The Best Thing That Could Happen to New Orleans
This man…
no, THIS one…
is an egghead. A mayor of very little brain. Besides being a media whore. Mayor Noggin’s latest?
New Orleans mayor blasts Saints owner
Nagin accuses Benson of negotiating permanent move to San Antonio
There’s one paragraph in this chirpy little MSNBC article that mentions what the Saints cost the state…
During Benson’s ownership, the state of Louisiana has built him a new headquarters, including spending $6.75 million for an indoor practice field in 2003. The state also has paid for repeated improvements to the Louisiana Superdome at Benson’s insistence during the past two decades.
…but as Swillers know (thanks to our TPI© investigative reports), besides building maintenance costs, the state’s been RENTING the team the WHOLE TIME.
Under the current agreement, the state will pay the Saints $15 million this year and in 2006, $20 million in 2007 and 2008 and $23.5 million in 2009 and 2010. The Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District refinanced bonds on the Superdome to cover this year’s payment.
When one refinances those bonds to pay the Saints’ extortion demands, one pays for those for years, whether you’ve got a team or not. Whether you’re awash in cash…or not. Last I heard, NOLA was awash, but it wasn’t in greenbacks. And the ‘we need a big team + big events = $$’s IMPACT‘ justification doesn’t pan out either.
…the 2003 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four, estimated at the time at around $150 million of impact. And separate from that list is the presence of the NFL’s Saints, the city’s first and favorite pro franchise, and the NBA’s Hornets, the newcomers.
It makes one wonder where all that money has gone since that first Super Bowl in the Superdome 27 years ago.
But don’t get mad about the billions that never trickled into the New Orleans beyond Bourbon Street, that appear at best misdirected, and at worst wasted.
Get mad about the fact that the money never existed in the first place
So. Who the hell has gotten the payola tickets that justified selling out your city and mortgaging the state to pay for a team that COSTS TENS of millions after millions, year after year, and never returns a dime? Who’s gonna pay for them to ‘come back’, huh? Haven’t you already laid off 3/4 of the city workers and there’s, like, 6 cops left? Where’s that money coming from? And EXACTLY WHAT of significance has the Saints organization contributed to rebuilding New Orleans?
Note to Mayor Noggin: STFU and LET THEM GO. Be a man, be a hero, oh bloviating one. Stand-up and say,
“We’ve got a city to rebuild and you choose not to be part of the solution. Fine. Don’t let them gilded turnstiles hit you in the a$$ on your way out.”
Public Service Announcement | Mr. Bingley | 
October 20, 2005 10:01 am
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I hate hate HATE! how spend taxpayer money gets spent on this sort of bullshit. The teams get to constantly extort more since they’re always threatening to leave because some other place might be willing to bribe them even more.
I wonder what the sports teams would do if all the state and local governments got together to declare no more handouts? I kinda’ don’t think they’d threaten to leave the country. But the problem there is that the larger a cartel like that is, the more incentive you get for one member to break it.
I saw the same garbage while living in Chicago and back in Washington State (King County tried their best to stick the state with the cost of a new superdome). Idjits, all of them. Government subsidies of professional sport franchises ought to be labeled “BRIBERY“, and officials approving such bribes forced to pay back the costs out of their own pockets.
The first one I ever remember was what the Giants got when the STATE built the Meadowlands. Holy CRAP, Batman. That was a gazillion years ago and I’m sure Jersey’s STILL paying for it.