RSL News - The Season Begins! [R]

Ryan Hatch (1280 The Zone) is reporting...
"Checketts is coming to town tomorrow 'with both guns blazing' to take care of some business."

Can someone drop him a memo to fire John Ellinger along the way?

One of the questions Hatch asked was if not winning in 17 games hadn't affected the decision..... Getting behind a winning product vs a losing product.

KUTV: "ReAL Rejection"

What I don't understand is why Corroon bothered to publicly release the numbers THEN make the negative decision... it's not like he hadn't been privy to the numbers before them being made 'public'.

So, not only does he kill the deal, he embarrasses RSL in the process and discloses what they felt was confidential information. Bad form, to say the least.

He could simply have said, "Based on the numbers I've seen, it does not appear to be a good investment for the county."

One thing I don't understand is Caroon evoking this bond thing? What bond? I thought this was the hotel tax that was going to pay for everything? Am I missing something?

Because by doing it this way, everyone is aware of the numbers and it helps make his task easier. Now no one is going to question them to the degree that they would have been questioned if the numbers hadn't been leaked. It was a pretty slimy thing to do, but what else do you expect from politicians?

Seriously though, what is this bond thing he's talking about? I've never heard of this before?

Because the earmarked TRT money would only trickle in spread over many years, a bond was required to fund the stadium improvements in the short term (starting in August). The bond was to have been "paid back + interest" over the decades as TRT receipts were realized.

Corroon, say hello to my lil friend!


*Boz gets his chalk ready.......

Ah, so deska.

Hmmmm...............

A bond issue is, in lay terminology, basically a large loan. Except instead of being arranged with a bank, bonds (IOU's more or less) are placed directly to investor markets where there is a larger lot of money to be invested/loaned (think scales of economy - lots of investors looking to give principal up front in return for guranteed interest payments in return and principal receipt after a certain period). In other words, this is the financing vehicle that gets the "shovels in the ground" and the entire project completed.

The marginal tax increase on the hospitality industry is a stream of revenues that go to pay principal and interest. The bonds were going to be issued for a "public purpose" and via a government entity, so they were afforded tax-exemption, meaning the rate of interest paid is considerably lower than a standard bank loan, as well. Huge advantage on a multi-million dollar project.

I understand how a bond works, I had never heard that a bond would be issued to generate the funds. I was under the, faulty, impression that the hotel tax revenues would be all that was needed.

KCPW: Anti-Stadium Activist Reacts to Corroon's Decision
[clip]

"It makes Peter Corroon look kind of like King Kong. He in effect told (RSL Owner) Dave Checketts 'Show me the money' and Checketts blinked. I got to say, more power to him."
...
It's not clear what Real Salt Lake will do now in their quest for a stadium. Salt Lake City originally expressed interest in providing the site for a soccer stadium, but Pace wonders if the city will go for it now.

SLCSpin: Bravo Mayor Corroon

Here's the quote that I got from that piece.....

KCPW: Convention and Visitors Bureau Applauds Decision

More gloating here: SLC Spin: RSL Owner Dave Checketts Does Not Read SLCSpin