Posted on 10/21/2002 1:01:03 PM PDT by VaBthang4
Stop the Insanity®
Brian L. Casserly
As I sit in front of my monitor reading the never-ending stream of acrimonious articles out of Indianapolis about the disposition of the city’s professional football team, I cant help but recall a 90’s bloated soccer Mom marketing campaign that struck a chord with a corpulent constituent of Americans. It was geared around hocking an instabeauty diet plan created by the once portly and now emaciated Susan Powter and its catch phrase was “Stop the Insanity®”.
Oh if that weren’t a registered slogan.
It would be a great hook for a new Colts PR strategy designed to drive deep into the heart of ‘anti-everything proper’. Tap into its effeminate market and undermine the local town criers by drawing away their own troupe, the obsessive-compulsive contrarianites.
Imagine sitting on your couch watching your favorite television program as it fades away to a commercial showing a myriad of milquetoast Colts-disparaging types putting on airs to protect the downtrodden taxpayers of Indianapolis - accompanied by saccharine piano softly wooing your heartstrings - Juxtaposed with Images of the evil Jim Irsay Jr. and various city pollocrats shaking hands and grinning devilishly in Cuban cigar-smoke-filled backrooms as the melody turns overcast and the vision turns blood red. Now imagine Peyton Manning rifling a football straight through the television screen and shouting with a deep Louisiana drawl, “Stop the Insanity®!”.
In this day of shrinking advertising budgets the local publications in central Indiana have returned to their own tried & true insanity. They’ve reached down into their “slap-this-on’em-when-you-ain’t-got-nothing-else-attracting-readership/viewership-bag-of-tricks”. Pulling out the “We hate the guy because he is too rich…And we ain’t” manifesto. So far they’ve played it like a Stradivarius. To them it is sweet melody…to the rest of us it comes off like banging a metal pipe repeatedly against a concrete barrier.
In his infinite wisdom the dear Lord has seen fit to always maintain a quota of the aforementioned obsessive-compulsive contrarianites, so this ill-mannered tactic never fails to attract attention. Much the same way bogus William Shakespeare quotes seem to attract grammatically challenged washed up anti-warriors. Be it guilt ridden White Anglo-Saxon Protestants laboring under the burden of human atrocities they saw their forefathers commit on the Lifetime Network or angry ethnic groups longing to tap into their wellspring of uncontrollable inner rage that is supposed to define them as an endangered species per MSNBC. You’ll always have a small remnant ready to take pitchfork in hand and march on some location somewhere in order to further something for the good of anyone who agrees with them. Well, marching really requires too much self-sacrifice these days. What with permits, assigned routes to march & teargas and all. The new millennium’s freedom fighters are content to show their burning Coltsaphobian fury by speaking into an ever-present local news microphone or respond to receptive starnews pollsters. Community activism easily accomplished in between trips to Starbucks or Krispy Kream or both.
Seldom mentioned by those holding the microphones or taking the polls are the Baskets of Hope program, Peyton Manning’s handoff for hunger, the Edgerrin James Foundation, the Peyback Foundation, the Meadows Foundation, the Colts geography website, or the Just Kickin’it Fund. By no means an exhaustive listing of the honorable endeavors to give back to the community by Colts Players and Coaches. Programs that at most seem to be regarded ambivalently by those self-appointed to sound the alarm against hated, egregious, economy collapsing slight of hand schemes pursued by properly elected government officials who desire to keep their cities professional Football team in place. Soon the stories of Indiana’s homeland security plans being hampered by Politicians on the Jim Irsay Jr. take will surface. No doubt Al Qaeda terrorists are right now exploiting the split created within the community by the Colts Organization’s unpatriotic desire to bleed the City dry of it’s scant resources. Liquid assets that would’ve-should’ve-could’ve been allocated for a Marion County Missile Defense Shield will instead be diverted to creating a steel & concrete monstrodome that’ll scar the Indianapolis cityscape for decades…nay centuries to come [cause we ain’t building another one!].
Or maybe we’ll begin seeing press releases by the Indiana Wildlife Federation about the impact of new stadium construction on the bird migration routes over the city. Just how will a new stadium affect the Brome Hummock Sedge or Swamp Rose Mallow that currently float along the White River? How many trees are we gonna have to cut down to build this thing? I mean these sort of questions have long lasting implications for our environment. Greenhouse gases, Global warming. The Polar Ice caps. C’mon people get your head out of the sand. There’s not gonna be a planet left if we keep building football stadiums. What about the inherent unfairness of Indianapolis building a brand new stadium when the oppressed people of some3rdWorldplace in the middle of nowhere would thank allah to have the RCA Dome(and then blow it up)? What entitles us to build sports arenas when there are a hundred million Communist Chinese & North Koreans slowly wasting away on a steady diet of ginseng root, tree moss and seasoned pebbles? Talk about “Stop[ping] the Insanity®”.
