If the Hulman family can run the Indianapolis Motor Speedway without capital payments from Indy, why can't the Simons run the Pacers and the Irsays run the Colts without our tax dollars?
If the Indy "500" -- the Greatest Spectacle in Racing -- doesn't need subsidies from Indianapolis, why do the owners of the basketball and football teams demand them?
(Yes, this Indianapolis Observer knows that the IMS gets substantial law enforcement services, but that's a pittance compared to the enormous subsidies the Pacers and Colts get -- think, for starters, about Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium.)
3 comments:
While I like the Speedway example, unfortunately it looks like we're losing that example. There about to use tax dollars in Speedway to, in the name of redevelopment, take a number of houses and business, primarily so that a racing theme park can be created outside the racetrack so the Hulmans can make more monyey. That's using public money for a private eneterprise.
Yes, Paul, but adding a racing theme park (using, evidently, Speedway city tax dollars allocated by that city) is one thing -- running the entire Indianapolis Motor Speedway operation is another.
Presumably the Speedway city government saw the racing theme park as an addition to the "branding" of their burg.
Completely different situation at IMS...their only cost is upkeep of a facility that was purchased in 1946 at a bargain basement price and is essentially paid for. Add in the fact that IMS is exponentially bigger than Conseco and/or LOS and one of their biggest expenses, prize monies, is dependent upon ticket sales and it's easy to see how someone like Tony George can run the place without government assistance.
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