3/26/2006: Japanese indoor beach

[ashke]

It looks so orderly...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Welcome to the Cellar, StereoMike.

Originally Posted by Elspode

Not to worry...this thing doesn't have a prayer of passing, and with its defeat, we will, before too long, have two large, empty, deteriorating stadia sitting right alongside I-70, testimony to the one horse town Kansas City once was and will be once again.

Meanwhile, in a town somewhere else in America, there are people who have never had a football or baseball team who are ready to kill each other to get to the polls first to vote to be taxed to have what we are going to lose.

Do you really think a population should judge their worth, as a whole or as individuals, on the possession of sports franchises? Can't you think of better things to spend hundreds of millions on than a bunch of overpaid whiners?

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Do you really think a population should judge their worth, as a whole or as individuals, on the possession of sports franchises?

It would be slightly more understandable if it were possession. As it is, the sports teams are rentals. And expensive ones at that.

/living through the DC baseball extortion phase.

[glatt]

Thank god you guys got that stadium, and it didn't come to Virginia.

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Do you really think a population should judge their worth, as a whole or as individuals, on the possession of sports franchises? Can't you think of better things to spend hundreds of millions on than a bunch of overpaid whiners?

Well, sure, there's lots of better things. But people aren't going to pass that, either (although we are now building a shiny new arena that was badly needed). But - it is a definite facet of a first-line city that you have professional sports, and preferably not just Arena Football, Team Tennis or Minor League Hockey. I don't make the rules, I just note them. Society is funny that way. No major league sports franchises build their own stadia anymore, anywhere. The business of pro sports is conducted in venues paid for by public funds. Sometimes the teams will pay for lavish window dressing and excess that the public just won't spring for, but the basic stadia, arenas and ballparks are virtually always public edifices.

Besides...I think pro sports fill the niche left empty by the collapse of the Roman Empire, taking gladiatorial contests with it. Football is ritualized combat, complete with everything but swords and shields. I think society needs that sort of thing. However, because it is inherently anti-intellectual and pretty much stupid to pay gazillions of dollars for it, a city/county/state has to pretty much all agree that it is worth *something*...on whatever basis...to have it. That' why we're voting - to find out if people think it is worth it.

I, for one, will miss it when it is gone. Hell, I just had season tickets. Sniff.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well, I guess the public should kick in for the facilities, seeing how the owners spend hundreds of millions to bring us teams we can be proud of..... like the Eagles and Yankees.