Be it one of the network affiliates WTHR, WISH etc, etc. the IBJ or the Indianapolis Star, seemingly their good words about the Colts organization come few and far between their highjacking of the Emergency Broadcast System to warn citizenry about the coming specter of Irsayism. Hard to find are the articles praising the Colts Organization and it’s tremendous economic impact for the city and surrounding metropolitan area since arriving in 1984. After all the transactions have taken place, the city coffers have gained over ten million dollars since Mayor Hudnut brought the team to town. 10 million dollars in 18 years. Just for having your name in front of the team. Also the city has pocketed over 100 million dollars since 1996 by hosting its Circle City Classic inside the RCA dome. A venue intentionally built to lure an NFL team to come and play in it. That’s not chump change. How much revenue has the Star generated for the taxpayers of Indianapolis over the past eighteen years? I would say $10 million is a pretty good high water mark for them to be judged by. Microsoft the Colts aren’t but they’re definitely not a newspaper with poor competition either.
The Colts organization itself comes off like a red headed, bastard child when viewed through the press’ prism. Articles addressing a required new stadium seem laced with the author’s chilly opposition. The lithe Jim Irsay’s swagger both bemuses and enrages Indy’s catalysts of class-envy. Even though he has delivered on his promise to build a winning organization he is presented as a spoiled rich kid whining for taxpayer money while he rides along in his gas guzzling SUVesque Helicopter strumming on Elvis Presley’s guitar. Polian is besmirched as a mustard keen control freak even though he is the five-time GM of the Year in the NFL who had enough panache to personally make the calls to draft Peyton Manning and Edgerrin James when neither was the media’s candidate. I guess nothing succeeds at inviting pencil-necked sourness like success.
The media’s multiculturalism council must grudgingly accept the Colts new Head Coach Tony Dungy as bittersweet. He is a Christian, a real one. For their anti-structure undercurrent that is a big, big bulls-eye on his chest. But alas he is Black or “African American”. For their touchy-feely perception driven creed that’s full body armor. Dungy also isn’t an “outspoken” angry Black Man in the Al Sharpton, Don King or Jesse Jackson molds. He hasn’t murdered anyone. Isn’t Head Coach Reverend Tony Dungy. No time spent in a federal penitentiary. No illegitimate children to be had. He doesn’t need a hot comb. No undercover stings by the FBI producing videotaped jive sessions of him discussing narcotics deliveries. No trips to the White House to counsel a wayward President on the very issues he himself hides from the media’s ostensibly apathetic eye. He doesn’t rail nefarious buzz words while using a handkerchief to wipe the passionate perspiration from his forehead, or speak in rhyming “proclameditations” that send you in a slow-witted stupor to www.dictionary.com for post press conference syntax analysis. He just doesn’t fit the media driven representation of a Black Man in America. So for obvious reasons his face [and voice] seems kept in the background when discussing the Colts Organization as it relates to current matters. Unlike Jim Mora Sr. he isn’t a shrieking bohemian vanguard for the strife-sowing Polian Haters to employ as a red herring. Instead there is a void at Head Coaching when fields of fire are chosen by the invertebrate equivalence soldiers and their tranquilizing Robin Hood complex.
For the Indianapolis Star particularly this seems to be a subject as prolific as the firing of Indiana’s Basketball Mars: Bobby Knight. At 10:30 am Sunday morning September 10, 2000 the Indianapolis Star went into full “The Sky is Falling” mode pulling in 32 employees from their day off and eventually using 14 different writers to produce 18 stories on the Knight termination in a single print outpouring. Using the Star website’s search feature I performed a word search of the name “Irsay”. I immediately found 25 stories about the Colts current situation before I stopped counting. 25+ on the Irsay search alone. Judging by the blatant atmosphere of opposition by the Star’s editorial staff, I should’ve checked words like “Money Hungry”, “Greedy”, “Slick”, “Enron”, “Martha Stewart” or “Bin Laden”. God only knows how many stories Star writers have produced linking the Colts Organization and Jim Irsay Jr. to anyone of those. You’d think this much attention would’ve produced some sound proposals from the star staff as to how Colt revenue problems could be alleviated. But upon dismantling all the moral implicating you quickly discern that the negadits don't have any solutions of their own to offer other than to pine for the noble sacrifice of watching a recalcitrant Irsay build a new stadium by himself or fade off into the sunset. This is utterly ridiculous as well as fiscally stupid.
