For five months out of the year, society’s norms of socially-acceptable behavior are thrown out the window and replaced by a culture which encourages grown men to paint their chests, neighbors to turn adversaries, and complete strangers to embrace. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the NFL season. And while millions of Americans cheer on their team from the confines of their living room, countless others embark on a Sunday pilgrimage to the modern-day cathedral their NFL team calls home.
The majority of these football sanctuaries easily exceed the seating capacity of the Roman Colosseum, and as you may anticipate, the cost of constructing a modern-day NFL Stadium is nothing short of astronomical. For this reason, many cities across the country that house NFL Stadiums relied on the use of their eminent domain authority to build their pigskin palaces.
In Arlington, Texas, for example, former Mayor, Robert Cluck, was unable to negotiate out-of-court resolutions with all 162 property owners for the 134 acres needed to construct Dallas Cowboy’s AT&T Stadium (a/k/a “Jerry World” after legendary Cowboys’ Owner, Jerry Jones). As a result, the former Mayor reverted to a (albeit legal in this case) “chop block” tactic in exercising his eminent domain authority over the remaining property owners, whose current loyalty to America’s team remains unknown.
Likewise, in 2013, the Atlanta Falcons relied on sticks, stones, and the Fifth Amendment in constructing their home nest at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Despite pledges by City Officials throughout the negotiation process that eminent domain would not be used, the clock eventually ran out on multiple Atlanta property owners. Included in the wingspan of constructing the Falcons’ new home was Mount Vernon Baptist Church and Friendship Baptist Church, Atlanta’s oldest African American Baptist Church. The total cost of Mercedes-Benz Stadium is $1.5 billion with an anticipated opening on July 30th of this year.
In contrast to the Cowboys and Falcons, Los Angeles residents had something to cheer about in 2016 when their Rams returned home after a 49-year hiatus in St. Louis. Despite a dismal homecoming season at 4-12, the City’s taxpayers were elated to learn that the team’s construction of Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park will be privately financed on private land. The unnamed “property owner/developer” has likened their ambitions for the Stadium to the development of Florida’s Disney World theme park. The real joy for residents of Los Angeles, however, is that the unnamed “property owner/developer” will be completely financing the estimated cost of development at $2.6 billion. Upon completion in August 2019, the Rams’ lavish home is expected to become the most expensive sports arena in the world.
In today’s post-Kelo world, forty-five states have passed eminent domain reform laws that must be used to assess the methodologies behind the construction, ownership and use of NFL Stadiums. These state statutes unequivocally highlight the public purpose requirement at the heart of the government’s eminent domain authority. Therefore, many NFL teams execute lease agreements or public/private partnership agreements with their respective city in order to ensure that any and all land acquired in the construction and development of these modern-day Colosseums befit their underlying public purpose. Importantly, the absence of eminent domain mechanisms in developing the Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park presents a rare situation that may not be dispositive as to how other cities will grapple with the construction of modern-day NFL stadiums in the future. Simply put, today’s society maintains an insatiable desire for “bigger and better,” and as a result City Officials are oftentimes forced rely on eminent domain when it comes to fourth and long.
