A special event hosted by long-time Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully marked last week’s groundbreaking for a baseball spring training facility in Glendale that will accommodate the Dodgers and, eventually, the Chicago White Sox. The Glendale Municipal Property Corp. will issue revenue bonds to finance the $80.7 million facility. The debt will be supported by annual allocations from the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority and by sales taxes generated on site and at a planned development around the ballpark. The AZSTA pledged in December 2006 to finance two-thirds of the project in the Phoenix suburb, but it won’t be able to begin paying debt service until 2018. Glendale eventually will get more than $50 million for the training complex from the authority. The Dodgers will move into the facility from their current spring training site at Vero Beach, Fla., in 2009 if construction is completed in time, or in 2010 at the latest. The spring training complex will include a 13,000-seat stadium with 3,000 lawn seats, two major league fields and four minor league fields per team, workout fields, a large clubhouse, and parking for 5,000 vehicles. The White Sox currently train in Tucson under a 15-year contract with Pima County that expires in 2013. The team can move to Glendale before then if it pays $28 million to break the lease or finds a replacement team for Tucson Electric Park.
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The county commission said it hopes to regain Moody's ratings this fall.
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Market participants launched the largest lobbying effort in recent memory to protect municipal bonds and got what they wanted as the tax-exemption survived.
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UST yields rose across the curve in response to the employment report with the two-year rising nearly 10 basis points while municipals largely ignored the moves and ratios fell as a result.
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Oregon Department of Transportation leaders said they will begin layoffs Monday after lawmakers adjourned without passing a transportation funding bill.
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"If you are seeking the services of a municipal advisor, it would be helpful to use the term municipal advisor in your RFP/Qs," said Sanchez, director of the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities.
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The growth of the muni market comes as issuance surges, with the first half of the year seeing $280.64 billion of supply, up 14.3% year-over-year, according to LSEG.
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