The New Orleans Saints, what passes for a pro football team in Louisiana, is apparently still going to be drag on state coffers for next (2006) season, according to this article.
I almost wet myself with joy upon hearing this news. I am so thrilled that a multimillionaire car dealer, the owner of a multimillion dollar professional sports franchise which employs a horde of spoiled multimillionaire game players, this stalwart bunch has deigned to continue their presence in this state, a presence partly paid for by state tax revenues.
The Saints seem to play football the same way that New Orleans politicians govern… they enrich themselves without producing visible result. The Saints’ record this year is abyssmal, 3 wins, 12 losses, but the players and the rest of the retinue will still draw salaries and the state will still fork over a few million dollars for the privilege of having them around…
Those tax dollars were supposed to be paid from revenues generated by the tourism industry in New Orleans, but every year when the bill comes due, New Orleans always seems to have an excuse as to why they don’t have the money. One year is was 9-11, the next year something else. And of course, this year it’ll be Katrina and Rita. And when the shortfall is announced, our state government is ever mindful of the 800-pound canary which is the New Orleans electorate, and they pony up a few extra million to keep the Saints here…
Truth be known, a lot of Louisiana is NOT too happy about the deal. We tire of the notion that what’s good for New Orleans is always good for the rest of the state. New Orleans prior to Katrina was bottomless pit into which huge amounts of tax dollars were poured, and it may well revert to this behaviour again.
New Orleans is the darling of Democrat politicians. It was the massive last minute effort of the dimmocrat machine in New Orleans that broke the senate election over for Miz Landrieu, when hundreds of school buses showed up in minority neighborhoods to transport voters to the polls to bolster Landrieu’s lagging numbers. It is those same voters who put Governess Blanco over the top. Oddly enough, those buses couldn’t be rounded up in time to actually move those same masses OUT of New Orleans for Katrina.
So there we have it…even after Katrina, politics as usual in Louisiana. You and I, if we’re faced with unexpected losses, we start cutting non-essentials out of the budget. Our state, though, can’t seem to say no, not even to those sorry losing Saints…
You have Phil Tagliaboo (sp?) to thank. San Antonio wanted them. P.T. just had a meeting today and told them they WILL play in La., thankyouverymuch San Antonio- well throw you a bone sometime in the future.
Guess it’s not just N.O./La graft and corruption that gets things done just in the state.
Don’t feel bad – almost all mid-to-large-sized comunities have entertainment facilities that were supposed to revitalize the downtown area or put the town on the map or something. It’s roughly proportional to the size of the community and they NEVER add up to the bottom line the consultants promised. Our twin cities are now building an arena and a fancy hotel/conference center proposed by – you guessed it – highly paid outside consultants.
But then, I never did “get” sports. Nothing wrong with it, I guess, but why can’t it be self-supporting?
About ten years ago, I would have said that sounds an awful lot like the Houston Oilers, but now I’m gonna hav’ ta say it sounds like the league’s worst team…the Houston Texans. They were royally ticked with everyone in Houston, because we were all rooting for them to come in dead last…in the hopes that we could actually get a good player with first pick. I’m afraid that they are missing the point though…the point being that the Texans are a bad team because of bad coaching. They have got to get a better coach! then they need to get some better players. ;)
I never liked the idea of the tax payers subsizizing a professional sports team. In Tampa the vters approved a sales tax increase of wgich a part of went to finace the new stadium built a few years ago. Maybe bitched about it but they forget that the Bucs pay millions of dollars lease on the stadium and the Tampa bay Sports Authority also rents the stadium for other uses such as concerts and and college football games.There is some pro and con on how much money the team brings in to the Bay area. I know some in the food and liquor business close to the stadium that depend on home games for a major part of the years profit and they would tell you that the Bucs are good for business. But there are others who claim if the Bucs left town it wouldn’t make any difference in the economy.