Posted Sep 28, 2018, 9:17 PM
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 1,723
|
|
Here's an excerpt from Paul Wiecek's column today, in which he pointed out the Bomber's revenues have been enough since they moved into IGF to pay their debt and mortgage.
"Imagine going into a bank and saying: "Look, I know we both agreed to amortize my mortgage over 45 years. And I know I’ve successfully been making my payments for the last five years. But I’ve decided paying my debts is no longer ‘sustainable’ for me, despite the fact nothing has recently changed with my financial situation, except that it has improved.
"So how about you write off the entire loan and, from now on, I will give you 10 bucks a month and we’ll call it even. Deal?"
You’d get run out of any respectable bank. But, well, government...
I understand why the Bombers and Miller would be willing to swallow a little pride and announce, after further review, they’d prefer to be just another deadbeat living off the taxpayers. A little pride is a small price to pay for an almost-free stadium.
I understand why the Tories — a party that sells itself on its supposedly prudent financial stewardship — would do so: it’s another chance to blame the previous NDP government for something.
In the end, the only losers in this shady deal are the taxpayers and the fans of a football team that now, once again, has zero incentive to improve its product.
Do you know what was great about having the Bombers owning a mortgage that tested their limits every year? It forced them to get better — on the field and off — after decades of gross incompetence.
You can argue everything good that has happened to this team in the last few seasons — from the upgraded Canadian talent on the field to the improved gameday experience off of it — has its roots in a financial arrangement that demanded, if not excellence, at least competence in a way not the case when they played at old Canad Inns Stadium."
|