Comments on Advance Indiana™: Why Don Welsh Left Seattle

Gary, Either Schultz was an idiot to believe that...

2009-04-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

Gary,

Either Schultz was an idiot to believe that or he is playing CYA. The suspicions about Bennett's intentions were there from the start among the public and the political class. Bennett did exactly what Irsay did -- ask for the moon, under the strategem that if the city did not give it to him, he had cover to move. Read the e-mails. Bennett never intended to keep the team in Seattle.

ProCynic, Schultz said he turned down offers for t...

2009-04-29T09:08:00.000-05:00

ProCynic, Schultz said he turned down offers for the team from other buyers because the OKC was the only group that expressed an interest in keeping the team in Seattle. "I'm going to take them at their word that they want to stay and we'll work with them ," [Gov] Nickels said. "We think they will play in the Seattle Center until 2010. The new owners tried to shake down Seattle for more money and the key decision-makers said no. The team left.

ProCynic - it is because despite the reality they ...

2009-04-29T08:53:00.000-05:00

ProCynic - it is because despite the reality they are in a 'small market' the owners have 'big market' tastes (and egos).

So the taxpayers are sold a bill of goods for rainbows and lollipops intended to make them feel guilty if they don't provide the ridiculous subsidies.

We see this in real life with people who buy cars and houses they can't afford, so they can 'look good.'

Unlike with cars and houses, there's no way to reposess and resell the stadium to someone else to recoup the loss now, that the CIB can't make the payments.

I'm not sure you interpreted the NBA situation in ...

2009-04-29T08:06:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure you interpreted the NBA situation in Seattle correctly.

Clay Bennett bought the SuperSonics for the purpose of moving them to Oklahoma City. He's from Oklahoma City, as are some of his business partners. He never considered Las Vegas or Kansas City or even Seattle, for that matter. His rather felonious agenda was confirmed via e-mails released through discovery in Seattle's lawsuit to keep the Sonics.

While you may believe that politicans should tell gredy sports teams to walk away, the Seattle city administration is now in deep political trouble because of the loss of the Sonics, not only because the team was, in effect, stolen but because Seattle dropped its lawsuit to keep the team without receiving anything in return. When a major pro sports team moves, the local politicians usually pay a political price.

That was the calculus Bart Peterson was facing. The Colts were going to move to LA, with the NFL's encouragement, unless the City gave them the moon. Because they freely admit the Colts cannot make money here unless they have those revenue streams. You draw your own conclusions about why NFL franshises can succeed in cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis without such streams but one in Indianapolis cannot.

Those who forget the past... Bob Bedell had been ...

2009-04-29T07:16:00.000-05:00

Those who forget the past...

Bob Bedell had been head of ICVA until recently, and pushed us close to the precipice.

He'd done the same thing in his previous job in St Louis, a city still coping with debt from the failed Convention Strategy that Bedell pushed there.

How Indy ends up:

1. Much higher taxes to cover the CIB etc
2. Loss of convention business, since few people really want to come to Indy
3. In the end, an overbuilt and underpopulated mile square, surrounded by blight, surrounded by overbuilt affluent white suburbs.
4. The insanity metastasises (sp ?) with Westfield aiming to spend $1.5 billion and Speedway half a billion on 'economic development', aka, graft.

Is Joe Loftis the same Joe Loftis that I used to r...

2009-04-29T07:12:00.000-05:00

Is Joe Loftis the same Joe Loftis that I used to read about when Goldsmut was mayor? That is digging up a lot of politicians to get these men back in power isn't it?

Do the GOP councilors pay any attention to Ballard...

2009-04-28T22:50:00.000-05:00

Do the GOP councilors pay any attention to Ballard? No one else does.

Essentially the legislature is just passing the bu...

2009-04-28T20:11:00.000-05:00

Essentially the legislature is just passing the buck to the CCC. The legislators probably have a clean conscience for what they're going to do. They should not.

Gary, can you imagine what these next few months will be like - Mayor Ballard trying to twist arms, the council meetings with people mad as hell.

I can imagine right now, Bob Grand and Joe Lofuts will try to rig it so that the supporters of the bailout are the ones let into the council chambers. Hmmmm, this sounds familiar.

Abdul has audio clip of both Pat Bauer and Brian B...

2009-04-28T20:06:00.000-05:00

Abdul has audio clip of both Pat Bauer and Brian Bosma from this evening discussing the CIB issue. Bauer says the bailout is up to Mayor Ballard, the GOP council-controlled council and Gov. Daniels to make happen. He's focusing his attention on the budget and a rescue plan for the State unemployment insurance plan. Bosma said he is opposed to the UI plan because it raises taxes on businesses instead of cutting benefits to the unemployed. At the same time, he thinks the CIB bailout is in great shape. He thinks it is just dandy if we raise a few taxes here and there to shore up their budget gap. Rest assured that Bosma's position will reward his law firm. As for his Republican caucus, count on another two years in the minority. The Rs like to beat up on Pat Bauer all the time, but he's been Speaker all of these years because he's smarter politically than Bosma. When will the GOP caucus figure out that his gig is to make money for his law firm? If that happens to coincide with the party's interest it is only coincidental. It sure has nothing to do with party principles.

It's never enough, Paul. Welsh's point to the comm...

2009-04-28T19:35:00.000-05:00

It's never enough, Paul. Welsh's point to the committee was that he will need more than his $10 plus million budget to compete with other cities. He had a slide showing how many cities spend more than Indianapolis on promoting conventions. He pointed out that after the big convention expansion, which I believe is our third now, we'll still only be 16th in size. He talked about bringing on board the J.W. Marriott with its 1,000 plus rooms, a requirement missing now for many conventions. Our city had opportunities to double the Westin or the Hyatt capacity to meet that requirement and it turned those down. Instead, it wanted a brand new hotel at a $60 million cost to the city. Our current convention center has a ballroom. The new one will not have one. The new hotel, however, will have one. This forces local groups to rent the ballroom from the J.W. Marriott for their events instead of renting space from the convention center. The fact is that the convention center only wants it used for out-of-town conventions. Everyone locally can find their own space. It doesn't matter how much we spend, how big our convention center is, how big our stadiums are, etc., it will never be enough.

Gary, I think Lutz is the worst Republican counsel...

2009-04-28T18:36:00.000-05:00

Gary, I think Lutz is the worst Republican counselor there is. I think he's even more of a sell-out than Ryan Vaughn which is really saying a lot.

No, we're not going to win the battle in the legislature. The place where victory might come is in the CCC. I can't imagine that every Repubilcan councilor is going to sell his soul and his/her political future for these tax increases.

Of course, another commentator is now suggesting that the proposed deal in the works, which involve expanding the sports district to include Circle City Mall, raising the innkeeper tax and the rental tax by two cents won't have any political effect at all. It certainly will, and becoming one of the highest hospitality taxes in the country will assure that we lose not gain convention business. So much for protecting downtown with this deal.