State CRA Disappearance Destroys Stadium Financing Possibilities.

On December 29, the California Appeals Court ruled that Community Redevelopment Agencies no longer exist in the state of California. BFD, right? Well not if you are the Oakland A's, Raiders, San Diego Chargers or San Francisco 49ers all looking for these legalistic loophole organizations as a method to funnel property tax money to finance building your new stadiums.

Read the dejected coverage and reaction from the Athletics fansite devoted to keeping major league baseball in Oakland. A CRA slush fund was the only feasible method of building a new park in Oakland. Now it looks like A's owner Lew Wolff knows the way to San Jose - except new debt service rules may hinder his ability to devote lots of dough to a shining city on the hill.

Lobbying now begins for the state legislature to resurrect CRAs from the dead. Jerry Brown's aura smiles and never frowns, but he will veto anything that allows money headed the state's way to be sidetracked for anything not controlled by the State. So for the time being, at lest the next decade, local gubmint money paying for stadiums in the Golden State ain't happening.

Arte Moreno has an out clause in his Anaheim Stadium lease after 2016. Uhhh...