Super Bowl Lands on Taxpayers’ Backs

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) While Super Bowl fans are riding zip lines through downtown Indianapolis this week in the runup to the National Football League’s championship game, taxpayers are digging deeper in their pockets to pay for the stadium where the game will be played.

The $720 million Lucas Oil Stadium, where the New York Giants meet the New England Patriots on Feb. 5, has prompted local officials to raise hotel, restaurant and rental car taxes, and make other payments on top of about $43 million in unexpected financing costs related to their sports and convention facilities.

“They said, ‘We’re going to have one great fantastic party with an unbelievable advertisement for Indianapolis (8383MF) and it isn’t going to cost taxpayers a dime,’” said Pat Andrews, 60, a blogger and community activist who ran unsuccessfully for City Council last year. “Well, baloney.”

Plans for the 63,000-seat stadium that opened in 2008 as the home of the Indianapolis Colts were unveiled almost a decade ago. Since then, the collapse of the auction-rate bond market has led officials to restructure what grew to $666.5 million of public debt. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-02/super-bowl-lands-on-taxpayers-backs-as-stadium-deal-turns-sour.html

[Scuba]

1. Plus the Repukes in Indiana passed "right to work for less"... no wonder folks are in the streets.

[Sherman A1]

5. True

Time to order my tourist information from Indiana & the various tourist bureaus throughout the state, then put them into the recycle bin as they arrive.

While I occasionally drive through the state on vacations, I will make absolutely certain that I never spend a dime there in the future. No gas, no hotels, no food, just a drive through until the RTW stupidity is reversed.

[rfranklin]

2. Meanwhile the owners of the Giants and Patriots will be pocketing tens of millions in profit...

and will threaten to move out of NY (New Jersey) or Boston (Foxborough) and have the taxpayers foot the bill for replacment stadiums with more luxury boxes. And they will once again offer the myth of all the economic benefits that they provide to the neighboring areas.

[RDANGELO]

3. So you have tax payers money going for this instead of things like education.

The NFL, is a monopoly, where the teams will use the spectre of moving to another city if the local governments don't help build the stadium. The NFL has the rescources to build in on thier own.

[abowsh]

4. As someone who lives in downtown Indianapolis, most people are fine with it...for now

People were very upset at first, but now that the game is finally here, people have changed their tune. I'm sure this will change once the Super Bowl is long gone. A friend of mine who works at a clothing store in the mall downtown has made $4,000 this week. Every restaurant, bar, lounge, and coffee shop has lines out the door. Hotels are booked solid in neighboring counties. It is offering an experience that many people will never get the chance to have again. Downtown Indianapolis is amazing right now and it's mostly just locals enjoying it so far.

Yes, the expensive stadium has ruffled a few feathers. I think the person to blame here is Jim Irsay. That pill popping asshole would leave the city in a heartbeat if he got a better stadium somewhere else. While some NFL owners, like our rivals in Foxbrough, pay for a significant chunk of the stadium. Some pay for nearly all of it. That's how it should be. If the city is going to use it and profit off of it for other reasons, sure they can pay for some of it. But for a billionaire, whose father left Baltimore high and dry in the middle of the night, to only put up 15% of the cost of a stadium that he will make hundreds of millions off of is ridiculous.

On another note, I'm hearing alot of fellow Democrats very upset with how the anti-RTW protesters are handling things. They shut down a significant part of downtown Indianapolis yesterday and made it very difficult for people to enjoy the Super Bowl Village. Not many out-of-towners are in Indy yet, and I've heard a lot of people say they wish the protesters would stay at the statehouse and not ruin the experience for the locals.

[Chill Keney]

6. Lucas OIL Stadium

How appropriate.