Gregg Easterbrook writing at the NFL's official Web site, gave an "attaboy" to Colts owner Jim Irsay for keeping the team in Indianapolis instead of absconding with the team to Los Angeles.
Radley Balko begs to differ:
Nearly every aspect of the Colts-Indianapolis negotiations is aggravating. Immediately after the mayor announced his plan, the often-quoted price tag of $500 million grew to $687.5 million.Meanwhile, city residents and visitors still pay a motel/hotel sales tax implemented specifically to finance the RCA Dome, which was built over two decades ago. There are no plans to revoke the sales tax once the new stadium goes up and the RCA Dome comes down.
As it turns out, the folks who own the Seattle Supersonics are planning something similar in that city. In that case, the team and its representatives are putting together a plan to make temporary taxes that were enacted to help pay for the city's publicly owned baseball and football stadiums permanent in order to fund a $180 million expansion of Key Arena.
Thanks to reader Nick Sylvain for the Seattle link.
Yes, and NFL fans are familiar with the “zappruder film”-like footage of the associaton to Irsay and the Mayflower trucks leaving in the dead of night from Baltimore to Indy.
How interesting it is to give Irsay a pass when he ruined Baltimore Colt football forever.