bahua wrote:
I am absolutely terrified of this thing passing. It will set a terrible precedent for sports franchise blackmail. A billion dollars... For what? What return will we get? An ailing baseball team that we don't even like? A successful NFL team that doesn't even need our help? It will cost a fraction of the the extortionate amount they're asking, to make the needed renovations.
We have until December 31st, 2007(not 2006), to come up with a plan for funding that will see that the county lives up to its end of the contract. That's plenty of time to come up with a plan that doesn't ruin the county.
I have no problem with the county paying for everything. The county owns the facility. It makes sense. I'd prefer it if the owners weren't even allowed into the proceedings. If we want to expand our own property, we can decide to do so. It's not for the Royals or Chiefs organizations to tell us what we should do with our property, and our money. If they want expansions that will increase their profits, they can invest in them, themselves. That's what businesses do.
Please, for the sake of sanity, and for the sake of Kansas City, vote No on April 4th.
i myself am terrofied it will fail. can you imagine this city, of kansas city, or the metropolitan region as a whole, getting together and getting something done if it fails? if it fails, because the owners are not putting in enough money, because you downtown supporters want to be the first group in the world to tear down top 10 stadiums, just because you want a mock up of pnc in kc, or for whatever reason, do you see this region or this city getting together and doing it right??
we do not even have a straight answer from the teams, the county, or anyone involved whether or not the lease is defaulted or not. does that not frighten any of you? you vote no for your various principles on the issue, then what? you think the teams, or the county, is going to be in a rush to get back to the table to hammer it out by august or november? once it is defaulted, now, later, next year, whenever, once the defaulting happens, there is no way to force either team to accept the band aid, or whatever is done. so, to vote no, based on how much money the teams are putting in, is dumb. there are 20 taxpayer stadiums out there that are free to the teams, 20. it is not the worst deal. out of the remaining 34 stadiums, only 5 were built 100% by their owners. out of those 5, there are 3 where the city spent double what the team did on the area that the stadium went into, and one, foxboro, where people are pissed off at how much the state put into the aging decrepid area. to vote no just on the principe the owners are not contributing enough, compare apples to apples, how many cities our size can we compare to? minnesotta is still in the process of working it out, portland / charlotte are still in the process of getting established as major league cities, so, to compare us to larger cities, or teams with richer owners, makes NO sense. compare us to st louis because we are similar in size? yeah, sure, fair fight, they are getting some serious dough from anheuser busch ( naming rights ) and live in a city that ponies up for the development around it. can you imagine, in kansas city missouri, asking city residents, and people nearby, to invest the kind of money into downtown that they are there? sure, it is owner financed on the stadium, but the people in that region are footing some hefty bills on civic redevelopment, can you imagine an area like kc, with a downtown stadium on the ballot, agreeing to vote yes on shit like that?? listen to the callers to am radio, the letters to the star, the homes along ward parkway, the businesses with the sos signs in their windows, the region does NOT have the support for a dt stadium, because there are WAY too many people like me who still love kauffman and arrowhead.
if we want to say it is bad business for the teams playing in OUR stadiums to dictate where they play, then, there are 38 other markets in pro sports doing it wrong. i guess we should be visionaries and blaze a new trail on this one, and risk losing our teams??
if we lose these teams over this BULLSHIT, that would bring the tally to 5 professional sports teams lost. do you really think any of the 4 leagues, will be in any hurry to get us a new team? the nfl or mlb, will shy away from this market big time. it cost cleveland 600m to get the nfl back, what makes you think any of the big 4 will be in a hurry to get us sports back if we lose a 4th and 5th team?
for the sake of everyone in the region, and kansas citians at heart that live elsewhere, vote yes.