Hyping Suckers

Is it just me or do you, dear reader, feel that Windsorites are being played for fools? Take the Cleary deal...all of this so-called negotiating and high drama--it's on, it's off, it's on again--for what? I am sure that you believe that a secretive Mayor is going to talk about a deal in public at a Tim Hortons so everyone can listen in.

Another urban legend created, just like "The town hall idea [for a Youth Council] came to Francis on a recent Friday night movie outing with his wife."

How about the Cleary is a "white elephant" and we have to get rid of it and pay someone to take it off of our hands. Then we learn that the Cleary "draws one of the lowest municipal subsidies per square foot in the province and has one of the highest usage ratios per square footage in Ontario while the Chrysler Theatre is the most cost-efficient municipally-owned theatre in Ontario."

Here's a good one....Windsor and our border crossing are important to the economy of Ontario. The road to the border is a known problem. So when "Ontario's Liberal government has a five-year, $3.4-billion plan to upgrade roads, highways and bridges in southern Ontario" Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield does not announce that the Government is going to build that road.

And then there is Super Bowl. Slowly but surely we are finding out the true facts.

Here is what has been claimed to justify the spending of the US$250,000 to be part of the TEAM:

• 02-03-2006 Francis figures the Super Bowl will bring in between $80 to $100 million to Windsor and help the city attract a CFL expansion team.




• 02-04-2006 Mayor Eddie Francis said the city is projecting Super Bowl XL will pump at least $80 million into the city's economy.
  
  "Francis noted that all hotels are at capacity throughout Windsor and beyond with 4,400 rooms booked and added that the NFL estimates each Super Bowl visitor spends about $3,000 over the course of the weekend and are "conservative" estimates..
  
  "It's not just all about hotels, cross-border traffic and visitors," said Francis. "All of the contracts and the work that had to be done. There's a lot of money there."




• 02-07-2006 "In the short term, officials estimate between 20,000 and 30,000 tourists visited Windsor last week, spending millions of dollars."




• 03-27-2006 " "A preliminary study suggests Detroit's big game was a cash bonanza for Windsor and Essex County.
  
  Mayor Eddie Francis said that economic impact studies indicate the average football fan spent $966 US during their visits for goods and services beyond the costs of travel and accommodation.
  
  Gordon Orr said the stock of 4,000 rooms available were virtually all taken during the weekend of the game: 8,541 total room occupancy bookings with most of those bookings covered between two and four guests.... Orr added that hotel rates increased by 60 per cent during the month, from about $105 a night in February 2005 to an average of $167 during the month of Super Bowl.
  
  We're usually at 50 to 60 per cent occupancy, nowhere near that capacity. So it was huge.""




• 06-15-2006 Earlier this year, the Super Bowl alone was responsible for 8,541 room nights and a $20 million economic benefit to the region, said Orr

See how things get hyped and then reality sets in a long time later. Why we were going to make $100M or $80M but now it looks like $20M (more about that later). We had 4,400 rooms at first but must have lost 400 of them. We were supposed to have 20-30,000 tourists but might have had 8-16,000. The conservative spending of $3,000 per visitor went down to US$966 not including accommodation.

Let's try and figure out what Windsor actually made on the Super Bowl weekend using Gord Orr's numbers since he should know. Let's make some assumptions:

• 4,000 rooms with 3 people per room or 12,000 tourists staying 2 nights
• US$966 per person
• $167 per night for a room for 8,541 rooms

Room charges = $1,500,000

Spending per person= US$11,592,000 or about CDN. $13,200,000

But normally we are 60% full but let's say 50% so that the total of $14,700,000 is now down to $7,350,000. Throw in a few million for "contract work" and maybe we hit $10 million.

Is $10 million a good number? You bet it is! But it is not $100Million

Is 12,000 tourists a good number? You bet it is. But it is not 20-30,000

Is US$966 a good number? You bet it is. But it is not $3,000

Is the Cleary deal good for downtown Windsor? You bet it is. But a few hundred students will not fill up the 30-50% of the office space that is vacant downtown.

I wish that this kind of story telling would stop. People of Windsor are smart enough to be able to deal with the true facts. We do need any more exaggeration.