I Still Like Jim Irsay

[GoColts8818]

who knew elton john is a colts fan

If you can't love a millionare who is willing to dress up like that what can you love?

No seriously Irsay might be a little goofy and he's clearly not a stay out of sight owner like the Simons who own the Pacers but he's been very good to this city. He has spared no expense at building us a winner (we've been in the playoffs every year but four times since he took over as owner) and has been very invovled in the community. I know Phil B wanted to do a story on Irsay and all the things he's done for people over the years that hasn't been talked about and when he went to talk to Irasy about it Irsay told him don't write the story I didn't do those things to get attention for them I did them because it was the right thing to do and what anyone who is as blessed as I am should do. When pressed about it on the interview Phil B. said what made him want to do it was a mom wrote him saying her family had a fire one night and lost everything and she was out of work and had no idea what she was going to do and out of no where a check from Jim Irsay showed up to replace everything because he saw the story on the news and just wanted to help.

Honeslty I am not sure what else people would want from him unless it just boils down to if he releases Peyton he's evil and if keeps Peyton he's a hero. That's how this off-season has gone with him. When he fired the Polians he was hero. When it didn't look like he was going to fired Caldwell he didn't know what he was he doing and was a terriable owner. When he did fire Caldwell he was back to being a hero. Now it's on to Peyton and I predict if he does what most people want and keeps Peyton he'll be a hero again but if he releases Peyton he'll be back to being a terriable owner in some people's minds.

[Superman]

For anyone questioning the wisdom to use money on sports to help grow the city I would really suggest checking out from Naptown to Super City if you can find either on WFYI or from the Star (they are the ones who produced it). It does a great story of telling how the city used sports to grow the city of Indianapolis. I think all this fits under you have to spend money to make money.

What's not figured into any of the Super Bowl talk is all the free advertising the city got and the future business that may lead to. The Super Bowl told the world once and for all Indianapolis is a big league city and those kinds of things can be invaluable. There has been a major shift in how the midwest in viewed I heard one guy said when you thought of the midwest you thought of Chicagio first and then Detroit, St. Louis and Cincy. He said that is rapidly changing to still Chicagio first but now Indianapols and Louisville are the cities right behind it. Our city is growing at time a lot of cities in the Midwest are shrinking and Sports has been a major factor in that.

Also I know you aren't questioning it I was just building on what you said.

I agree with you, obviously.

To the bolded, you don't have to look at the future business. Look at the business that Indy has gotten because of LOS since they broke ground: JW Marriott, Big Ten championship and tourney, etc. I would contend that, even if the city loses $800k during Super Bowl week, they've already cleared that $800k in profit from other events over the last four years.

[oldunclemark]

To focus on the short term is to be shortsighted.

1) You're focusing on one event, but the Big Ten has committed to having their football championship game at LOS from 2011 to 2015. The NCAA Final Four was in Indy in 2010, and will be again 2015. The Big Ten tournament is in Indy from 2008-12, and will be again in 2014 and 2016. The Combine is in Indy every year. I'm not saying none of those events would have been in Indy without building LOS, but I think it's safe to say that building LOS helped. Not to mention the other events that are held there, all of which benefit local businesses, which benefits the city and it's bottom line.

2) Speaking of which, the more tourism the city attracts, the faster the tourism taxes add up, helping to offset the cost of the projects.

..and the Monster Trucks rule the LOS twice a year....

Sold out....and that's Lucas Oil.....sponsoring, right?/

Ever been downtown on one of those nights???

You dont mess with the Monster Trucks