May I summarize a lot of posts and comments.
The City constructs a $175 million ballpark, originally estimated to cost and leases it to a professional minor league baseball team. The first year's lease payment on the $175 million ballpark, the first year which presumably will have it's greatest attendance, is set in the amount of $32,171.00.
The
attendance exceeds expectations and the team is making more money than
they probably anticipated and they rent the facility to the City for
$15,000.00 more than their lease payment,
This unimaginable set of circumstances lead to questions: 1) was the City Manager misquoted when he said it would not cost the taxpayers anything, did he actually say it would not cost the team anything and the media misreported the quote or 2) is this the worst financial deal the City ever made ?
It is hard for me to fathom what could be any worse.
Comments
Do you think the owners of the WooSox think "In Larry we Trust". If so who wins?
go back to your pipedreams about ORH being a reliever to Logan. I'm not sure what you're try to prove? Are you trying to say that politicians and CEOs lie? What a big surprise. If the City has to take money from the general budget to subsidize the bonds for a few years I'm ok with that.
historic library and new public safety buildings. We also have really safe neighborhoods. I can take a walk in my neighborhood at 2am without the fear of getting muged or knifed. Make the move!!
dangerous road. I think it took 41 years to get it done. I agree with you when you say that the $175 million could have been used for other, more vital purposes. I'd be interested in finding out what the increase in business was for the Canal District during this baseball season. I would guess that it was a lot less than they expected. The professor from Holy Cross and other experts have said that the impact of a new sports stadium is about the same as a new Walmart store. Nice to read that they plan on holding concerts at the stadium. Maybe they can get Wayne Newton out of his nursing home to put on a show?
How about they show Ron Jeremy movies?
i
A City Hall insider, code for my neighbor who works at City Hall, and I were talking about the T&G article on Wednesday on Jake Sanders leaving the City back in July. In the conversation about what Sanders did we discussed the number of people who were involved with the WooSox deal who left the City. It started with Tom Zidelis, the finance guy, then a lawyer named Beaton, a project guy named Craig Ormsby and now Jake Sanders.
Coincidence? Seems like a lot of people jumping off the bus before it goes over the cliff.
These same people don't even know that Worcester Airport has airlines and flights. It's hard to be for or against something that you don't know exists.
Not everyone is a good citizen like you.
Maybe large, taxpayer funded projects like this can be put up for a vote from Worcester's residents. I'm not sure if the City Charter will allow that.
There are many reasons developers are interested in Worcester and it’s not just because of TIFs being thrown around like candy.
The city has subsidized developments that undermine some of,its own highly prioritized goals, some of which the WBJ listed.
One example is the Mt Carmel development that will likely get a $10 million TIF while the deign will destroy the high priority of walkability. It will put a high volume garage and turning car traffic right on the walking path from Shrewsbury St tot he canal district, the exact opposite of what should be happening. Why not leverage the TIF to put the garage to the rear and not on the walking path?! Or to have the street level of the garage be retail and a park?
Another example was the Table Talk concentration of 400 units of low income housing on a single site where mixed income housing might be a better fit for the neighborhood. Don’t we want people with disposable income to live in an area where the other tax incentives already doled out are to encourage building of street level retail and restaurants ? A mix would help to support the other TIFs in a coordinated strategy.
Seems like a common sense editorial that city hall hopefully read.Use the tools that we have to support the results that the tools we already used to achieve their goals. Or just dole out taxpayer cash to the insiders club and let the chips fall where they may.. Taxes will be going up; they always do in Worcester, maybe they’d go up less if we had a coordinated strategy.