Prepare For Battle: Stadium Funding Fight Is On

The elites who've been taking Indianapolis taxpayers for a ride for decades now are back at it again. By hook or crook, they're going to stick the bill for operating and maintaining the Lucas Oil Stadium on the taxpayers. You built it, but Jim Irsay gets free use of it for his billion-dollar Colts franchise and gets to pocket the lion's share of the revenues the stadium generates. Bob Grand, the self-dealing, conflicted president of the Capital Improvement Board, is now laying the ground work to stick it to the taxpayers for the additional $20 million in operating expenses the CIB has incurred as a result of the new stadium. Higher taxes, user fees or a state bailout are all options the CIB is considering according to the Star's Brendan O'Shaughnessy.

As far as Jim Irsay is concerned, it's not his problem. "As a tenant, we're not in a position to comment or suggest a solution" to the operating shortfall, said Pete Ward, the team's vice president. "To suggest reopening (the lease) agreement that took four years to negotiate is ludicrous." Well, Mr. Irsay and Mr. Ward, you better prepare yourself for reopening that agreement. And further, we the public demand that you open up the Colts' books. We want to see who is on Mr. Irsay's payroll. If we're going to provide hundreds of millions in taxpayers subsidies to this private concern, then we have a right to know where the Colts' income is going. We can't understand how our public officials could have screwed over the public so badly with this one-sided deal. We think something is amiss. If Mr. Irsay has nothing to hide, then he will let the public see his payroll.

The comments coming from the former head of the CIB, Fred Glass, pretty much prove the public's worst suspicions. O'Shaughnessy writes, "Former CIB Chairman Fred Glass said rolling operating costs into the original construction borrowing plan would have made more sense." "He said the convention center, RCA Dome and Victory Field all worked that way." "I've been frustrated by suggestions that paying operating costs out of the bonds is unusual or bad public policy," Glass said. "I said early on that the CIB will be bankrupt without funds for operation." How stupid could Glass be? The reason you don't use bonds to pay operating expenses is so you aren't tearing down a building 25 years after you build it and still owing as much as it cost to originally build, which is precisely what is happening with the RCA Dome. This is what happens when you put someone in charge of the CIB who has zero business experience, whose primary concern is to impress the elite insiders who do business with his law firm and who could give a damn less about the public's interest.

Glass and Mayor Peterson knew before this stadium was ever built that the state had no intention of allowing the tax revenues to be diverted for operating and maintenance expenses. "We were led to believe until the last minute that the increased revenue from the stadium would pay for the operation," Sen. Luke Kenley told O'Shaughnessy. "He said he'd be willing to work with city officials to come up with a new plan, preferring to rely on user fees rather than new taxes." No way, Luke. We will not stand by and allow state lawmakers to bail the CIB out of this one. They will do for once what we, the public, demand of them. They will immediately convene talks with Irsay to return a portion of the public's money which should have never been slipped into his pocket. If Irsay refuses to go along with the public's demands, then his Colts franchise will suffer the consequences: the loss of public support for his team and all that that implies. We've had it. Enough is enough.