Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Mayor Who Saved the Colts



It looks like Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson is going down in defeat tonight. We can talk ad nauseam about how high the local property taxes are (I sold my house this summer because of insanely high taxes), yet I come not to bury Bart Peterson, but to praise him.

In college at Indiana I wrote a business school paper about the fight for a new Colts stadium. At the time, Jim Irsay said he wasn't sure it was a good idea, perhaps implying that the market was just too small to support a team. Bart Peterson was among a small group of civic leaders who had the foresight to realize that if the city lost the Colts it would undo a large chunk of the progress the city has made in the past twenty years. Peterson made it his personal mission to make sure the team stayed. I voted for him in the last election based only on his positive stance towards the Colts. Yes, I'm that kind of crazy.

I want to say thanks to Bart Peterson. He is right up there with the honorable Bill Hudnut, as far as I'm concerned. Mayor Hudnut was the mayor who brought us the Indianapolis Colts. Bart Peterson was the Mayor who helped to save them.

3 comments:

andyfest said...

True, he did keep the Colts here and for that he deserves praise. However, the deception surrounding the total cost of the stadium is one of the main reasons I voted against him.

Jason said...

"However, the deception surrounding the total cost of the stadium is one of the main reasons I voted against him."

Sure, pal, whatever.

Anonymous said...

You can't have it both ways. People like to hold Robert Kraft up and go "Hey, he built and financed his own stadium, with NO help from the state of Massachusetts!" The thing about it is that he built it in the middle of nowhere, and the Patriots are one of the largest markets in the NFL, second only to the Cowboys. The Colts equivalent would have been building the stadium in Muncie.

Instead, we're getting one of the best new stadiums in the NFL, a probable Super Bowl in 2012, and we have a downtown stadium that's within walking distance to just about everything downtown. Also, let's not forget that the eventual demolition of the RCA Dome allows for the expansion of the convention center.

If my taxes have to go up by $20 a year to keep the Colts in Indianapolis, and have a great place to take my kids to see a football game someday, then so be it.