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(11-17-2017 11:14 AM)levydl Wrote:  

(11-17-2017 10:50 AM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(11-17-2017 10:15 AM)levydl Wrote:  

(11-17-2017 08:48 AM)Ahhhorsepoo Wrote:  simply put the deal FCC presented to the county is the most city/county friendly deal in all of major sports. Not a single other franchise in major pro sports(if FCC gets to MLS) will have ever financed their own stadium 100% privately.

You have lowered the bar so much to try to make this awful thing look good by comparison. But it's still awful.

Carl Lindner's son wants taxpayers to pay for his soccer stadium. In fact, he's indignant that it's even up for debate! How can anyone be on HIS side?

Some of you guys act like this is something unique to Lindner or even sports. Amazon is currently worth $550B (yes that's Billion) and Morgan Stanley among others thinks they could reach $1T by the end of next year which would probably make them the richest company in the world. They're currently sorting through the 238 offers to host their 2nd HQ and cities are offering a bonanza of financial incentives and beyond including at least one proposal to rename their city "Amazon".

Hate Lindners despite their being huge UC benefactors if you want, but they didn't invent the game. We call it competition. You can refuse to play if you want to, but don't expect the world to wait around while you sit pat. There are risks either way.

What Amazon is doing is despicable, but Cincinnati has no chance in that race. In any case, it's not a soccer franchise. No one is even arguing that FCC would boost employment or tax receipts or investment in the city, because none of those things is true. And Amazon can pick anywhere they want, but Lindner needs this area.

Of course they're not on the same scale, but by the same token Amazon isn't just looking for a parking garage and some new sewers either. And Lindner may or may not need this area, but MLS surely doesn't. Cincinnati's owners are competing with another dozen or so other owners who are probably all also looking for help in some form from their respective cities that they will be named after and arguably represent.

Quote:Cincinnati is never going to win the competition to give public money to attract private businesses. It's such a losers game. But at the very least, don't do it for a sports team that can't go anywhere else!

What? GE is only worth a measly $159B, but GE got over $100M in incentives (including state and county) to locate down at the Baniks (which they didn't build nor finance btw) so clearly Cincinnati can compete in some instances. Neither GE nor an MLS FCC team has to be in Cincinnati but a lot of people think both are good things nonetheless. The basic question is the same: What's it worth to you to incentivize them to be here? You can answer zero, but don't be surprised when you lose out to other more aggressive cities on things you'd like to have here whether it's major corporations or an MLS team.