I Toldo You So

I just cannot figure out what is going on with this arena stuff. I won't even try and tell you what has gone on either.

All I know is that we were to have one downtown, then ran Beztak out of town when they proposed building one there at no cost to us, then we gave exclusivity for several months to the Raceway who wanted $15 million of taxpayer money, then we looked at an East end mega-entertainment complex at a cost of around $80 million that we were going to build on our own and now we have the Raceway again. And in the process we threw out refurbishing the Barn. Does that sum up our near history?

I saw a Star story by Gord Henderson praising the raceway deal. He claims that "Plans for a 6,500-seat arena and entertainment complex at Windsor Raceway are complete and construction of the $38-million project could begin within six months of a green light from city council." Gord makes the obvious statment as well "Given that this is a municipal election year and that city residents have been waiting decades for a new arena to replace the 81-year-old McDougall Street rink, it’s difficult to imagine city councillors turning down an arrangement that limits the city’s financial exposure to $15 million."

Then there was the Star headline on Saturday "Mayor cools arena buzz" The story went on: "the city's mayor says there's a lot more work to be done..."From our perspective, a deal of this nature requires a lot of due diligence and a lot of details to be satisfied," said Mayor Eddie Francis."

Huh, do you get it? I sure don't! Eddie's statement makes it seem like the old Jebb deal that fell apart, "There has to be a solid business plan that justifies this. City council and I are not going to get into a deal that does not make business sense and that doesn't meet the needs of the community. And we continue to ask for information." But would Eddie leave Gord out on a limb like this?

What are the alternatives to consider:

1. Pretend that we are interested in building an arena to buy time to give the Casino the opportunity to finish their complex and make another arena uneconomic
2. This is typical Eddie Francis--study something to death to avoid making a decision that could turn out wrong; procedure beats action every time
3. Kill the idea but do it nicely and blame Council, not the Mayor, since Tony Toldo is an important man
4. Kill the idea by having Administration do a Report and build an East End arena since there is Councillor support for it
5. Work over Councillors with Henderson election scare tactics since there is no support for a Raceway arena on Council right now (Before, the Raceway had those Councillors who want the project downtown against them, they had the Budgeteers against them and they have those who believe that Beztak was treated shabbily against them. Now they will have those who committed to an East End arena against them)
6. It's a done deal but pretend it's on again, off again like the St. Clair/Cleary deal to keep the arena in the headlines for the next few months so that when Eddie pulls it off, he is our hero.

I guess we will all have to wait as this plays itself out. Again

PS. I just read this quote in today's Star which to me sums up Eddie. How many of the points above does it cover:

"Some councillors hoped that could happen as soon as Thursday, when a special meeting is already scheduled, but Francis doubts detailed reports will be ready that soon. At least one city councillor is on vacation, and procedure requires at least a week's notice of meetings, the mayor added...Francis said he wants councilors to have detailed analyses of both proposals so they can clearly decide what's in the city's best interests. "We're working on that," he said. "