🏟 Pay for your own stadium

Plus: Should Delta require bras?, a new time zone for the moon, a handy eclipse tracker, and more. View Online Three years ago, the average US worker signed off at around 5pm on Fridays. Now, a survey shows 4pm logoffs are the norm. Friday afternoon productivity levels have always sucked, anyway, so here's our verdict: At 4pm today, call it quits. In today's email: Stadiums: Are we nearing the end of the publicly funded sports palace? India: Home to 1.4B+ people, many apparently with wanderlust. Weird week: TFW a cruise ship ditches you, an eclipse-related lawsuit, and more wild headlines. Around the web: The Girl Scout cookie graveyard, the appeal of farm simulators, and more. 👇 Listen: Taxpayers have spent billions to build new stadiums for megarich owners. The backlash is here. The Big Idea Are voters sick of paying for stadiums? Days are numbered for the classic billionaire tactic of getting their sports stadiums financed by taxpayers. 2024-04-05T00:00:00Z Mark Dent One of America's great pastimes, besides watching sports, is paying billions for them. Most professional stadiums have been constructed with a mix of public and private funding, with North American taxpayers spending ~$33B from 1970 to 2020. But if news from Kansas City, Missouri, is any indication, the public may be getting tired of footing the bill. The MLB's Royals and NFL's Chiefs… … recently asked voters in Kansas City and nearby suburbs to pay a sales tax similar to one they'd been paying since 2006. It would have contributed ~$2B over 40 years toward the construction of a new baseball stadium and renovations to the Chiefs' home. The Chiefs, who've been winning Super Bowls about as often as Disney releases Marvel films, enlisted stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes for a TV ad. And yet it flopped on election day: 58% of voters said no. The plan had some notable local flaws: The Royals picked a site in a popular arts district that would've displaced many small businesses, and the Chiefs' renovation ideas — namely, new VIP seating and improved parking — didn't exactly inspire the masses. But the vote also revealed growing middle-class frustrations with rich teams and owners. Left-leaning community groups that support workers' and tenants' rights, along with anti-tax conservatives fed up with soaring property values, organized to oppose tax dollars flowing to the Royals and Chiefs, which are each valued at more than $1B. The teams said they'd bring massive economic returns (a questionable claim) while suggesting they could leave if voters said no — a time-tested strategy for decades. It didn't work. So, will owners start paying for a larger share of their stadiums? Some already have. But they're usually in big markets like Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium) or New York (MetLife Stadium). It's hard to predict whether Kansas City will be an aberration or a bellwether. Results for stadium referendums have been mixed dating back to the 1990s, though teams in Oklahoma City and Nashville have scored huge sums in the last year. The Royals and Chiefs may seek public funding again in the near future. The day after the stadium vote failed, a Kansas lawmaker used several tortured sports metaphors to tell The Kansas City Star that his state was ready for "a scoop and score" to lure the Chiefs to Kansas. BTW: If you ever want to read more about the symbiotic relationship between sports and cities, this is the book for you. Free Resource 20 minutes of tricks for getting focused Your life coach for the day is one of our free-time favorites: Shaan Puri, the fabled founder of Milk Road, My First Million, and a long list of excellent ideas. Today's episode is all about how to stop drifting. It's centered on setting goals, getting motivated, and mastering the Mamba Mentality by changing your everyday approach. Find more flow states: Define your "yes" threshold Manager schedule → maker schedule Asana's pyramid of clarity Floor goals vs. f*ck-yeah goals Joel Omen's simple, single slide for success If you've got 20 minutes to spare, listen in — because nobody breaks stuff down like Shaan. Ditch the distractions → TRENDING Scheduling Zoom calls is about to get much harder: The moon is getting its own time zone. The White House instructed NASA to give the moon and other celestial bodies their own unified standard time — Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) — by the end of 2026 as private and public companies continue their race to the moon. SNIPPETS Apple hasn't given up on a shiny new product after scrapping its EV plans in February. The company is reportedly working on mobile robots that could follow users through their homes. Speaking of failed car projects… Ghost Autonomy, an OpenAI-backed company making autonomous driving software, has shut down after raising ~$220m. Soon to join them? Last month, YouTuber Marques Brownlee told his 18.6m+ subscribers that Fisker made the "worst car" he's ever reviewed. Fisker updated the car for a second review — and Brownlee said it's still the worst. Jeff Bezos dropped some pocket change — $90m — on a third estate in south Florida's Indian Creek, bringing his total investment in the village to $237m. An agreement of nepobabies: Skydance Media has a tentative deal to take over media mogul/heir Shari Redstone's controlling stake of Paramount Global. Skydance is led by billionaire Larry Ellison's son, David Ellison. Disney+ said it will begin cracking down on password sharing in June. Disney similarly limited account sharing for Hulu, and competitor Netflix saw 100k new sign-ups directly after limiting password sharing. The Beyoncé boost? Denim legend Levi's operated at a loss in Q1, with revenue down ~8% YoY, but that was all before it got name-checked in a new Beyoncé song. Suddenly, one analyst notes there are "growing signs of optimism." The four-day workweek has a new proponent: hedge fund billionaire