Monday, February 19, 2007

Let's all take a deep breath now

I have to say that I am amazed at how many folks I know, good, solid, smart folks, who fell for the madness that Robin Leach was spreading, suggesting that the Grizzlies would be on the next shuttle to Las Vegas.

To steal a line from Terrell Owens' former publicist, there are 94 million reasons that the Grizz will be in our town until 2021 at the earliest. The CA hit the nail on the head for a change in their editorial this morning, noting that the Grizz are a part of the social fabric, and I have to agree.

Look, while I am a Grizz fan, I never thought that public funds should have been spent on the FedExForum, at least no higher of a percent than was spent on AutoZone Park. However, it was, the money was spent and there it is. It can't be UNBUILT and the money returned to our coffers, so, get over it.

I DO believe that we need to investigate the Garage scam to its fullest, and prosecute those whose failure to oversee the problems reaches a criminal level. There is a LOT more under the surface that needs to be dug up.

However, there seem to be people who WANT the Grizzlies to go, so they can wag their fingers and say I told you so. However, the Forum will still be there, and won't make money if that happens.

I'm not saying you have to root for the Grizz if you don't like the NBA, just realize that it's done, there's no sense bitching about it. All we can do is push for a full investigation so that we can send the people to jail who committed criminal malfeasance on the Garage situation.

3 comments:

Smart City Consulting said...

LWC: You're right on the mark. If some folks want to beat this dead horse, let's keep in mind that contrary to conventional wisdom, the FedEx Forum has exactly the same percentage of city and county property tax money in it as Autozone Park. The remainder of the funding comes from revenues (like sales tax rebates on professional sports, tourism development zone revenues, etc.) that could only be spent for a professional sports arena. TJ

Steve Steffens said...

Ah, dear fellow, that's the rub. The question, which we could argue for days, is how much of that money would have been spent in the city on sales taxes, regardless of the Forum, on other forms of entertainment.

Good point on the property taxes, though!

Smart City Consulting said...

LWC: It's only the incremental increase of the sales tax, and the study by the U of M showed that it was new money, not money shifted from pocket to pocket. Keep in mind that these are some of the same revenue sources that are paying for the Autozone Park. On this, you are probably right; we could argue for days on this. But I think our end point is the same.