By: Diane Benjamin
It is laughable if government is involved!
Normal’s City Manager Pam Reece think there is a need:
https://www.wglt.org/multisport-complex-discussion-resume
The sports complex will never pay for itself. That isn’t my opinion, it was the opinion of Sports Facilities Advisory: https://blnnews.com/2018/07/17/sports-complex-must-be-dead-on-arrival/
Reece claims tourism dollars will flow in!
Did they for the Coliseum? The BCPA? The CornBelters Stadium? The Normal Theater? Champion Fields? ISU Art Galleries? Route 66 Gas Station? Heartland Theater? Children’s Discovery Museum? David Davis Mansion? History Museum and Visitors Center? Miller Park Zoo?
Both towns should be flooded with tourism traffic! Meanwhile, hotel occupancy is up a little, still way below what is needed for the overbuilt hotel market.
(I think Pam knows a little about that over-built market!)
Don’t except YES they bring in dollars for an answer, make them prove it. Let’s see REAL numbers of increased tax receipts from all of the above.
The complex is only $50,000,000! (before interest on bonds) How long will it take to recoup that Pam?
The multi-sport complex can not be used year-around. Kids are in school and winter is too cold. The high schools have their own fields, why do they need more?
I’m betting Stan Nord and Karyn Smith will be against dedicating any taxpayer money to this loser. The local soccer people held a press conference in August of 2013 to demand public money. For years after they did nothing to raise money themselves: https://blnnews.com/2018/01/30/soccer-you-had-five-years/
Feeding at the government trough would have been so much easier. (Also destructive – look at 1 Uptown Circle. Normal wants to control who leases the first floor, therefore it is empty)
Is Normal willing to pass funding by a vote of 5-2? I’m thinking Stan Nord and Karyn Smith won’t buy more debt and tax increases.
Does Kathleen Lorenz and Scott Preston see that “if we build it they will come” isn’t a sure bet and can have disastrous consequences? Cummins and McCarthy sure won’t.
Do they remember:
It will never pay for itself!
Somebody has to pay – that means taxpayers!
Kill it now. The sports participants should want their own complex, baseball did you – you can too. Government screws up everything it touches. You don’t want them telling you what to do!
Don’t count on Lorenz or Preston actually using common sense. They have been taught not to.
I think Ms. Reece should have to explain why she allowed Chris Koos to lie to the media, Tari Renner and Tim Gleason before she ever speaks in public again: https://blnnews.com/2019/07/31/did-chris-koos-lie/
(Have you noticed the media isn’t interested in the truth?)
Of course that won’t happen unless citizens demand it.
Don’t count on Bloomington, they think utopia is a water park.
Let’s not forget that the government subsidized hot dog stand was going to be a regional draw for hot dog hungry citizens from the surrounding area. Now Fuhrer Koos would not lie to us would he? I bet I can go to the hot dog stand’s parking lot right now and find license plates from all over the country. Just imagine the economic impact of those folks coming here to eat a hot dog? With hotel occupancy rates as low as they are…. just imagine were they would be if Fuhrer Koos had not had the foresight to spend 2.5 million hard earned tax payer dollars to help bring the hot dog stand to Normal? I know that some think Fuhrer Koos is a petty back stabbing crony capitalist leftist who is in a job that he is grossly unqualified for and not smart enough to do, but if we give him some more time (and a few million more taxpayer dollars), we will all see the genius that he truly is.
I humbly disagree. It is so sad it is pathetic, not something to laugh about. To think these idiots believe people are so stupid to not realize this was the selling point on other taxpayer funded failures is an insult to the public. These people in gov’t have yet to understand that if you build it they will come is not guaranteed. They think thy can build these places, declare them to be mecca and all the subjects will flock to them. However I will say there unfortunately are some people in public that are stupid enough to believe these govt. idiots. It is because of these pathetic people in 2021 we have to get out, vote and send Renner and company packing.
The only thing on that list that actually does any good is champion fields. Maybe that’s because it’s run correctly, well taken care of, and brings in the big events that bring families in from out of town.
How many events? Enough to pay for itself? Isn’t it a summer use facility only? Maybe a little spring and fall?
They bring in a couple of major girls softball tournaments there. Plus they have a few little Ieague tournaments there. Plus there’s all the regular girls softball ways, men softball weeks, and little leagues that go on there. So yeah it probably pays for itself. And even though you can only use it in the Spring summer and part of the fall, there is really no upkeep in the Winter
Koos, Reece, and the gang know that these projects will lose money, so they now pitch the ideas as “quality of life” and amenities or “gems” to lure talented people to the area (as if it doesn’t matter that there are no high-quality jobs here). Their references to tax dollars and economic impact are much vaguer and don’t even attempt to propose a return on investment (because, of course, there is no ROI and people have woken up). Let’s face it, these projects are all about jobs for big labor, building out the size and reach of government, and taking care of cronies in business. Let them eat cake…chocolate cake from the government-subsidized hotdog stand.
Just another white elephant! Koos doesn’t care. Renner doesnt care and certainly the “city managers” dont care that they are wanting to build another white elephant because its TAXPAYER monies not theirs. Stan and Karyn will oppose it because they have common sense and the welfare of the taxpayers in mind. Koos will criticize Stan and Karyn and tell them to shut up, while in the ragograph he will lie to the citizens about how its for the “GOOD OF THE CHILDREN” and Renner will talk it up as the ‘RIGHT FIT” Its time for the people of BLONO to stop listening to the liberal talking heads named Renner/Koos and start figuring out how they are going to keep them from stealing more tax money from citizens. As for bringing in tourists, remember Flamingo’s ,Coliseum, BCPA, and all the other white elephants in Blono. Yeah bring in tourists, ask the current owners of the Hyatt how that’s working out for them.
“A MULTI-SPORT COMPLEX IS LAUGHABLE”
Laugh all you want, but you’re going to get it……AND PAY FOR IT!
Elections have consequences.
IF these “Soccer Parents” want a soccer, etc field so bad, Let THEM pay for it! Since they can run around in $50,000 SUV’s and have enough SPARE time to watch soccer, they can AFFORD to build it themselves!
CAPITALISM!
Seriously, who cares about soccer? Who wants to watch soccer? Unless you have a kid playing… who would want to watch is weird game? No one. More of the leftist leaning overpaid and under-worked elites wanting other people to pay for their kids “fun”. Fix the roads… pickup the trash…. and lower my G## D#m taxes before everyone moves out.