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..... .... It was nothing more than a Donald Trump tactic to get his name out and embarrass the other rich guy in town.
I'm not sure why he would need to do this. Smith is the CEO of one of Charlotte's home grown Fortune 500 companies, Sonic Automotive. He also built, the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a venue that will easily hold 250,000 people, several times the size of BofA stadium, which included multiple entertainment venues and which has operated in this area for decades, without hitting up the taxpayers. He is an example to follow, not one to chastise.
Smith is will known even to the point of being featured on a recent episode of American Pickers at his home here in CLT. He has no need to embarrass Richardson except as a taxpayer who is outraged at Richardson's request.
I will add that Nascar is far far far more important to the Charlotte area than the NFL.
.... He has threatened to move CMS many times if improvements were not made. ....
I say that he has never done this except in the incident we discussed above and that had nothing to do with improvements to CMS.
However I'm willing to listen to new evidence.
Please cite when Smith has threatened to move CMS if he didn't get new tax money from local government. Any official request should be a matter of public record.
I'm not sure why he would need to do this. Smith is the CEO of one of Charlotte's home grown Fortune 500 companies, Sonic Automotive. He also built, the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a venue that will easily hold 250,000 people, several times the size of BofA stadium, which included multiple entertainment venues and which has operated in this area for decades, without hitting up the taxpayers. He is an example to follow, not one to chastise.
Smith is will known even to the point of being featured on a recent episode of American Pickers at his home here in CLT. He has no need to embarrass Richardson except as a taxpayer who is outraged at Richardson's request.
I will add that Nascar is far far far more important to the Charlotte area than the NFL.
I'm not chastising him just stating my opinion based on the interview. It didnt sound genuine and he didnt sound serious when pressed for details.
The other reason I'm skeptical is due to his frustration over the 80 million dollars they lied about. If they would have kept their word he WOULD have taken the 80 mill and he sounded like he is still looking for it. Im not sure its genuine to brag about not using tax dollars while complaining about not getting promised tax dollars.
... Nascar is important but I dont know if its far, far, far more important than football. Right now Nascar is trending down while the NFL is still #1. I also wonder how people feel about the HOF underperforming.
IMO it was theatre... and it worked. You are waving the Smith flag in a thread that has nothing to do with Nascar. Its great marketing on his part and makes Richardson look greedy and thats why I called it a Donald Trump move.
The city council offered up $80M to convince Smith to expand his original Z-max, by another $200M plan to make it more of an entertainment district to the area. Smith spent the $200M but never got his money from the council. IMO, they did him dirty.
If they had left him alone, he would have built his original plan and there wouldn't have been anything more to it. I blame the city council for that mess, not Smith. He has a right to be peeved at them.
....
... Nascar is important but I dont know if its far, far, far more important than football. Right now Nascar is trending down while the NFL is still #1. I also wonder how people feel about the HOF underperforming.
I believe that in the Charlotte metro, there are ~75,000 jobs directly or indirectly related to Nascar. This is more than the two banks in downtown Charlotte.
The HOF is under performing because it was a stupid project advocated by the CRVA, CCCP, and others using made up numbers. There was a complete failure of due diligence with it. Please note that Smith had nothing to do with that project. The city got caught up in a bidding war with Atlanta and a couple of other cities and was damned and determined that it wasn't going to lose it. It's the same story every time when government money starts being tossed at professional sports. Lesson enough for the Panthers and BofA stadium and the same lack of due diligence and transparency.
I haven't had too much to say about all this but I find it offensive that Richardson is quick to point out how high in demand the panthers are opening the subject to moving to the highest bidder and saying NOTHING about the tens of millions the PSLs buyers would lose. They would be left holding the bag just like when the HORNETS LEFT TOWN.People that have rushed out to buy psls havent thought about that in their hast to grab the seats before some other sucker does...very typical charlotte mentality Big business cronies don't give a ratts ass about John Doe who has big money spent in psls.....
I say that he has never done this except in the incident we discussed above and that had nothing to do with improvements to CMS.
However I'm willing to listen to new evidence.
Please cite when Smith has threatened to move CMS if he didn't get new tax money from local government. Any official request should be a matter of public record.
If the man threatened to move if he didnt get his way best believe he would do it if he was an NFL owner..
Its foolish to think a billionaire wouldnt take advantage of incentives just because he said it on the radio. The only stadium built without tax dollars is the new stadium in NYC and thats due to the NFL kicking in 300 mill in a program that no longer exist.
I found his link that shows recent stadium funding. I know Richardson wants improvements but this gives a view into how ots done in the NFL.
I haven't had too much to say about all this but I find it offensive that Richardson is quick to point out how high in demand the panthers are opening the subject to moving to the highest bidder and saying NOTHING about the tens of millions the PSLs buyers would lose. They would be left holding the bag just like when the HORNETS LEFT TOWN.People that have rushed out to buy psls havent thought about that in their hast to grab the seats before some other sucker does...very typical charlotte mentality Big business cronies don't give a ratts ass about John Doe who has big money spent in psls.....
Not sure what your point is... other teams are making improvements that are more expensive. I think all of them are getting some public funding. Some more.. some less. Why would or should Richardson pay 100% when every other owner isnt? What makes Charlotte so special that an NFL owner should bow down?
IMO its foolish to expect an owner to pony up all the money when 31 other teams use a different model.
I believe that in the Charlotte metro, there are ~75,000 jobs directly or indirectly related to Nascar. This is more than the two banks in downtown Charlotte.
The HOF is under performing because it was a stupid project advocated by the CRVA, CCCP, and others using made up numbers. There was a complete failure of due diligence with it. Please note that Smith had nothing to do with that project. The city got caught up in a bidding war with Atlanta and a couple of other cities and was damned and determined that it wasn't going to lose it. It's the same story every time when government money starts being tossed at professional sports. Lesson enough for the Panthers and BofA stadium and the same lack of due diligence and transparency.
Fair enough... but I think you are off when it comes to rhe NFL and public assistance. He model had been in place for years and has been very successful.
If the man threatened to move if he didn,t get his way best believe he would do it if he was an NFL owner...
I take this to mean then that you were simply making it up when you claimed that Smith has threatened "many times" to move CMS if he didn't get incentives.
He hasn't. He is the example for sports owners to follow.
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