If the city invests 200 million dollars in a stadium today – and in the process locks the team in Indy for the next 20 years – (Market interest rate we'll say is 6%) the Colts Organization gives Indy tax payments of 14 million per year (Taxes would be 40% on income less the 12 million they give the team per year). The city/state would get a positive return of 125+ million dollars on their initial investment during that locked in 20-year period. Without regard to whether or not the team wins or loses. And that's not taking into account the money generated from the intangibles i.e. other events to be held at the new stadium, College Bowl games, The Superbowl, etc, etc. How can any sober “News” organization say "No" to that? Especially when, as Jennifer Wagner recently proclaimed at a gathering of Fan, City Government & Star representatives, that “the Star represent the taxpayers and voters on all sides of this issue”.
???
What encumbered taxpayer would be opposed to 125+ million dollars of pure tax revenue rolling into government coffers and alleviating their own tax burden? Show me the dawdling voter who doesn’t get off the fence with vigorous zeal after looking at those numbers.
What is going on with the Indy media in regards to the stadium issue doesn’t pass the smell test….even if this were Miami-Dade County. The Star’s anti-Colts agenda is obvious to all but those they surround themselves with. The team and City renegotiated their lease in 1998 and it has been open for examination since then. But recently in an article entitled “Public foots bill for Dome luxuries” the Star attempted to cast the team as taking advantage of taxpayers because of the actions of the City’s own Capital Improvement Board. The star’s hostile behavior is profoundly transparent and ultimately self-corroding. A new stadium is going to get built one way or another. The team is going to be in Indianapolis for at least two more decades. What type of Colts organization treatment will the Star be expecting for its sports bureau when that gets announced? I know the nineties kinda clouded minds a bit but in the end we still reap what we sow. There will be some Cause & Effect taking place for awhile.
Does the star believe David Stern and other NBA executives aren’t observant of the paper’s mendacity where the city’s other major sports team is concerned? You can believe that Major League Baseball will never consider Indianapolis regardless of what the benefits would or wouldn’t be. It’s a moot point. Nobody wants to step into a new venue facing an antagonistic press chock full of shallow knee-jerk immoderates. Even after NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in no uncertain terms that NFL owners wouldn’t tolerate Irsay breaking his contract to remain in Indianapolis through 2013 the barbs still continued…only this time qualified with…”but what happens after 2006?”. As if by guess or by golly not immediately answering that question implies evil intent on Irsay’s part. The quick answer is nothing will happen as long as the team’s revenue stays with the median of NFL teams for 2004 & 2005. Something both Irsay and the Mayor have said they want to insure.
Evidently that isn’t good enough for the Star’s snout. I eagerly anticipate one of their heterogeneous one-worlders to call for a United Nations fact-finding commission to swoop in, put a freeze on current operations while they sort this all out. Of course that’ll mean the Colts are guaranteed to be here until Kofi Annan is finished selling child sex-slaves, taking payoffs and efficiently crunching the numbers. That should be somewhere around 2025 so maybe it isn’t that bad of an idea.
NFL owners have already made their point behind the scenes that Irsay is not to operate a franchise in Los Angeles. And barring UN intervention it is the owners not the money, not LA and especially not reporters at the Star like Tim Swarens, who decide what team does and doesn’t travel to Los Angeles before or after 2006. You get the feeling that the Star has anti-Colts articles lined up like jetliners in queue waiting to take off at a controller’s command. The Star’s high speed TSAR editorial system [That Sounds About Right] has gotten so off-center that a nonplused Commissioner Tagliabue had to call the paper’s editors in for a sit-down. What’s the half-witted threshold that Star editors require their writers to cross before they pull the plug? How embarrassing does it need to get before these people abandon their foolish and lightweight theorizing and supposition? Do they see the National Sports media giving credence to their fanciful prowess? I envision all the writers at ESPN and Fox Sports standing along the boat docks waiving goodbye to the Star’s excited voyagers. Having a sixth sense, they bid farewell to their doomed colleagues aboard the White Star Line’s HMS Starnews as they set sail on a collision course with reality. Editors with extremist perspectives and beguiled proselyte writers willing to sacrifice their own credibility as long as they bring the Colts down with them. It seems almost professionally suicidal. What a dazzling display of media elan. After awhile, for this regular observer, the Indianapolis Star - arm in arm with the remainder of their central Indiana news confreres - have just become woefully inadequate, one sided, hollow and something to be dismissed out of hand.
I guess the answer always is "It's a good investment". Leaving aside the fact that all the studies show that these things never turn out to be such good investments, why should the government be in the investing business? If "It's a good investment" is a good enough reason for a football team, why not the stock market?
3. their own? Well, people can invest in a football stadium on their own, too. There is no reason why the Colt's can't float a bond for the stadium. If it is such a good investment, people will flock to the bond-offering.
Of course, if it is such a good investment, that is exactly what the Colts would do. However, they know its not a good investment so they want others to put up the money.
