At an estimated cost of $51 billion it is five times as expensive as the winter Olympics in Nagano, the preparation for which involved the construction of arenas, roads and a bullet-train line from Tokyo.
Five years ago, it was thought that major Russian businessmen were being asked to build hotels, arenas, roads, and railroads in Sochi as a kind of "tax" — the price of doing business elsewhere in Russia.
The arena road show, called "Batman Live" and launching in July in Manchester, England, is set to tour the world with what organizers are promising is a dazzling rock and roll event with the Caped Crusader, sidekick Robin and some of their most enduring enemies performing nightly feats of pyrotechnics.
But the share of public money involved -- $270 million toward the $385 million cost of the arena and road improvements -- would run counter to another trend, in which teams are privately financing more and more of the costs of their buildings.
Jackson loved to zing his players, reporters, league officials, opposing teams and opposing fans, delighting firing up entire arenas on the road, as when he called Sacramento fans semicivilized and "redneck barbarians".
They qualified with a 2-1 victoverover the Minnesota Wild on Friday night at the Pond, a marble-walled arena down the road from Disneyland.
Laimbeer, the former Detroit Pistons All-Star, who still gets booed at almost every road arena for the reputation he earned as one of the Pistons Bad Boysys," has received a lot of credit for the Shock's turnaround.
Meanwhile, Starks, a longtime road arena favorite, was so excited by his clutch shooting, he wanted to remain on the floor and sign autographs for the South Florida fans.
PACERS 97, KINGS 86: Jermaine O'Neal had 29 points and 11 rebounds as Indiana shook off Reggie Miller's suspension to win in Sacramento at the N.B.A.'s toughest road arena.
At Anaheim, California, Alec Martinez also scored for the Kings, who opened their first playoff series against their local rivals with two victories at a road arena packed with their own fans.
The new arena stands across the road from Celtic Park football stadium, creating an opportunity, one might think, for relating these two great chunks of sporting infrastructure.
