Arena Is Off The Track

The people of Windsor have been used!

Who is the spin doctor feeding us all of the dreams, the artistic impressions, the "bread and circuses!" Whose job has it been to distract the public from the reality?

Are we not finally fed up with the hypocrisy of the political machinations in this City? Are we not tired of the secrecy? Are we not tired of the inability of our City Government to do anything! If we are not yet disgusted, then the handling of the Arena deal at the Raceway should do that for us.

Here is what the Star reported on December 20, 2005"

• "Windsor Raceway has submitted an arena proposal to the city that will be made public next month.
  
  "We have received an official letter and they have outlined their position to us," said chief administrative officer John Skorobohacz.
  
  Skorobohacz would not reveal details of the submission or whether it was a business proposal.
  
  "I'd rather not report on the details," said Skorobohacz.
  
  Administration will present a report on the raceway's proposal to council next month."

Wow, I thought, a letter outlining their position. It must be something to require that much time to review. I wondered what kind of plan we would get. I hoped it would be spectacular given the time period that had passed. It had better be after Beztak I thought! I was a bit confused why it was the Raceway writing and not the Jebb Group since the Raceway was only the "landlord" but...

Oh I knew a Raceway arena would be iffy financially since Gord Henderson had prepared us for the worst a few weeks ago. But I was sure it would be something to build on. I relished watching the fight at Council between those who wanted and those who opposed the arena.

The letter sent by the Raceway is shown above and it along with Administration's Report is posted at the City website at http://www.citywindsor.ca/DisplayAttach.asp?AttachID=3932

It is an extremely complex letter given its length as I am sure you can tell that must take a long time to comprehend fully. Its content is so substantial and full of "details" that it clearly needed a month of study by Administration before it could arrive at its conclusion: refer the proposal to a Council strategy session ie keep another failure out of public view!

Isn't it co-incidental that it will be in front of Council right after the Super Bowl, more than a month after it was delivered to the City. That should keep it quiet especially if the matter goes "on consent!" No reason to stir up the sports fans before the Big Game eh!

What did we learn in the Report---That the process started in August 8 but it appears that Client Services took their task so highly that they only met with the Raceway over 4 months later and only after the Raceway had pulled the plug!

Were there not any meetings before with the Mayor or Administration? Didn't anyone at City Hall suspect that there was a problem? Did anyone care or was Super Bowl all-consuming!

And we also learned, surprise, surprise, that the new Casino expansion "complicates" the matter. It does not appears that the Jebb Group was putting any money into the arena project: just the Raceway with its land and the City's $15 million

Come on now. No one really expected this to work out. The votes were never there on Council for a new arena anyway. The interim control by-law, kiddie bars only in the downtown, no competition from the Cleary, arena at the raceway, discussions for months all protected the Casino from any competition.

Remember Beztak? They had the nerve to mess this up. Imagine, building an arena downtown at no cost to the City. We could not have that could we! So we had the Council Inquisition to chase them out of town and the big leak to Gord:

• "the raceway plan involves an 8,000-seat arena and three other revenue-generating ice pads on a 30-acre site with 3,000 parking spaces adjacent to a refurbished slot palace and raceway grandstand. The proposal, like the one seven years ago, would feature a Wayne Gretzky restaurant and a Gretzky sports hall of fame utilizing the Toronto Dominion bank facade that's been in storage since the Norwich Block demolition.
  
  There's even a proposal to locate the restored Lancaster in the arena atrium. Other features would include a sports medic training centre, hotel, workout centre and retail outlets. In other words, a sports/entertainment attraction that would pay taxes instead of enjoying tax holidays."
  
  
  

To be direct, Gord, you have the obligation to your readers now to reveal who leaked this BS to you so that you could keep us quiet. Whose idea was it to tell you of these grand plans so that we would wait breathlessly for the big day. Oh when someone knew there were problems, he/she leaked that to you to too so you could prepare us for the worst.

Who, Gord? Who was it? Come on now. It is no longer an issue of a journalist protecting his confidential source but that of a journalist who should be telling us who is trying to sell a "dream" that never had a chance of moving forward.

We need to know who is doing the spinning . Who is using us. Who is trying to sell us another Schwartz-type dream but this time for the arena to hide the real intentions. It is time for the silly and childish games to end!