and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who suggested the change will eventually come, pointing to AI as the catalyst. Cohen says he's upping his golf investments to get ahead of it. One more cool space thing: NASA awarded three companies contracts to submit proposals for lunar vehicles. Its chosen company will build an autonomous vehicle capable of traveling 9.3 mph to help astronauts explore the moon. Don't miss this... Does AI help or hinder the meditation experience? One of our colleagues used a meditation app with AI support every day for two weeks to find out. Here's what she discovered. Data Point Up, up, and away… is the best way to describe India's burgeoning travel industry. India, with 1.4B+ people, has the biggest population in the world and the fifth-largest global economy — so when even a fraction of those people start planning vacations, it has a major impact on the travel industry. There will be an estimated ~47m outbound travelers from India by 2030, more than 2x the amount in 2019, and they'll be spending ~$84B dollars, up from $35B in 2019, per Forbes. And a McKinsey report predicts that India's outbound travel will hit 80m-90m trips in 2040, up from 13m in 2022. What does this all mean? Two things: that travel brands must learn how to cater to Indian tourists, and that India's flight volume must increase — fast. FIT THE BILL There are thousands of companies valued at $1B+. How many clues do you need to identify today's billion-dollar brand? Clue 1: This company has disrupted its industry across many mediums since its 1937 founding: first drive-in location, first to offer a rate-comparison hotline, and first to welcome online buyers. Clue 2: Its brand name is on the home stadium of MLB's Cleveland Guardians, which sits just 20 miles west of its suburban headquarters. Clue 3: Its most valuable employee is arguably actress Stephanie Courtney, rumored to be making ~$10m per year in a role she's held since 2008. 👇 Scroll to the bottom for the answer 👇 Weird Week Weird Week: A drug kingpin's gentle restaurant reviews and more Plus: An eclipse-related lawsuit, a push to make Delta a bra-less airline, and a cruise fail. 2024-04-05T00:00:00Z Ben Berkley A cruise ship gave its passengers the adventure of a lifetime, just not the one they signed up for. Eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers, who were left high and dry after missing their ship's departure from Sao Tome and Principe on March 27, have finally resumed their coastal voyage. The group — which included several elderly folk, a paraplegic person, and a pregnant woman — traversed seven countries before ultimately catching up to the ship Tuesday in Senegal. The Dapper Don, AKA Christopher Kinahan Sr. — an international drug smuggler with ties to El Chapo, and one of the world's most-wanted men — is apparently a mild-mannered diner. Authorities have linked the 67-year-old kingpin to a series of Google reviews written under the name "Christoper Vincent," a known alias of Kinahan's, offering insights on his whereabouts for the last five years. One review reads: "Service was good and the staff were pleasant and helpful." Rather polite for a guy implicated in multiple murders. Gloria Allred wants Delta Air Lines to free the nipple. In January, passenger Lisa Archbold was kicked off a Delta flight for not wearing a bra under her shirt, allegedly violating the airline's policy by causing "an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance." Now, famed women's rights attorney Gloria Allred, who called the treatment discriminatory, is joining Archbold in challenging the airline's policy. The two have requested a meeting with Delta's president to find a solution. Inmates in New York, like everyone else, want to see the solar eclipse — and they're suing for the right to do so. The suit claims that the state corrections department's decision to lock down prisons during the total solar eclipse on April 8 violates inmates' constitutional rights to practice religion. The six plaintiffs are incarcerated men whose religious backgrounds include Baptist, Muslim, atheist, and Seventh-day Adventist. The rare celestial event, which is considered religiously significant to several faiths, won't be visible from North America again until 2044. AROUND THE WEB 🪧 On this day: In 1992, hundreds of thousands of pro-choice advocates held a rally in Washington, DC in protest of the potential overturning of 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling. Though it didn't happen then, it was overturned in 2022. 🍪 That's interesting: There are 60+ Girl Scout cookie recipes that have been discontinued in the treats' over 100-year history. 🧑‍🌾 That's interesting: Why people love farm simulator games. ☀️ Useful: Track the eclipse with this online tracker. (Plus, some tips on how to use it). 🐇 Aww: And now, jumpies. SHOWER THOUGHTS It didn't take long for everyone to forget about Apple Vision Pro. SOURCE SOURCE We can't really confirm what colors look like. SOURCE SOURCE There is no reason to raise your hand to knock on a door. SOURCE SOURCE There is no doubt that considerable resources are invested in researching how thin a hamburger patty can be made without causing a consumer backlash. SOURCE SOURCE Bobbing for apples was a ridiculously unsanitary game for children to participate in. SOURCE SOURCE via Reddit SHARE THE HUSTLE Hey. Don't keep us a secret. Refer just 3 people and we'll send Hustle essentials as a thank you. Share this custom referral link: https://thehustle.co/join?ref=7598767985 Your referral count: 0 Today's Fit the Bill answer is Progressive Corp. (Market cap: $122.55B) Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman, Mark Dent, and Singdhi Sokpo. Editing by: Ben "No meetings before noon lunar time" Berkley. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. PODCAST JOBS CONTACT US The Hustle, 2 Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141, US. Never want to hear from us again? Break our hearts and unsubscribe.