Hornets set to get $173m in public cash thanks to zombie lease clause, another $102m just because – Field of Schemes

The Charlotte city council is preparing to vote on $275 million in spending to upgrade theHornets arena which is less than 17 years old, cost $260 million total to build in the first place, and already received $24 million in taxpayer-funded renovations a few years ago, if youre scoring at home and build the team a new practice facility. But, the Charlotte Business Journal reassures us, most of this is necessary thanks to the dead hand of Charlotte officials who negotiated one of those dread state-of-the-art clauses to insure that the public would be on the hook for an unending stream of anything other NBA teams could extract from their cities first:

The state-of-the-art upgrades, calculated lord knows how, are estimated by the city to amount to $173 million. The rest of the money will go toward an additional $42 million in upgrades plus $60 million to build a new practice facility across the street. In exchange for the added funds, the Hornets will agree to a lease extension through 2045, during which time the team will start paying rent thats right, the team got a $260 million arena in 2005 and hasnt even had to pay rent on it amounting to $32 million, plus $20 million in maintenance expenses, though the CBJ doesnt indicate whether this is present value or whatever pittance dollars are still worth in the 2040s.

I know what youre asking or, at least, I know what Im asking: Does the lease extension include 15 more years of this horrible state-of-the-art clause, requiring future Charlotte city councils to pay for nanobot charging stations or what have you? Despite expending more than 2,000 words on this, including quoting Hornets president Fred Whitfield calling city economic development chief Tracy Dodson a visionary, the CBJ doesnt bother to answer this, and neither does the crappy slideshow that is all the Charlotte council included in its meeting documents. So well just have to wait and see if the 2022 council follows the lead of its predecessors and issues another blank check to the current billionaire Hornets owner, who happens to be this guy.

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Hornets set to get $173m in public cash thanks to zombie lease clause, another $102m just because - Field of Schemes

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