Governments have been in the investing business forever and a day. Dont pretend that drawing a line here is holding the line. If you want to kill all state and local government investments then cool....but if not....then dont have a problem with government investment in this case.
Especially if it is local government.
Welllllll, why should non-PBS fans be forced to subsidize PBS, or Museums, or Orchestras, or NOW or Planned Parenthood, or a zillion other special interests groups which are subsidized by the Govt. In this one instance I will accept that I am being hypocritical - if my tax dollars have to subsidize all that other c*ap then I'd like to see some of my taxes go to subsidize something I really like, like the Indianapolis Colts. I am one of those who pull every govt wagon known to creation, in this one instance I would like to get a chance to ride the wagon.
Sure. They are silly. If the market interest rate is 6%, then Indy can simply invest the money at the market interest rate for a guaranteed 6%, and not have the risk associated with the football stadium. So, the real positive return of choosing this investment is only 2 million per year, over 20 years. Not the full 14. Also, I am not sure where the 14 comes from, is that what they generate now? Anyway, there is risk to that. The team could go out of business.
I have a problem with government "investing" on our behlaf everywhere and always. I will be against it here, and everywhere else.
Fair enough, but look at it this way: This is supposed to be some kind of terrific investment. Wouldn't you rather have the team float a bond that you can purchase part of (and get the resultant return on) then have the government make the investment? If the government does it and there is a loss you will share in the loss. If the return is positive, a bunch of jackass bureaucrats will get raises.
Then you my friend have no concept of reality.
Short of nuclear holocaust the return would be positive...and short of nuclear holocaust, the numbers in the original post are legit. Stop being a contrarian...government isnt full of bureaucrats.
I cant tell if you have a problem with the method or the necessity of local government involvment. To push the tax payers out of the loop is to also push them out of the payoff that would come from having a new stadium [Exactly like what happened with the RCA dome]...the examples are endless...and short of the sky falling...are guaranteed.
People who freeze in place because of fears [real or imagined] arent the people to be receiving counsel from.
Money isnt evil. Government isnt evil [especially local]. Business ventures arent evil, and investing isnt evil.
This nation was built on risk. The Colts came to Indianapolis on risk. The original RCA Dome was built on risk.
Risk aversion is not the answer.
You are totally avoiding the point. If the return will be positive, then why can't they raise the money in the private markets? Also, as for your numbers. As I said, the real economic return is 2 million per year, over 20 years. Not your 100+ million.
That's all off point. Surely you would agree that one must analyze the cost/benefits/risk of any investment and not just go willy-nilly into any investment because its the manly thing to do. I am not risk adverse. Hell, I used to invest in distressed debt for a living. However, all investments need to be analyzed. That the team will not go to the private markets for the money is a sure sign that it is not a good investment.
Seldom mentioned by those holding the microphones or taking the polls are the Baskets of Hope program, Peyton Manning's handoff for hunger, the Edgerrin James Foundation, the Peyback Foundation, the Meadows Foundation, the Colts geography website, or the Just Kickin'it Fund. By no means an exhaustive listing of the honorable endeavors to give back to the community by Colts Players and Coaches.
After all the transactions have taken place, the city coffers have gained over ten million dollars since Mayor Hudnut brought the team to town. 10 million dollars in 18 years. Just for having your name in front of the team.
Oh boy!!! What a deal!! NOT!! we subsidize that group of Sweaty Boys more than that EACH YEAR!!!!
Also the city has pocketed over 100 million dollars since 1996 by hosting its Circle City Classic inside the RCA dome.
HMmmmm... $100,000,000 / 6 years = $16,000,000 a year
Divide that by 50,000 seats and ya get $333 per seat. OUCH!
I wondered why I had never gone to see one of those 'games'.
Judging by the blatant atmosphere of opposition by the Star's editorial staff, I should've checked words like Money Hungry, Greedy; Slick, Enron, Martha Stewart or Bin Laden. God only knows how many stories Star writers have produced linking the Colts Organization and Jim Irsay Jr. to anyone of those.
Yeah..... who knows?
What encumbered taxpayer would be opposed to 125+ million dollars of pure tax revenue rolling into government coffers and alleviating their own tax burden? Show me the dawdling voter who doesn't get off the fence with vigorous zeal after looking at those numbers.
Too bad it ain't true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm the one coughing up taxes to subsidize this thing. If this were true, the Stadium Tax would be long gone. It isn't true.
You get the feeling that the Star has anti-Colts articles lined up like jetliners in queue waiting to take off at a controller's command.
No, I don't.
Misery loves company.
The City has paid the colts 93 million dollars since it came to Indianapolis...the Colts have paid the city over 107 million since coming to Indianapolis.
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