact that a team changes town is such an insane concept to me. I don’t know the SeaWolves, but they are probably called Seattle SeaWolves, right? So they carry the name of the city.
Where I’m from (Germany) that team would be dead instantly in the eyes of the fans. If f. ex. Victoria Berlin renamed itself to FC Berlin, the fans would find it weird but probably go along. 7f the moved to Magdeburg and are now Victoria Berlin but not in Berlin they would lose their fans. And wouldn’t gain Magdeburger Fans.
If you’re interested I would recommend you to check out the recent rise of FC Union Berlin. They’ve risen to the first division about 5 years ago and still play in a pretty old and basic stadium. They display of the current goals is still done by changing boards with numbers on them through a window.
And they managed to play in the champions League despite having an old stadium. Sadly they played their European games in the bigger Olympia stadium. I wish they would have hosted Real Madrid in the old forestry (name of the stadium “die Alte Försterei”).
Come on down to Minneapolis MN, and bring cash. Our recent light rail project is 1.5 billion over budget and 9 years behind schedule for a 14 mile track… Seriously bring money!
Everyone often bleats out “bread and circuses” at everything but I think this is one area where that actually applies. It wins you votes to keep the city-branded circus in town even if it means kowtowing to billionaire team owner whims.
Is this meme reporting live from Las Vegas, Nevada?
Because putting a stupid underground concrete bendy-straw full of manual-driving Teslas instead of…a subway system, and building like 8 more stadiums that shut down traffic and give us nothing but $600 concert tickets on Ticketmaster …is totally this city’s jam right now.
The OKC deal is actually a pretty square deal. The team is putting up 50m and the city is putting up another 70m, but the city retains ownership and use over the property. The funding is also coming from extending a 1% sales tax weve already been paying for the last 5 years.
It’s not what I would prioritize, but at least we’re actually going to keep the infrastructure we’re paying for.
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