Arlington Field of Schemes trick ticket makes the Nov ballot

UPDATE trick ticket to hell as propaganda “Keep the Rangers” is all over the PAC’s signs, bill-boards, etc. …..without evidence that the Rangers WILL leave…..the video of mayor admitting they never said they would leave is HERE.

Arlington City Council Special Meeting Vote 8/9/16 ended with unanimous vote to put funding of “bad deal” on Nov ballot for new Ranger Stadium

 Last night was a media feast…here is WFAA’s coverage which mentions how the proponents far outnumbered the opponents, but here is evidence as to how/who some (most?) of these folks ended up at the meeting in the white tee shirts…

The Rangers and Arlington officials want our residents to foot HALF of a billion dollar baseball stadium with retractable roof, less seating and A/C….of course my biggest beef is at least one of the Ranger billionaire owners made his cash with fossil fuel interests (that worsen the very climate change that is making ever increasingly outdoor events unsustainable EVERYWHERE!)…#construction #workers #suffer TOO!

 

Dallas news update “Also, $2 million annual rent would help pay off the debt and eventually go toward stadium improvements when the bonds were retired. None of the Rangers rent would end up in the city’s general fund”.

Today council will be having the final vote (with public comment) at around 3:45 today to put the 50/50 deal on the November ballot to build a new Ranger Stadium BUT very good questions blogger Neil deMause and his correspondents have just HAVE to be answered!

Here is a cut and paste of the fieldofschemes blogsite…..

• The stadium would now cost $1 billion, with Arlington taxpayers’ share at $500 million. No idea why the price tag is $100 million higher than it was on Friday morning, though the conspiracy-minded will note that even if the actual cost estimate is the same, upping the target price means the Rangers owners’ responsibility to pay for all cost overruns won’t kick in as soon now.
• For the Rangers owners’ share, they would get to use personal seat license fees plus parking and ticket tax money, which would pay off bonds sold by the city — meaning if PSL sales fell short, say, the city could end up on the hook for more than $500 million. This, you’ll recall, was the initial concern with the San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, and though that worked out okay in the end when the PSLs sold out, it’s still an added risk for Arlington.
• The public’s base $500 million will come from the 0.5% sales tax surcharge, 2% hotel tax surcharge, and 5% car rental tax surcharge currently being used to pay off the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium, which the Dallas Star-Telegram calls “no new taxes.” Except that the Cowboys stadium was set to be paid off in 2021, at which point those taxes could either have been eliminated or redirected toward something else — so really this is a new extension of existing taxes for as much as an additional 30 years.
• The Rangers will continue to pay the same $2 million a year rent to the city that they pay on their current stadium.
• The city council will vote on a stadium agreement tomorrow — apparently Texas doesn’t believe in things like public hearings — and if approved, the project will then go before voters in November, something that the Dallas Morning News entirely left out of its ten-point rundown of the proposal, which stated the stadium plans entirely in the simple future tense (“It will be open by April 2021”). Way to go, writers on the fait accompli beat.
• While most of the existing Globe Life Park would be torn down to make way for parking lots (the new stadium would be built on existing parking lots), there could be attempts to save “parts of the facade and other historic features” at the ballpark, which is younger than all but one player on the Rangers’ current roster.

That tells us a lot more than we knew Friday morning, but there are still a bunch of unanswered questions:

• Nobody knows how the first few years of construction bond payments will be paid off, since the taxes involved still need to keep being used for Cowboys stadium debt through 2021.
• Will the Rangers owners pay any property taxes on the place? Who will pay maintenance and operations costs? Will Arlington get any share at all of stadium revenues like naming rights, or will the public have to pay off its share entirely from tax revenue while the Rangers get to use actual stadium income for theirs?
• What do Arlington residents think of the deal? (The Star-Telegram ran an article headlined “What fans, Arlington officials are saying” but then apparently forgot to interview any actual fans, since the only quotes (aside from one local sports bar owner) were from current and former elected officials who supported the deal.)

—– Forwarded Message —–
From: kim feil <kimfeil@sbcglobal.net>
To: Charlie Parker <charlie.parker@arlingtontx.gov>; Michael Glaspie <michael.glaspie@arlingtontx.gov>; Robert Rivera <robert.rivera@arlingtontx.gov>; Trey Yelverton <trey.yelverton@arlingtontx.gov>; Jim Parajon <jim.parajon@arlingtontx.gov>; Kathryn Wilemon <kathryn.wilemon@arlingtontx.gov>; Lana Wolff <lana.wolff@arlingtontx.gov>; Sheri Capehart <sheri.capehart@arlingtontx.gov>; Robert Shepard <robert.shepard@arlingtontx.gov>; Jeff Williams <jeff.williams@arlingtontx.gov>; Victoria Myers <victoria.farrar-myers@arlingtontx.gov>
Cc: Brett Shipp <bshipp@wfaa.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 9, 2016 11:36 AM
Subject: Please table Arlington council Ranger ballot vote until Q’s R answered

Here is a letter I sent Professor Roger Noll, I’ll share his response. In the meantime please consider the questions on FIELDofSCHEMES.com

				Rangers stadium to cost Arlington taxpayers at least $50… Related Posts:Public subsidies for Rangers stadium to be at least $519m, could go higherRangers stadium to cost Arlington well over $500m, local paper more concerne…
				View on www.fieldofschemes.com	Preview by Yahoo

And also please read the last two comments for this article….

