Colts owner upset with stadium operating board

Colts Owner Jim Irsay AP Photo

The great thing about the NFL draft is not only is it an tool for NFL teams to improve themselves it gives the owners the chance to run their mouths in front of the cameras. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay used the opportunity to run down the local government is Indianapolis and the operating board that runs his brand new state of the art facility.

As previously reports on this, and several other Examiner columns, the Colts got the ultimate sweetheart deal on their home Lucas Oil Stadium. The Colts only had to kick in 100 million dollars of the 719 million dollar construction bill, and only pay 250 thousand a year to the county as rent. In exchange they get all the football related revenue which equals some 30 million dollars a year.

The problem here is the Marion County Capitol Improvement Board, which owns and operates not only Lucas County Stadium; but the Conseco Field House home of the NBA’s Pacers; and the Indiana Convention Center, is broke and has asked the Colts to kick in 5 million dollars to cover budget shortfalls of nearly 47 million dollars. .

While it is these officials that have given the Colts such a good deal, and in turn robbed themselves of the ability to make money on their investment in Lucas Oil Stadium, Irsay should do the right thing and kick in 5 million dollars to keep the stadium open.

In stead he uses some face time on ESPN to run down the local government saying that by asking him to share some of the profits of the new stadium that they are scarring away any new business development.

Recently the Detroit edition of the Examiner ran a series of articles asking if Sports could save Detroit. Well sports cannot save anything if greedy owners will not do their part to help the city in which they are located.

It seems to me that since this board manages three facilities, that the management of the teams in these three facilities should split the bill three ways. That would equal a little more then 15 million per organization. The Marion County officials only asked Irsay for five, and he choose to spit in their face and ridicule them on national TV.

The citizens of Marion County and Indianapolis, Indiana should show Irsay their displeasure by not going to Lucas Oil Stadium. We must remember these are people that kicked in 619 million dollars of tax revenue to build Irsay’s Colts a new home stadium. It seems rather ridiculous that he cannot kick in 5 million dollars to help the county out. Especially when we consider that the revenue streams the county gave him bring in around 30 million dollars per season.