The Courier & Press Is A Mess

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You've got to give it to the Courier & Press. Whoever is calling the shots down there is going all out to make sure the status quo in Evansville remains in power. Whether it's shoving the Chamber of Commerce's interstate down your throat or using smoke and mirrors to get you to go along with demolishing legendary Roberts Stadium, a project they have long sought to accomplish since the Weinzapfel administration was in power, one thing we do know- this newspaper is now a joke. It might as well compete with Charmin Toilet Paper for market share.

I talked yesterday about the fact that we could basically renovate Roberts Stadium, construct a green space in the back lot, AND build the ball fields elsewhere for the price of constructing a whole entire green space on the 35 acre site. It would seem to me that common sense should start kicking in for most city leaders at this point. If you don't have $4 million to $4.5 million for a mid-sized arena that brings in revenue, how could you have $12 million to $14 million for a green space that fails to bring in revenue?

Given the fact that they were in a straight jacket, you would assume that even the C&P would come to grips with the reality that renovating Roberts Stadium is the proper step to make. But today, it appears that they are going to try a different route. What's the excuse this time? You won't believe the headline they cooked up...

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/apr/25/ev_TaskForce/

"Task Force reports say remodeling Roberts Stadium more costly than building new"

That's right, the C&P is now claiming that it is cheaper for our city to demolish Roberts Stadium and build a new mid-sized arena on the lot than spending the $4 million to $4.5 million to renovate Roberts Stadium.

First of all, if you believe that you can demolish Roberts Stadium and construct a new 6,000 seat arena in its place, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE see me immediately. I have a hall pass to the Ford Center elevator, stock in Enron, and plenty of other cool things I would like to sell you. Obviously, anyone with a pulse and a brain knows that belief isn't true. Remember the quote from Portland?....

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2011/11/city-council-to-discuss-coliseum-restoration-thursday-supporters-encouraged.html

"Because the two arenas are differently sized - the Rose Garden at approximately 20,000 and the Coliseum being downsized to about 8,000 - they each fill a different economic niche. Portland doesn't have another arena of the Coliseum's size, so we'd eventually have to build a new one. And a from-the-ground-up arena would cost far, far more than this $30 million restoration - only $17 million of which is coming from city money anyway - not to mention all the carbon and embodied energy that would be lost if the Coliseum were torn down."

Portland, Oregon is spending $30 million to renovate their Memorial Coliseum as a mid-sized arena and even that is cheaper than building a new facility instead. Yet, somehow someway we can demolish Roberts for $200,000 to $1.25 million and then build a new arena in its footprint with the remaining $2.75 million to $4.3 million.

Secondly, when did building a brand new mid-sized arena become an option? And when has ANY of our city officials or even our city residents talked about building a brand new mid-sized arena to compliment the Ford Center? The answer is simple, it has never been an option.

I'm going to be honest, at this point I have lost ALL respect for the Courier & Press. It's now my strong opinion that they are either 1. Brain dead or 2. Intentionally trying to stir the public in the wrong direction with this article. I'll even go so far as to say that this article is flat out bush league.

With that being said, in the C&P's defense, there is a line in the report on page 13 that suggests that the incorrect belief that it is cheaper to construct a new mid-sized arena was a general consensus. Although it was written this way, this belief was NOT the general consensus of the task force. In fact, my subcommittee never discussed this idea, never voted on it, and never suggested it to the task force either. Honestly, page 13 of the report is slanted so sharply towards the green space side that I myself thought it was a part of their presentation and not as something written as a belief of the entire task force. It should be struck from the report as this is obviously a lie.

For this misconception, I place the blame SOLELY on Larry Steenberg. Mr. Steenberg NEVER asked us to approve of the final document. In fact, we never saw the final document until the day before it was released to the public. At that point, we only got to see it if we tracked down the leaders of our subcommittee (mine was out of town). This whole process from the day we walked in until the moment we walked out was handled in a very suspicious, fishy, and terrible way. I'm glad that we are out of this phase as I believe Mr. Steve Schaeffer, Mayor Russ Lloyd Jr., and Mayor Winnecke will handle this in the proper way. These are 3 of the best people I have ever met and I trust them to do the right thing.

At the same time, the C&P clearly knew the truth before they published this article. They knew that renovating Roberts Stadium was a fraction of the cost to construct a green space on the lot. They knew that renovating Roberts Stadium and building a green space on the lot was estimated to cost almost exactly HALF of the price to construct a full green space. They also knew, at least I hope, that you cannot demolish an arena and build a new one for $4 million to $4.5 million. Yet, they choose to ignore these facts once more. Will the C&P ever "get it?" I doubt it at this point.

Mayor Winnecke, when making your decision, I ask that you use the real financial logic that you have asked out of those who support Roberts Stadium since day 1. I ask that you realize that Roberts Stadium is cheaper than a full green space, it really is cheaper than building an entire new mid-sized arena that will never exist, and it certainly brings more revenue to the table than the green space plan which brings none. Those facts speak for themselves!

There's two things we need more of in this town- Common Sense & Roberts Stadium