Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Get 'yer Stadium Subsidies Herrrrrrre!

Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan knows if you repeat a lie enough, people will believe you.

But it's still unconscionable that he'd keep repeating a job claim he was nationally lampooned for in 2013.

Mitch Perry reports:

Seriously.
At least the $1 million in Hillsborough County bed tax money will be better spent on this "heads-in-beds" event than it would be on a straight-up subsidy to another local rich guy. 

But it also serves to debunk another Hagan claim - that bed tax dollars can only be used on stadiums and tourism-promotion.   By now, readers of this blog know bed tax dollars can help pay for a bevy of community needs related to Florida's largest industry, tourism.
In other news, I reported last week how the Bucs were seeking state dollars to help subsidize their Raymond James Stadiums renovations - and how they then planned to raise ticket prices again when completed - but it turns out they'll be the only applicant this year after Florida's legislature rejected all applicants in each of the last two years.

And up in Oldsmar, those big-dreamers actually have their act together pretty well when it comes to a possible Rays stadium. There are plenty of politicians in St. Pete and Tampa with financial ties to interests that don't want an Oldsmar stadium. And by no means am I suggesting it's ideal.

But the irony is that pro teams appear to be trending toward stadiums OUT of the downtown core, so they can control more of the ancillary development.

And if local politicians are serious about working together to keep the Rays long-term...and they're serious about giving them public dollars to do it...Oldsmar appears the only place where both counties could contribute dollars to a stadium effort without breaking their respective banks.

Just don't feel bad for those poor MLB owners...they continue to rake in the revenues by the billions (and growing).




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2 comments:

  1. scott myersNovember 3, 2016 at 6:58 AM

    For the 'approximately 1,700 to 1,800 full-time jobs', how long do they last - 1 day, 2 days, an 1/2 hour?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 3, 2016 at 1:16 PM

    These politicians do a terrible job with public relations. "Why lie, when the truth will do?"!

    ReplyDelete

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