Sunday, May 11, 2008

Steve Mulroy and Smart City Memphis are right about Bass Pro; WHY is Robert Lipscomb so hell-bent to give up the store?

Ok, as today's CA story about the BPS debacle shows, at least there are people in this town, like Steve Mulroy and the good folks at SCM, that know that BPS is just trying to wear down the city of Memphis until we hand them free use of the pointy building, and for no good reason.

Mulroy nails it first by saying that we need to set a deadline in the VERY near term; if BPS doesn't meet it or wants more time, we walk away, just walk away.  In a town that needs more hotel space, if we're not going to use the Ericson proposal, why not make the pointy building something that makes the Opryland Hotel look like the Rebel Inn by comparison?  Find a way to make the Pyramid connect to the nearby Convention Center, and we will be able to hold bigger events like, say a Final Four. 

With that in mind, what kind of hold does BPS have on the Administration, particularly Robert Lipscomb, who positively looks spellbound by their non-offer?  This smells REAL funny, and I don't like it.  BPS has been leading us on for several years now, with NOTHING to show for it; yet Lipscomb keeps insisting that this is the best deal possible.

For WHOM, Mr. Lipscomb?
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We know the wrong people are in charge.

Now that the school board won't buy out Willie's contract, we're stuck with him and his cronies until circumstances change.

polar donkey said...

Hey,
I don't mean to disagree, but have you all looked at Erickson and his backers at Prosperity International LLC. To say I have doubts is an understatement. Prosperity operates mostly down in the Carribean. It has a project in fixing up the airport facilities in Yaroslavl, Russia and is helping with planning of a powerplant in Botswana.

Also check out their brain trust-
Their Vice Managing Member has a high school diploma
Senior Director of Business development has a BA from Maryland
Consultant 1 went to UT-Chattanooga and studied psychology. No degree. Also got a paralegal certificate
Consultant 2 had 3 years of study in civil engineering and 2 years of studying business economics.
Consultant 3 hsd 30 community college credits.

Now i'm not knocking people for not having degrees. Plenty of smart capable people don't have them. But when almost all of your projects are in developing countries, why are you trying to do a $250 million amusement project in Memphis? Something doesn't smell right there either. take a look at their website.

http://www.prosperity-international.com/home.shtml

It would be nice to do something with the pyramid. I'm not much of a hunter/fishing guy myself, but BPS is a legitimate company. They also do things at a snails pace. I would too if I was investing a couple hundred million dollars and dealing with a city whose mayor talks about resigning and then doesn't. I ask though that you seriously think about Erickson's plan. A four ride amusement park. Really four rides. and people are going to travel a few hundred miles to get to a four ride amusement park. Six flags isn't doing that great and they have a bunch of rides. You think other cities would laugh at us for getting a bass pro shop, well we would get the "dumbest city in the nation" award for building a four ride amusment park that would go out of business in 2 years, if it ever got built. Then what would we do with the Pyramid? I'm kind of worried some local politicians are looking at the short-term and the possibility of dumping the debt, but not considering how bad the long-term situation could get.

Unknown said...

"But when almost all of your projects are in developing countries, why are you trying to do a $250 million amusement project in Memphis?"

Heh. Asked and answered.