While I support a new events center and agree with Mr. Christensen that it should be downtown – I am still on the fence about how important getting the facility done immediately is. However with the new casino in Lyon county being built we better turn up the jets a little;
If we do this right, we can pay for the events center like Omaha did, with modest increases in lodging, entertainment and booze taxes. We also could use naming rights, parking fees and other user fees. Downtown also can use existing tax increment financing and possibly green tax breaks such as Cherapa Place took advantage of. This way, the people who use and benefit from a downtown events center pay the bulk of the project’s cost, which to me is the fairest way to go.
Isn’t it ironic how a sophomore in HS can sum up an Events Center proposal in one paragraph while it takes politicians and task forces months to say nothing and go nowhere.
I couldn’t resist to post this awful song;
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S0oRfoR0Z0&feature=related[/youtube]
Huether should give the kid an unpaid internship as his Chief of Staff.
And show up Schwan?
I don’t know if the “good folks of this great city of Sioux Falls” are ready for someone to tell half of the people here that we aren’t some little podunk village in Keloland.
Settle down Beav.
Mike told me once that he doesn’t support a DT EC because the old folks are afraid to go downtown – what with the confusing one-way streets and the off chance that they may not be able to park ten feet from the door.
Probably true, but the thing about old folks is that they won’t be around for the 50+ year lifespan of the new facility. We should give more weight to the ideas that look to the future, not the present.
Ten feet from the door dude. You and I both know it is much more complex than that. Parking is, was, and will be your achilles heel. The Walker Study our city paid for a few years ago spells it out as simply as one could possibly envision a DT Events Center. FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.
And isn’t it comical that the precocious HS sophomore gets it wrong on how the Qwest Center debt in Omaha is being paid off? From the Lincoln Journal Star in a QA on the proposed Lincoln NE event center.
“How are they paying off the construction debt? The plan was to pay off the debt using city property and sales tax revenue, parking revenue, seat taxes and state sales taxes collected in the Qwest and nearby hotels and “turned back” to the city. But most of the debt has been paid off with city property tax revenue.”
Read it and weep:
http://journalstar.com/article_eef1763a-5015-11df-a2eb-001cc4c03286.html
Ten feet from the door dude. You and I both know it is much more complex than that.
No, it really isn’t. See below:
Parking is, was, and will be your achilles heel.
If we decide to build the EC downtown, the parking will follow.