It is already too late to turn this narrative around. There is a story about professional sports that resonates with a lot of people, that billionaire owners shamelessly rip off the cities where their teams play through stadium and arena costs. The Dispatch is trying to burnish their reputation as serious journalists by publishing this narrative about the new Crew stadium, and adding some details with what we regard as quite questionable spin. The people inclined to put the Crew into that paradigm are going to do so, and the Dispatch is going to try to appear serious by pandering to them. The best we can hope for is to weather the storm until it is old news.
I have noticed that these stories (this and the "City is Paying More For the Stadium Then They Promised") have both come during OSU Football bye-weeks. The conspiracy theorist in me believes that this is to maximize their life in the local sports news cycle. Otherwise they'd be drowned out by discussions about third-string defensive tackles and the like. But yeah, I agree: We just have to ride them out.
Thank you for reminding me it's another bye week so that I know I can safely leave the house on Saturday.
You're very welcome. I also relish these autumn weekends. Also: Don't forget to turn your porchlight off tonight so as not to be bothered by masses of begging children.
I wonder if Bill Bush had such strong opinions about the $40M Columbus ponied up in infrastructure improvements to lure Ohio Health to build its new HQ in the city. I'm guessing, not so much.
Dispatch was sold a few years ago to Gatehouse Media. They're merging with Gannett but are basically controlled by a hedge fund. So they've had rounds of layoffs and downsizing. Bill Bush used to cover the city schools so perhaps he's jaundiced. Newspapers are trying to justify their continued existence by claiming nobody else can do the local watchdog role. This seems like an attempt at that. They just aren't very bright and can't really parse what's part of the stadium project and what isn't.
Can someone please convince me that "Crew SC pressed the the city to pay more than double its initial taxpayer contribution" isn't a bald-faced lie?
When the Wolff family owned the paper, we didn't get this kind of crap. The stadium deal would never have gone through in the first place if they didn't approve of it, and after that complaining about it would have gotten you the night editors job at the Coshocton Penny Pincher.
Actually, I think it's the Coshocton Loaf Pincher. The name represents Coshocton's reputation for multitasking in its print media.
The good news is no one reads the dispatch. They just don’t sway public opinion like the old days. The other good news is this economy is kicking into high gear. Money is flowing and development is booming. This stadium is just another project in Columbus. Despite all the bashing by Bush, I haven’t seen much talk of doing anything about it.
The city council challengers have aproximately a 0% chance of winning any seats. What they want doesn't matter. Bush knows that too of course, this article is just a peg for further editorializing against the stadium deal.
Guess what? Columbus is building a $30M parking garage as part of the Scioto Peninsula mixed use development: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbu...-advances.html?iana=hpmvp_colum_news_headline I'm sure Bill Bush will be all over the story any minute now.
Urban parking garages should be underground. Without looking at that link, I'm pretty confident this will not be.
Don’t touch my Sghetti Warehouse! Looks like this development will maintain the finest dining establishment in the City.
As an added bonus, an underground parking facility is protected from the weather and climate-controlled. An above ground facility may not necessarily have those luxuries. I can't get past the paywall, but hopefully this garage is friendly to COSI validation, as the current one is. The lot there is currently COSI staff, COSI guest overflow and general public. Does it say who will operate it? The way LAZ has made inroads into downtown the past few years, I wouldn't be surprised if they get it, considering they operate the other facilities there.
That's an expensive proposition. I am ok with above grade, urban parking garages as long as there is retail, restaurants, and drinking establishments on the ground level, along pedestrian paths.
Well, no, but it's a huge garage (1400 car) that's meant to serve hundreds of millions of dollars in adjacent new mixed use development projects, plus provide visitor parking. It's not associated with just one development. In short, East Franklinton will see a half billion $ or more in development over the next decade on land that previously had been publicly owned. This project just provides some parking for phase one of that development. This estimated cost also makes even more dubious that idiot Bill Bush's claim that a 600 car garage in Confluence Village would cost $25M. And, of course, it just makes me even more interested in the mythical pedestrian/bike bridge connecting East Franklinton and the Arena District. That's a lot of parking that could be used for Crew fans, if they have a route to the new stadium, that is.