We wonder...

...where the local Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters are.  When will it occur to them that, other than the numbers of dollars involved, a taxpayer bailout of millionaire sports franchise owners is pretty much the same as bailing out a Wall Street bank or mortgage company which is about to collapse.

We were told recently that more than half the members of the NBA are losing money.  We already know the sad, sad local story of the Pacers.  If a particular type of business is failing so widely, is there any logic at all in continuing to ask taxpayers to prop it up?  If a chain of bowling alleys is losing money are taxpayers legitimately in hock to keep the pins falling?  Why not give a failing business a decent burial?

Yesterday morning’s paper tells us the woeful story of the suffering of other businesses if the basketball season is lost.  (Surely the center of the city would disintegrate if the NBA actually left town.  How many times have we heard that?)

The article refers to a season of 82 scheduled games.  We presume that means half the games would be home games.  Might that be observed rather as an opportunity for 41 more dates allowing other use of the building?  Why do basketball supporters (particularly the politicians who control the monetary handouts) assume that, without a team, the fieldhouse would stand empty like a movie house without a screen?

Maybe it is time to re-work the golden contract the city has made.  We’re told about the great loss of revenues without the team.  Actually, municipal Indianapolis is the loser simply by having the team here because of the "negotiating skills" of those representing the city.

One answer would be to put fieldhouse promotion in the hands of the convention bureau for a hard hitting sales program enticing other events - especially for those 41 dates.  Surely, all non-basketball revenues ought to go to the city under "no-game" circumstances.

Is it time for some "Occupy Georgia Street" activity?

Comments

[Leslie Baker]

Sounds good to me!

[Mark Small.]

Subsidization of pro sports by local government loses money for the local government in question. The columns written a couple of years back by the gentleman---sorry, I do not remember his name---detailed the ways in which Indy has geared its parking for "big events" as opposed to steady, daily uses. In other words, downtown is geared more for people from out of town than those of us who live here. I grew up a Pacers fan. I acquired a taste for the Colts. I would much rather have tax dollars go to our streets, bridges, police and fire protection, and education than to the pockets of billionaires.

[Mark Small.]

The gentleman to whom I referred was the owner of Hollywood Bar & Film Works, a unique business sorely missed by many and a victim, not of the ways in which the free market works, but of local government's control of parking.

[Fred McCarthy]

Isn't it fascinating to think about what the city would be now if the last three decades of using government authority, (the ability to tax and the willingness to "distribute" public funds) in order to control and direct economic activity, had instead concentrated on providing ordinary and usual services to all citizens? There might be one or two less bars and restaurants downtown, but folks might be able to get to them by way of IndyGo!