Finally, Some Lubricant for the Taxpayers!
Sometimes I spend a lot of time putting a show topic together for my radio program. I will go to a meeting, do research and conduct interviews. And sometimes, topics just fall out of the sky. My other friends in the media are reporting that Lucas Oil, a manufacturer of automobile lubricants, will likely be announced as the company to get the naming rights which could be worth about $50 million to the Colts, because they get to keep the money under the terms of the lease agreement.
Now think about this for just a second. I think it is rather ironic that a manufacturer of lubricants gets the naming rights to the Stadium. Lubricants. That’s what Lucas Oil makes, lubricants. Now while they make lubricants for automobiles, you also use lubricants for other things. Think about it for a second. What else do lubricants get used for? Need a hint, let’s look at some facts about the Stadium and how it applies to the taxpayers.
First, the Colts are “contributing” $100 million to the project. Well that’s not right, because they’re getting back $48 million as part of the breaking of the lease agreement. So now they’re contributing $52 million. The Colts have also been guaranteed a portion of the ticket sales from non-football events, up to $3 million per year if my memory serves me correctly. The Stadium Building Authority is also taking over maintenance. And remember, when the deal was being negotiated, the Colts balked at the $3 ticket tax to help pay for the Stadium and did not want to reserve a number of low-cost seats for you and your family, even though every time you go out to eat you’re helping foot the bill. And here’s the real kicker. There is an ordinance before the Indianapolis City-County Council that would let the Colts use the city’s credit rating to purchase municipal bonds to build the stadium. While the Colts would pay the bonds back, they would save about $55 million in interest payments over the life of the bonds. Thanks in part to the taxpayers of Marion County. And remember, we’ve been told this isn’t the Colts Stadium and that they will only be there less than two dozen days a year. Whatever!
Now do you see the irony of a lubricant company getting the naming rights to the Stadium? While I have always thought the Stadium/Convention Center were good ideas for the economic growth of Indianapolis and the region, I also think the Colts should have picked up a lot more of the tab and not the taxpayers. As more information about the deal became public and I looked at what the Colts were getting and what the taxpayers were giving up, I thought someone was getting screwed. And now it looks like I’ll have the lubricant to prove it.
P.S. If the new stadium is called the Lucas Oil Stadium Field, the acronym will be LOSe.
