By God, only in america. Just yesterday, my sister was an average Hoosier, daughter of a coal-miner, a medical technician living in a middle-class neighborhood. And today, she is part-owner of a professional basketball team!
The Indiana Pacers are staying in Indianapolis, but it will cost taxpayers at least $33.5 million over the next three years
The city and the Pacers are expected today to announce an agreement hailed by some as an important step in protecting the financial state of the city but criticized by others as a multimillion-dollar bailout of a professional sports team and its billionaire owner.
And if they're willing to shell out that much money to a sports team, that must mean the economic hard times are all over in Indianapolis! Boy, Sis, did you ever luck out. Say, when you go sit with the other owners in your fancy skybox, can I tag along?
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Ya know, I love the fact we have the Pacers & Colts, but this is wrong on sooooooooo many levels it boggles the mind.
This isn't "economic development" (which is a sham in and of of itself) it's freakin' welfare on a 33 million dollar scale.
Tim:
I hadn't thought of it as "welfare"...
I was thinking along the lines of REVERSE "urban renewal"...LOL
Pretty much the SAME result, though, eh?
;)
boy, am I glad the economic hard times are over here....I sure am glad I live in Indy.....
I don't agree with it at all but cities keep doing it, thinking of the image it provides them, thinking the world will come to an end if they don't shell out the big bucks. Course, like your comments about Peyton Manning, I'd hate to see the Colts leave but don't agree with corporate welfare at all.
There's several studies that refute most everything that Indianapolis is trying to achieve here, aren't there?
Yes. The studies indicate that the claims of all the money brought to a community by sports stadiums and pro teams just don't hold up.