A Clarification on Baseball Deal and PDN Arena

So, I see where some people think that I was told by the PDN to support some part of the quality of life bond issues and the baseball deal.  This is not true.  Let me walk you through what happened.

Before the baseball thing was ever on my radar, there was the PDN trying to get a the city and the county to give them $10o million dollars of taxpayer money to build an arena.  They wanted the city and county to issue "COs" (certificate of obligation) to do this.  They would own and control the finished product with some kind of partial payback vehicle to be figured out later.  It was a dirty freaking deal and I didn't like it for a million reasons. 

That deal morphed into the quality of life bond issues that I was still against.  The only up-side to the bond issue approach is that the PDN would not own the arena.  The city would own and operate it.  Although, it's still a stupid idea and a waste of taxpayer dollars because there is no demand for such a space in El Paso.  You may remember me pointing out that the County Coliseum and the Don Haskins center sit empty most of the time and adding another venue in town wasn't/isn't worth it. 

I stopped bashing the quality of life bond issues about the time I saw the polling  and it was quite obvious that there was nothing anyone could do stop them.  Unlike some of you who can't stand not getting your way, I just moved on.  Nothing illegal went on and it would be idiotic to make that claim.  As far as I was concerned the issue was done and you can all say "David K told you so" ten years down the line when you have an empty arena downtown. 

The baseball deal is a very different story.  I was not for the deal until I knew who was behind it.  The people behind that deal are not only good people, but financially in a position to pay the penalties for not holding up their end of the bargain.  And - the deal was much different than the arena.

First of all, the city would own the stadium.  The city would not be handing over $100 million to a group of people to build something they'd own when it was finished.  The design and construction of the baseball field would be managed by the city and not some group who'd piss away the money to their buddies.  This is a city project with a long-term rental agreement.  If MountainStar doesn't live up to their end of the bargain, they can pay the price.  That's much different than the original PDN deal. 

The baseball deal is also heavily financed by taxing people not living in El Paso.  That's pretty cool.  The PDN deal had no such payback plan.  Taxpayers would eat the entire cost of the failed project.

Oh, and did I mention that the baseball field, unlike the arena, had an identifiable user of the facilities for the majority of the year before anyone took a shovel to dirt?  It does - a baseball team. 

The more I looked at the baseball deal, the better it was.  The PDN arena gig was just terrible from the start.  Now it's in the city's hands they'll have to deal with the backlash if it fails (it will). 

There's a little history for everyone.

And for those who are wondering if my parent's company will be getting sub work form CF Jordan - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  They hate our guts.  They'd hire anyone else on earth before they'd hire my parents' firm.  We don't pay to play.  If you think differently - prove it.

Comments

[Jay Cuervo]

David,

Remember when the new arena was first proposed? Those who wanted it kept saying we could be like the Nationwide Arena in Columbus Ohio. What has happened since then. The arena went broke and was turned over to Ohio State University to run. Then the City bought it back using revenue from Casino licensing and had to buy 30% of the Hockey team since the team was losing $10-$12 million a year.

Now the drumbeat says we could be like Oklahoma City. Lets see…Oklahoma City had a billionaire spend a couple of hundred million to bring an NBA team and Chesapeake paid $36 million upfront for naming rights and another $4 million a year. How’s the arena doing? Someone from Dallas told me it is considered the black hole for concerts. Yes they bring some shows there but they have to do it at a loss to entice them to the arena. On the tour to Oklahoma City with the Chamber someone asked how much the arena lost a year. The answer is about $5 million a YEAR in losses.

WOW we could be just like them!!!!!

Come on we all know who will build it and who will run it. Those are the two places where the money is.

Jay

[Rotten Peppers]

But no matter how you look at the stadium deal, the City puts up $100MM +/- and gets almost zero back. Rental fees are a joke and the city cannot even name the stadium it paid for! Why is this such a good deal for El Paso when the only jobs it creates are hot dogs and street sweepers.

When you consider what PDN tried to do, is it any wonder that people here, e.g., me, don't trust anything with PDN's stamp of approval on it? I'm still convinced that CC is a bunch of Fosterwood stooges and it will eventually come out when they individually begin getting their "rewards."

[Josie]

Rotten to the Core, you are rotten beyond belief. Time for you to jump in the garbage and stop posting. Your lies and slander have run their course.

[Rotten Peppers is right]

Rotten Peppers is right. With the move of City Hall the taxpayer will wind up paying 50-100 million before its all over. When you do the math and with all the military expansion and spending here going down I'm not sure the math even works on the Hotel tax being enough to pay the interest much less the principle on the stadium. At least Albuquerque's council had the sense to get better fees while our council asked for only half of what Albuquerque gets and even that was after Acosta brought it to everyone's attention. I mean Acosta for god sakes, and she is not even the brightest bulb on council. Albuquerque gets a dollar a ticket. We were gonna get 10 cents in the beginning and then it was bumped up to 50 cents after Acosta mentioned what Albuquerque was getting.. Wow ! And council thinks that's great.