Newest Ballpark Trust Revealing

[Renaissance]

Everyone can relax because it's a done deal.

But honestly, if you can't see that there's an unstated but clear quid pro quo operating for the "donors" beyond simple altruism, you're either naive or willfully blind.

The people who donated did so because it got them a seat at the profitable table of stadium district development. They paid for control. And they're still getting that control, albeit less than they originally hoped for.  It's quite possible that this is the only reason Mayor Taylor was able to make $30 million appear out of thin air.

And you ask, why not? Why shouldn't they control it?

Because of what happened to Will Wilkins and Novus. This set of control freaks intends to push out the little guy. They've made clear there is no room for the kind of entrepreneur who has been the ONLY ONE keeping Tulsa's core alive. These "philanthropists" are crashing the downtown party and taking it over.  At least we'll have a nice ballpark.

Here is the equivalent for those of you who aren't grasping Wrinkle's point. Remember Global Development Partners, who wanted to build a similar development in the East End using the Nordam site? What if they had come to the city saying, "Hello city. We're going to create this beautiful development and control how it looks, but all the other property owners in downtown have to pay half."  We might think about their offer--we might even make it happen--but at least we'd see it for what it was, which would be a subsidized business arrangement.

Now granted, in this case it won't be the Trust itself that profits. But the builders and developers they choose to create this Stadium District surely will. And we are handing control over to this Trust, thereby reducing accountability for the use of public funds.  In this project, to donate is to gain control.  To gain control is to gain benefit. Pay to play. Quid pro quo.

I want a stadium downtown as much as anyone and made more noise about it on this forum than anyone. But that's not blinding me to the flawed manner in which Mayor Taylor and the donors have decided to make it happen.  I just hope she doesn't read this and start crying again because we're not all "coming together."

[Breadburner]

Excelent work Wrinkle and Floyd......Some of the others need to take off the Rose colored glasses....

[RecycleMichael]

I disagree with the argument that all this is being done so some donors can make even more money. That might be true for some, but I truly believe that most of the money is being donated because they want to build a stadium that revitalizes downtown. Be cynical all you want. I disagree.

I hope this trust does what it is intended to do. Build a beautiful stadium, surround it with new restaurants and nightspots, and make downtown a welcoming place for families again.

[MDepr2007]

How long until we hear about our taxes going to these downtown roads??

Hehe I did get a chuckle at Henderson talking about this is something for North Tulsa and in North Tulsa finally[}:)][}:)]

[TulsaSooner]

quote:Originally posted by MDepr2007

How long until we hear about our taxes going to these downtown roads??

As a downtown employee, I can assure you ever inch of street in downtown has already been under construction and completed in the last 3 years.  []

[RecycleMichael]

Hurray!

Good job to all the councilors for doing the research to get this trust in the right agreement.

Now we can build a stadium that brings the northeast corner of our downtown to life. This is going to spur lots of new stuff.

Play Ball!

[MDepr2007]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

Hurray!

Good job to all the councilors for doing the research to get this trust in the right agreement.

Now we can build a stadium that brings the northeast corner of our downtown to life. This is going to spur lots of new stuff.

Play Ball!

I am sure someone will come up with something else in a year or so that will be needed, to spur growth that you'll still be waiting on.

Chuckie ain't signed on the dotted line yet []

[RecycleMichael]

Do you wanna bet he signs it?

Give me a break. The contract got approved by the city at 8pm last night and you go on a public forum before 8am the next morning and say it ain't signed by both parties yet.

Your point is...you want to imply something is not going to happen when you know it is.

Sorry. your negativity is lame. Stop being against everything.

[swake]

Good news.

I just hope the delays have not pushed back the opening date.

[TheArtist]

Thank goodness they finally got this going. Not the perfect way to have done this perhaps, but they made a looot of changes that made it ok imo. I hope they announce an official start date to get construction going and really hope we get to see some finalized stadium plans real soon. We should see some announcements for new developments going in around the ballpark within the next 4-5 months.

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by MDepr2007

How long until we hear about our taxes going to these downtown roads??

Hehe I did get a chuckle at Henderson talking about this is something for North Tulsa and in North Tulsa finally[}:)][}:)]

True dat. I thought that was complete B.S. It will be interesting to see if any of the developers brought in to develop the areas around the stadium will be small minority owned businesses or if the tenants will be small minority owned businesses.

[Conan71]

I believe hope the stadium lives up to my expecation of this being the best thing to happen to downtown that 30 years of DTU has failed to accomplish.  

I still cannot comprehend why it is so essential for this city to make everything so damned difficult and appear to benefit an ever-tightening inner-circle.  How they don't see that marginalizing guys like Will Wilkins in favor of trusts made up of much more prominent Tulsa entities smells like corruption to the common person is puzzling.  I don't know if it's arrogance or being obtuse.

I agree with whomever said it, they leveraged baseball to get what else they wanted.  Our options, if we wanted baseball downtown, were narrowed down to:

A) The Trust

B) The Trust

C) The Trust

D) All Of The Above

I'm thrilled as hell that downtown is getting the Drillers.  I'm really ashamed we've been put through a Mickey Mouse system of conditional philanthropy to get them there.

[MDepr2007]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

Do you wanna bet he signs it?

Give me a break. The contract got approved by the city at 8pm last night and you go on a public forum before 8am the next morning and say it ain't signed by both parties yet.

Your point is...you want to imply something is not going to happen when you know it is.

Sorry. your negativity is lame. Stop being against everything.

Sorry I didn't see the news that the city signed the "in principal" agreement.
Bring the ballpark but stop the politics and schemes. This was another example of why we have limited river development. The pie has to be sliced by a certain person and only certain people get a slice depending on who got to cook it up. or something nutty like that[:X]

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

I believe hope the stadium lives up to my expecation of this being the best thing to happen to downtown that 30 years of DTU has failed to accomplish.  

I still cannot comprehend why it is so essential for this city to make everything so damned difficult and appear to benefit an ever-tightening inner-circle.  How they don't see that marginalizing guys like Will Wilkins in favor of trusts made up of much more prominent Tulsa entities smells like corruption to the common person is puzzling.  I don't know if it's arrogance or being obtuse.

I agree with whomever said it, they leveraged baseball to get what else they wanted.  Our options, if we wanted baseball downtown, were narrowed down to:

A) The Trust

B) The Trust

C) The Trust

D) All Of The Above

I'm thrilled as hell that downtown is getting the Drillers.  I'm really ashamed we've been put through a Mickey Mouse system of conditional philanthropy to get them there.

The Mayor holds the ultimate responsibility for the fiasco of how this was handled. It's time to start holding her accountable for her public disservices.

[MDepr2007]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

Do you wanna bet he signs it?

Give me a break. The contract got approved by the city at 8pm last night and you go on a public forum before 8am the next morning and say it ain't signed by both parties yet.

Your point is...you want to imply something is not going to happen when you know it is.

Sorry. your negativity is lame. Stop being against everything.

I am sure glad no one was in a hurry for the council to finish their part....