The CIB Is Working Hard For the Pacers

Time is tight for me today, so I will be sending you to read some good blogs arising from two IBJ articles on the CIB and its finances. Short story is that the CIB is crowing about how well it turned around its failed finances; so much so they are pulling a profit now and don't need the State's gracious offer for a $27 million loan at 5 % plus interest rate. All that despite the partially successful 'end times for downtown' campaign they waged all year to secure wads of money that at times added up to $50 million this year and another $50 million this year and every year going forward. A few short hours later the CIB is reported to be eyeballing that loan and talking about that $15 million gift per year, every year going forward, to the Simons and Pacers to run Conseco Fieldhouse. The Pacers already get 100% of all revenue from the Fieldhouse, but you know how hard it can be to pull a profit when you can't fill the seats for your home games because you picked players whose antics turned the community sour on your franchise.

Here are the originating IBJ article links:

http://www.ibj.com/cib-finances-improving-though-concerns-remain/PARAMS/article/11031

http://www.ibj.com/cib-may-accept-27-million-state-loan-after-all/PARAMS/article/11050

And the great blog entries by Paul Ogden and Gary Welsh:

http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2009/11/cib-likely-to-accept-27-million-loan.html

http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2009/11/cib-sees-surplus-but-will-still-borrow.html

Let me just add, all the seats for the Capital Improvement Board of Managers are ended January 15, 2010 -- this by the same legislation that allowed the City Council to increase the Hotel Tax by 1% to capture another $4 million a year and expand the Professional Sports Development Area to capture another $8 million a year, and offer the $9 million a year loan for three years from the state to the CIB. The same old people can be reappointed, but hopefully the appointing bodies will not be so lame in their decisions. Top of my list to be gone are Bob Grand, who represents the Pacers and has always had a clear conflict of interest, and Pat Early who has served on the CIB for nearly a generation and helped negotiate the original Conseco Fieldhouse contract and who has been the prime cheerleader for giving the ENTIRE store away to the Pacers, just like he voted for the ENTIRE store be given to the Colts.

All of this sudden burst of energy directed to the benefit of the Simons and the Pacers may be so that their work is done before a responsible Board takes their place. Well, I would hope a responsible Board takes their place. That awaits the list of appointees and some time for their ambitions to be assessed.