Bloomberg Businessweek: The Braves Play Taxpayers Better Than They Play Baseball (Atlanta: hotel, tax)

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Backflips.

More like shining a light on bull**** deals between jock-happy corrupt politicians and an organization that has an obsession with free public money.

[Cameron H]

That's a really low bar this season.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Cobb's electorate just does not yet quite seem to be diverse enough to vote to raise taxes to expand MARTA into the county, even if the Braves stadium worsens traffic as many are predicting.

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

I disagree. What is the assumption you make based on? A vote taken 40 years ago? Maybe there is more recent data, but I know I (as a 12-year Cobb resident) would certainly vote for MARTA in the county if the proposal made sense. The last T-SPLOST proposal was rather silly, IMO.

That assumption is made on the fact that Cobb County has the highest number of Republican voters in a state that continues to be dominated by Republican interests for the time being.

There's also Cobb County's demographics in which non-Hispanic whites still make up a majority of the county's population.

(...Non-Hispanic whites made up just under 54% of Cobb County's population as of 2014....A number that correlates very closely to the 53-55% of the vote that Republicans often receive on average countywide in major elections in Cobb.)

Not enough of those moderate, progressive and minority newcomers who have moved into and are continuing to move into Cobb County have yet joined Cobb's electorate to form a majority of voters that could vote to approve the expansion of MARTA into the county from Atlanta and Fulton County.

As those newcomers continue to join Cobb's electorate, this will most likely change within the next 10-15 years or so as Cobb's electorate will most likely transition from a deep red to purple and possibly even blue like other once Republican-dominated suburban Atlanta counties (Rockdale, Henry, Douglas, Newton) have done and will most likely do (Gwinnett).

But for now and the immediate future, Cobb County remains one of the redder suburban counties in the nation and the "Center of the Republican Universe".

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Gulch

More like shining a light on bull**** deals between jock-happy corrupt politicians and an organization that has an obsession with free public money.

I'm not in favor of municipalities getting involved in pro sports financing but when the city of Atlanta does it folks act like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I'm not in favor of municipalities getting involved in pro sports financing but when the city of Atlanta does it folks act like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Not really. If the city had given the Braves the store much like Cobb did, Kasim Reed would've been railroaded out of town.

[StoicTao]

Sucks for us that grew up in the 90's that the Braves have turned into such a shady organization.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I'm not in favor of municipalities getting involved in pro sports financing but when the city of Atlanta does it folks act like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

You say this, but I saw literally no support for the Falcons stadium. Quite the opposite. I have seen comments that it's not as bad as the Braves deal, as it is largely using tax dollars from tourists. But never have I seen enthusiastic support for the Falcons deal.

Yet the folks that love this Barves deal just jam their heads further and further down into the sand, calling anyone bringing up the copious amount of shadiness surrounding this deal as jealous, obsessive, etc. This deal is done and the Barves are dead to me, so I don't actively care. But it is wrong to be dismissive of articles such as this and the facts surrounding this deal.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by jsvh

The Braves Play Taxpayers Better Than They Play Baseball

Wow.

If this is how the Braves do business, then the CoA made the right call by letting them go.

It seems like traffic issues near the Cloverleaf are going to be the least of Cobb's worries with the new ballpark.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

You say this, but I saw literally no support for the Falcons stadium. Quite the opposite. I have seen comments that it's not as bad as the Braves deal, as it is largely using tax dollars from tourists. But never have I seen enthusiastic support for the Falcons deal.

Yet the folks that love this Barves deal just jam their heads further and further down into the sand, calling anyone bringing up the copious amount of shadiness surrounding this deal as jealous, obsessive, etc. This deal is done and the Barves are dead to me, so I don't actively care. But it is wrong to be dismissive of articles such as this and the facts surrounding this deal.

It's not even in the same league. The new Falcons stadium put the CoA on the hook for only $200 million, period. Not a bad deal for a stadium that will cost over a billion dollars. And oh yeah, every dime of that will be covered by hotel/motel and rental car taxes.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

You say this, but I saw literally no support for the Falcons stadium. Quite the opposite. I have seen comments that it's not as bad as the Braves deal, as it is largely using tax dollars from tourists. But never have I seen enthusiastic support for the Falcons deal.

Yet the folks that love this Barves deal just jam their heads further and further down into the sand, calling anyone bringing up the copious amount of shadiness surrounding this deal as jealous, obsessive, etc. This deal is done and the Barves are dead to me, so I don't actively care. But it is wrong to be dismissive of articles such as this and the facts surrounding this deal.

The State of Georgia tied Atlanta's hands in how the Hotel/Motel Tax could be spent, years before the new Falcons Stadium was publicly discussed. So in a way Blank and State did a backroom deal that restricted how the CoA could spend IT'S tax money, therefore forcing the new stadium funding.