Ain’t Life Grand? Yeah, About 250 Grand!
As Indiana lawmakers continue to work out a deal on solving the Capital Improvement Board $47 million operational shortfall, I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about Jim Irsay’s perpetual argument that he pays $250,000 in rent for Lucas Oil.
Once again, a factually accurate statement , but not the whole story.
You see, the Colts do pay $250,000 in rent, but they get it all back and then some. Under the terms of the lease, the Colts get reimbursed up to $1.5 million annually for their game day expenses. Game day expenses are things like security, ushers, the folks who work in press box and those guys who work the chains on the sidelines, etc. etc. The Colts send the CIB a bill at the end of the season. Last season the CIB paid the Colts, guess what? $1.5 million.
In addition, the Colts also get up to $3.5 million annually from all non-game events. So if there is a tractor show, high school football game, wallpaper show, the Colts get money. And guess how much they got last year? You got it. $3.5 million. And those events had nothing to do with football.
So even though Jim Irsay likes to tell everyone he pays $250,000 in rent, last year he got back $5 million.
Cry me a river, Jim.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Indiana House: 232-9600
Indiana Senate: 232-9400
April 28th, 2009 at 7:11 am
The more I hear, the more I am ready to say GOOD BYE. I have been a season ticket holder for 15 years and a strong supporter of the Pacers also…but enough is enough. Either they work out a fairer deal with the city or let them go!!!!! Corporate welfare.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Is what happens when you make contracts with your pets.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:35 am
And, it’s kind of like legal billing. “Up to” seems to equate to “exactly at” X number of dollars. Anybody ever audit those billings from the Colts? I thought not.
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It is an “amazing” coincidence that the Colts have costs that exactly equal the limit of their billing potential.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:41 am
To be fair (and trust me, I whole-heartedly believe the Colts need to be doing more), any reimbursement that Irsay may have received for expenses were for costs in ADDITION to the $250,000 rent they are required to pay. So, even if they got $5,000,000 in return, they would still be at a net loss of $250,000 dollars. Just wanted to make that clear.
Of course, that then brings up the question of whether or not the CIB should be shelling out cash for those game-day operating costs in the first place…DISCUSS!
April 28th, 2009 at 9:35 am
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0929/083.html wherein it is noted that taxpayers were not really represented (in my view). Thanks to Ruth Holladay’s blog for the source.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:48 am
We due and genuine respect to the richness life has with arts supported in the community, I’d rather the proposed $5M sports team check be labeled, “public safety”, “sewer repair”, “abandoned housing”, or something as essential. A dollar-for-dollar reduction that can be made in funding, NOT (re)expanding gov’t again while essentials are still lacking.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Abdul…where was all of this scrutiny over what the Colts get paid, what they pay, and how they’re bending the city over when all of this went down? I didn’t have an exact figure of what they paid and what they received but I knew it was extremely lopsided.
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It’s like this in most other cities where a NFL franchise is located.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:06 am
This 5 million check discussion is demonstration that Indianapolis cannot call itself a “world class city”. If the players voluntarily choose to support Black Expo, so be it. To demand such is a terrible proposal. I hope that Mr. Irsay is wise enough to see that this ploy is to make race an issue in the failure of CIB. Hopefully black business leaders will see this for what it is and speak out. What a slam on the community at large to propose such folly. Better the funds were channeled to education, as in colleges, about to be underfunded yet again by the legislature.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Every political leader has said that any CIB Bailout would require at least a $5 million contribution from both the Colts and Pacers.(A very small contribution by any measure)
It appears neither team will be making any contribution. In fact it appears there is a complete capitulation by the Governor and Mayor with taxpayers paying $10 million more a year to the Pacers for operating expenses to duplicate the stupidity of the one sided Colts agreement. Insult to injury the Colts are contributing nothing.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:47 am
This whole issue is a sad commentary on the rise of class warfare over the last 6yrs or so and the unintended consequences of voter apathy.
The Colts are the low hanging fruit because of their high profile and the (legally binding) contract they have with the CIB. Unfortunately, I have yet to see any traction regarding culpability for the NCAA and the design concessions they required from the CIB for the new stadium in exchange for guaranteeing national events will be hosted here at Lucas Oil. Why isn’t there a call for the NCAA to participate since they have an abatement for their current facilities and helped set the scope of design for Lucas Oil via their requirements? The NCAA, which is allegedly a non-profit entity, recently signed a multi-billion deal with CBS for the rights to the Final Four; why can’t they give up $5million a year to help the CIB? Again, this smacks of class warfare to me in that public outrage is directed at the (currently solvent) rich professional sports team in the community. As an aside, why hasn’t there been more media traction and outrage about the Simons and their $400 million cost to the city as printed in the IBJ last week?
If our citizens would have paid attention to the issues and voted en masse rather than sitting at home and complaining the last couple of decades, it’s reasonable to assume most of the tax/spend mess that our governments and their appointees have put us in would have been different. Unfortunately, until people start thinking that staying informed about the government they elected is more important than unwinding in front of the TV, we’ll continue to have this kind of inept (and semi-criminal) government.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Varan, I was thinking the same thing. The payments are up to those amounts. Yet, they max out every time. Someone should really check into this.
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Abdul has done a good job of bringing up some more obscure, albeit important, portions of the contract many of us have overlooked.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
OK, maybe it’s just me, but hen did race get injected into this argument? Quid, no one, including Irsay, was talking about race. Calm down.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
8WHEN
April 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
OK ONE MORE TRY ON THE BBERRY KEYBOARD WITH FAT THUMBS:
“when”
April 28th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
The more I hear about this situation the more I respect Irsay and think the man is a genius. He negotiated one of the greatest stadium deals in history and he knows that the city needs the Colts more than the Colts need the city. I never liked Irsay much before this recent issue, but now he is by far my favorite NFL Owner. Stay strong Jim, the city needs to learn a lesson about how to negotiate with a sports franchise.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Nick2,
Actually Jim Irsay is an idiot. You don’t think what he’s done the last few years will have a heavy toll on the reputation of the Colts organization?
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No a smart owner would have bent a little on their contract and become a hero to the city. Irsay instead is Enemy No. 1 in this city.
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Irsay isn’t a genuius, he just negotiated a deal with morons who had no problem giving away taxpayers money.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Paul, I doubt it’s as dire as you state. But this has been a Colts PR nightmare, poorly-handled from day one.
If someone wants to hoist Jimmy as a hero, because he cut a good business deal, well…the CEOs of the ten largest banks in America cut great compensation deals with their boards last year, too.
We should be able to dissect the Colts lease after the dust settles. And then we can hang the culprits. One question in all this mess:
Our natural watchdogs are members of the CC Council. Where the hell were they? Looking for their Lucas seats?
April 28th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Paul,
I doubt the colts reputation has been hurt at all. As long as Manning is Qb and they keep winning 12 games the stadium will be sold out every game, regardless of if Irsay bends at all.
Why do we expect Irsay to give up 1/3 of his operating income to make up for a bad deal those “morons” agreed upon? 1/3 of anything is a lot to ask a person or corporation to forfeit.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
The Colts lease is, in my mind, a bit of a different animal than a ‘regular’ contract.
This was not a case of ‘you and I sit down and make a deal that we both think is fair.’ It was a third party acting recklessly, committing the tax dollars of thousands of people to a VERY bad deal and not ONE of those paying the tab had any influence over the process. There ought to be a remedy for that. I think bankruptcy is the best way to go – fix the problem don’t temporarily mask it with still more taxes.