From the Tennessean's breathless waste of time--in the form of the Preds countdown to (a false) deadline--to the City Paper's community-scolding, obfuscating "analysis" on why spending exponentially more on professional sport is just as good as building greenways, the local media has not taken the gloves off and pinned the details of the new Predator's deal against the glass.We know why the CP won't do it: because their ownership is enmeshed with Predators' ownership. But this morning's Tennessean editorial is a fluffy ode to achieving the ends of keeping the Preds without any hard look at the costs of the means to get there. It's all good to the Tennessean editors, who could plausibly be angling for increased access to luxury suite space.
But at least the deal is done and we don't have to listen to any more hysterics or limp fawning beyond that which the local sports media typically gives the Preds (or the Titans, for that matter). And now the Predators can continue to fail to fill their stands in peace. The Mayor was the major hurdle. The rest of the process is window dressing.
But I am left with a question: have you bought your Predator's season tickets yet? If you support this deal in talk, Davidson County hockey fan (or are they indeed pretty much all from Williamson County?), then it's time to walk that walk.
We're stuck with the bills now, and those of us who opposed giving in and giving more than before are looking to you fan(anatic)s to pull your optimistic share of this load by buying tickets; lots and lots of tickets. And please don't stop until the Predators' lawyers start pushing in a couple of years to get the team out of this contract. Only at that point where they once again try to stampede their
You're dead on on this one, Mike.
ReplyDeleteA very simple analysis of the deal (and one which, assuming Mr. Dean really was that good as our Legal Director as we all believe him to be) would demonstrate that we are giving the Predators MORE per year under the new deal than we would have if we had swallowed our pride and written a check for the difference in revenue guaranteed under the deal that bound the team to Nashville a week ago.
The media helped to create a frenzy and our city leadership fell for it.
Nice to see, though, that Mayor Dean will be at the Predators Rally on Monday, although neither he nor anyone else from his staff bothered to show at the CNS event on resegregation in Nashville's schools or at last week's School Board's resegregation meeting. The media didn't bother to cover that, either.