Precourt Sports Ventures President Dave Greeley told a Texas Senate committee last night that a bill targeting their soccer-specific stadium deal would "threaten the future" of Austin FC, which is set to enter MLS in '20. The bill would "allow other tax entities to opt in to collecting property tax on a stadium being built on city-owned land in North Austin." Greeley said, “We are 100% privately financing (the stadium’s construction). Our funding mechanism and debt obligation would be in peril, on top of millions in economic impact and thousands of jobs” (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 4/17).
LOST IN LA LA LAND? THE ATHLETIC's Brian Kamenetzky wrote Lakers GM Rob Pelinka "isn’t viewed favorably" around the NBA, as multiple reports have noted how peers and players "question his trustworthiness." The inability of Lakers Controlling Owner & CEO Jeanie Buss to "step outside her comfort zone has again limited the Lakers." Buss is now "tied to Pelinka in ways projecting his performance onto her." If the red flags "prove accurate, she’ll rightly be blamed for ignoring them" (THEATHLETIC.com, 4/15).
MONEY MATTERS: CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday aired a segment spotlighting the Warriors' on-court success and what the future holds for the team as it moves from Oakland to S.F. CBS' Jon Wertheim noted Chase Center is 10 miles, "but a world away, from Oakland," where the team's longtime home, Oracle Arena, is located. Warriors co-Owner Joe Lacob noted "not one dollar of public money" was used to build the arena, which makes co-Owner Peter Guber "very nervous." Lacob: "He calls me all the time. I say, 'Don't worry, we're going to get through it.'" Guber said of Lacob, "He's the Warrior, I'm the worrier" ("60 Minutes," CBS, 4/14).
