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Saturday, January 1, 2011

About What do you think of the city of Glendale, AZ giving over $200 million in subsidies to a private investor

What do you think of the city of Glendale, AZ giving over $200 million in subsidies to a private investor...?
... so he can keep a hockey team local? See if you can follow this... The Phoenix Coyotes (NHL franchise) moved to Phoenix in 1996, from their former home in Winnipeg, Canada. They moved to the Phoenix suburb of Glendale and the Jobing.com arena in 2003. The team has never made a profit since moving to the desert and has consistently had some of the lowest attendance and TV ratings in the league. In 2009, the team declared BANKRUPTCY and Research In Motion CFO James Balsillie bid $220 million for the franchise with an intent to move to Hamilton, Canada. The NHL and the City Of Glendale fought against this, for different reasons. The judge accepted their argument and the NHL was forced to buy the team. Fast forward to today, nearly two years after the bankruptcy. The NHL still owns the team and is desperate to unload it. If a deal cannot be worked out with a local owner, the league has a deal worked out with Thomson&Reuters chairman David Thomson to move the team back to its original home in Winnipeg, Canada. The NHL and the City of Glendale have one hope to keep the team local: Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer (Peak6 Investments). The NHL needs to recover all their costs from the purchase and thus the sale price of the team is set at around $170 million. To entice Hulsizer to purchase the team, the City Of Glendale has offered $100 million up front that will go towards buying "parking rights" that nobody is quite sure who owns. Regardless, the $100 million will go straight into Mr. Hulsizer's pockets. The money will be risen by bonds. The city will then give Mr. Hulsizer $18 million/year to "manage" the arena for the next 5 years, this despite the fact that the city can hire a top firm in the country for an estimated $5 million. Your opinion? Should the City of Glendale be giving nearly TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS to a PRIVATE INVESTOR so he can purchase a SPORTS TEAM? I should add that if the team leaves, the Jobing.com arena will be left without a major tenant.
Politics - 2 Answers
People's Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
Answer 1 :
Stupid racist redneck hockey in the desert. Brilliant.
Answer 2 :
If we put half of what we put into sports in education we might have a chance of competing

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