Best Analysis of Council's Preds Subsidy Vote

After reminding us that this could have been much worse had Nashville's Original Sugar Daddy of Sport Phil Bredesen been conducting Metro's monetary giveaway, PiTH's Matt Pulle concludes:

the timing of the council's vote is wretched: Right when the city is preparing to can 200 Metro employees, it's electing to give super-wealthy owners of a professional sports team a multi-million dollar handout to run their money-losing business. But if we let the team go, supporters of the deal say, the arena would lose its No. 1 tenant. And don't forget that thousands of Predators fans wouldn't be coming downtown to spend their money anymore. So, yes, it's hard to dismiss those points outright, but the arena did just fine in the first two years before the Predators came to town. More importantly, no objective study has shown that the benefits of having a hockey team playing downtown outweigh the costs of propping up its existence. It wouldn't surprise me if that were true, but shouldn't our city be armed with more than a hunch before we agree to a five-year deal?

Matt also gives proper respect to CM Megan Barry, who once again proved why Nashville is not worthy of her leadership. I wouldn't blame her for moving to some other cool place that doesn't need to pay a hockey team millions to convince itself that it is cool. Austin sounds about right. Go, Ice Bats!