Quote:
Originally Posted by Paniolo Man
A lot of hypothetical things could happen for a very real billion dollars.
I'm thrilled about the NHL, but I'm still opposed to a single dime of subsidy being given to Smith. Use tax money to revitalize and upgrade infrastructure in the area to support the project, but don't spend so many public dollars on an experience that will not verifiably benefit the taxpayers.
It seems so sinister to me that Smith gets to hold downtown hostage for a billion dollars and we've all gone along with it.
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To me it doesn't sound like that's the way it's played out; he wanted to build a new arena and in SEG's mind the only space available to look at with enough room was down south; it was the mayor, legislature and even the Church that all stepped in to say "how can we get you to stay here?" I don't think you can really say he held them hostage; not like there were threats after NHL came to the Delta Center to say "pay for my upgrades and entertainment district or else I'm moving". Smith owns the team and the arena, so he was fully in his right to say "I want to build a new arena and district and I'm going to do it where land is cheap and plentiful, no hard feelings"... I don't think there was ever a real threat made to the state/city to pony up money "or else", I think it ended up being the state that determined it was worth that money to keep the teams there.