Pat on  May 25, 2016 at 2:52 pm  said:

There’s a rail system maybe 500 yards from the stadium if they want more revunue build an extension for the TRE that circles the stadiums and six flags. tax the mess out of the people who ride not the good citizens of Arlington

 

Rpdx1on  May 27, 2016 at 11:00 am  said:

Pat….they just may do that. Or bring in a private firm (like PDX did with Bectel to build the MAX extension) to construct a spur, the cost of which will be passed on to the public. That done by a ‘slight’ fare increase.

As for the roof…from those wonderful renderings, it looks like a collapsible cup type of design. Which is going to be all so wonderful, except for some possible sealing issues so the AC can work. Let alone the possible issues with the translucent glass in same being scratched (when it is opened and retracted), so it will look like a modern art masterpiece…but may cause the folks in Arlington to be on the hook for a replacement. Gee…the cost of that alone would be that for another ballpark….how about that!!!

—– Forwarded Message —–
From: kim feil <kimfeil@sbcglobal.net>
To: “rnoll@stanford.edu” <rnoll@stanford.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 9, 2016 11:26 AM
Subject: Arlington council vote today notes I need

 

Jerry Jones’ ATT Stadium would benefit from the Rangers/Cordish owned planned TexasLIVE complex  where the city of Arlington is pitching in $50million and other incentives worth about another $50million. Since the Rangers want air conditioning I have been suggesting that we work with Jerry Jones to use ATT Stadium during the hottest summer months. So my question is can a football stadium be retrofitted for baseball? 

 

In using Oakland A’s & the Oakland Raiders as the example of two teams sharing the same coliseum, it is obvious that the Raiders ARE indeed no longer happy with this arrangement. Per the East Bay Times (TNS)

Fri, Jul 15, 2016 (10:30 a.m.)

“OAKLAND — City and county officials have asked for an appraisal of the jointly owned Coliseum site, as negotiations begin with a group headed by NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott to build a new football stadium to keep the Raiders in Oakland”.

Last year there was the idea to build a new Oakland A’s baseball stadium nearby and have the old coliseum be updated for Raiders football games only. In this time of ever increasing hotter temperatures along with more sustainable activities, I believe in not throwing away good stuff such as the Rangers Globe life Park. I believe we should reuse, repurpose, renew, and extend the life of buildings unless they are unsustainable.

The Ranger’s open top stadium may be unsustainable to our hotter temperatures, and the costs of climate change by fossil fuel use that made at least one of the Ranger’s owners so filthy rich need to not look to Arlington citizens to pay that burden to have the games in air conditioning.

Thank you for your work that uncovers the UNeconomics of stadiums. I will send council this link to your article….

				Sports stadiums don’t spur economic growth, Stanford exp… Economist Roger Noll also notes that stadium costs that NFL teams expect local governments to contribute have fallen due to increased political resistance.
				View on news.stanford.edu	Preview by Yahoo

 

 

If you have any quick thoughts for me to give me our council? Otherwise, I will read some of these questions and ask council to table the vote until the questions are answered…. Rangers stadium to cost Arlington taxpayers at least $500m, many questions remain unanswered

				Rangers stadium to cost Arlington taxpayers at least $50… Related Posts:Public subsidies for Rangers stadium to be at least $519m, could go higherRangers stadium to cost Arlington well over $500m, local paper more concerne…
				View on www.fieldofschemes.com	Preview by Yahoo

 

 

In reading comments from residents on the Ranger proposals news coverage, they have ideas such as…

• “Give Arlington residents free Ranger tickets”…I think 1/2 price tickets is more appropriate and at least the stadium could look full.
• Tie the $500 million vote to include a high speed rail commitment
• and more on my blog about a Litmus Test if after the voters vote NO and Texas LIVE doesn’t break ground by year end as promised….

 https://barnettshalehell.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/litmus-test-2-c-if-rangers-threat-2-leave-arlington-is-valid-after-nov-election/

In my blog I post a video of the mayor of Arlington admitting the Rangers have NOT “said” they were leaving.

 

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