Saturday, October 12, 2013

Governor Pence's Economic Development Agency Throwing Millions In Wasted Tax Dollars To Billionaire Herb Simon's Indiana Pacers

Gov. Mike Pence may not care whether you can afford to buy health insurance, but he wants to make sure more of your tax dollars are put into the pocket of one of the state's few billionaires, Herb Simon, who believes it's the responsibility of taxpayers to subsidize whatever business undertaking he has within this state. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation is paying his Indiana Pacers millions of dollars for a completely useless sponsorship opportunity that won't create one single job in this state. This is in addition to the millions annually in state revenues that are being diverted to the CIB to subsidize the Pacers to the tune of over $10 million annually, in addition to the rent-free use of the arena and retention of all revenues generated by the facility. According to the IBJ's Anthony Schoettle, the IEDC becomes the first sponsor to pay to have its name emblazoned on the hardwood of the basketball court inside Banker's Life Fieldhouse.
For that right, sources close to the league said, IEDC--which previously had no in-venue signage deals with the Pacers--will pay a low-seven-figure sum over two years. The floor signage, along with other fieldhouse advertising IEDC bought, will debut at the Oct. 16 preseason game against the Dallas Mavericks . . .
The NBA reserves the right to remove the ad during nationally broadcast games on TNT and ESPN.
So the IEDC will shell out millions of dollars to have the slogan, "A State That Works," emblazoned on the hardwood, which may not even show up on nationally-televised broadcasts of the team's games. Anyone with a brain knows that this is nothing more than yet another way of utilizing taxpayer dollars to subsidize the Indiana Pacers. There is absolutely no benefit from this advertising. It is absolutely shameless how much we as taxpayers are being forced to subsidize this greedy billionaire's NBA team. The best thing that could happen to this state and city is for Herb Simon to pack up this team and get it the hell out of here. It is nothing but a blood-sucking enterprise that is depleting valuable tax dollars that could be more wisely spent elsewhere.

4 comments:

Paul K. Ogden said...

A low seven figure payment? For two years of advertising with no guarantee it will even be seen on national broadcasts? That's way above the market rate.

Flogger said...

Just one example of Crony-Capitalism and Corporate Welfare. Pence is disgusting. I gather the actual pay-off is a STATE SECRET.

"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.”
― Howard Zinn

The politicians, corporate executives, and owners of the press and television here in Indy certainly dominate what we are told to believe about the Corporate Welfare Programs for the Owners Of Professional Sports. I cannot recall even the slightest criticism of this disgusting system.

Erica Smith in today's The Star today has began her propaganda campaign.

Gary R. Welsh said...

I saw Erica's column. She was in New Orleans when the announcement was made and met there with a collective yawn. Fred McCarthy hit the nail on the head at his IndyTaxDollars blog. Only a handful of the 32 NFL cities bothered to express any interest in hosting the Super Bowl in 2018, which is the main reason Indianapolis was a finalist. It could be that many cities have figured out that it's not worth competing against cities like Indianapolis who foolishly throw away tens of millions of dollars to host and event that has very little economic impact since everything has to be tax-exempt, and most of the profits are pulled out. Even the city's hospitality industry learned the hard way when companies imported front desk staff, bar tenders and servers from out-of-town for the big event, relegating them to bar back and other menial duties.

Flogger said...

Erica's column hit most of the hot buttons the Media here constantly have to reassure themselves about. We are a, Model for other host cities, a family friendly Super Bowl Village, and East Side redevelopment. The only buzz word she missed was "World Class" but hey maybe use it for her next in what promises to be series of articles.

Of course we should, "Drop a bunch of money on the Near Northside, or Near Westside." Will the money be kicked out of low flying Cargo Plane?? Erica does not mention where this "bunch" of money will come from.

She did manage to slam NO as still showing the after effects of Katrina.

We have neighborhoods in Indy, that have houses falling apart and boarded up and we cannot use some natural disaster as an excuse.