The hits just keep on coming for the dirty birds. Looks like that sweet lease deal might go bye bye soon.... See the whole tweet string here.
Auditor Mike Harmon tweetstorm Re: LAA audit
- Thread starter Ugoff
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He said in 8 years of operation, the YUM center has only paid down $8 M in debt. At this rate only 341 years left. Yee-Ha! Let's have a party.
this is seriously the best off season a UK basketball fan could ask for. but in all seriousness I don't understand how the City of Louisville basically keeps letting tax payers keep the chicken bucket afloat, I mean u of l is not gonna go back to playing in freedom hall. it makes no sense for the city to continue to let those crooks hold them hostage, they have no real power over the city.
UofL goes from having 25 million dollar revenue to 45 million dollars
Meanwhile, Louisville Arena Authority (city) goes from 75 million to 17 milliion in revenue
In-freaking-sane
Tax payers bailing out that corrupt university is an absolute joke,, make them go back to freedom hall, give the yum center to the city and lets get a NBA team
I'm sorry: you can't look at anyone with a straight face and say it wasn't a crocked deal
There is a Direct correlation between states like Tennessee getting NBA teams and apathy toward the college programs. UK and Alabama have the biggest fanbases in both major sports, neither have a pro franchise.
No thanks on the pro teams.
You can put 10 NBA teams in Kentucky, I am still gonna be a die hard UK fan to the day I die
And in order to justify evicting UofL from the Yum Center, you have to have something that will fill its spot
And in order to justify evicting UofL from the Yum Center, you have to have something that will fill its spot
Long time ago. Hell the NFL wasn't even nearly as popular as college football back then.
I watched Tennessee go from a UT football state to an NFL franchise state in 5 years time. Tennessee football hasn't really recovered. I also watched the Grizzlies hurt memphis college basketball, creating what their fans call modern UofM apathy.
I fear if Kentucky started getting into professional teams, over time it wouod have a negative impact on the program. Louisville sports would take a massive hit though.
I think tenn is just as passionate about ut football as ever. i don't know, maybe attendance dropped a bit since they're not winning as much as when fulmer was there.
Until cal arrived at memphis they hadn't been relevent nationally since keith lee when they were memphis state. i take your word that they've been hurt by the nba.
i dont think a pro team in louisville will hurt UK basketball. louisville has always felt like it was its own entity and not really part of the state
Yes and this is for ALL events at Yum. UL even gets a 50% cut of concert merchandise sales. The people who negotiated this deal were largely partisan UL hacks. This is what corruption looks like.
A pro team would be awesome for the city.
Having an NBA team wouldn't cause apathy towards UK imo
I believe UT had the # 4 or 5 recruiting class in the country (football) this year ?
They had a bit of a slide but they'll be back.
Look at Thr state of FLA. fsu, UF etc- huge huge fan bases ... along with pro teams
I guess its just my experience in Tennessee. Half of my family is from Kentucky but I was born and raised in tn. Before the Titans UT football seemed much more important to them. When they're under performing nowadays they always seem to bring up the Titans. I see way less UT signs, flags, hats etc than I did in 1995. Not even close really.
As for Memphis, I wasn't necessarily talking about success, but fan participation and loyalty was muuuch stronger before the Grizzlies. Growing up around the area it was all Memphis Tigers basketball all the time in school and in the city. Fast foward 20 years and most of the tiger hats have been replaced by Grizzly hats. Most UM fans are fairly open about the apathy created by the pro franchise, and die hards feared it in the beginning.
For example, Memphis and Louisville have no love for each other. I visit the biggest memphis basketball message board quite often, and not one thread about Louisville losing a title. 12-15 years ago there would have been a parade.
Indiana sports have nose dived and you'll hear their fans bring up pro sports as a coping mechanism. UCLA basketball is a distant 10th behind every pro team in the state. I look at my own personal experience in Tennessee and compare those situations with Kentucky and Alabama. I think there's some truth to it. UA and UK have one real tradition.
People under 30 set the trends of how these things work. If Kids in Kentucky have a pro team who's competative, they're probably not going to care as much about Kentucky basketball missing the final four. Id hate to see the state become a "there's always the pro's coming up" type of way.
But It would be cool to have a pro team called "The Kentucky Thorkbreds" or something. Id be a die hard day one, regardless. Proving my own point.
I guess its just my experience in Tennessee. Half of my family is from Kentucky but I was born and raised in tn. Before the Titans UT football seemed much more important to them. When they're under performing nowadays they always seem to bring up the Titans. I see way less UT signs, flags, hats etc than I did in 1995. Not even close really.
As for Memphis, I wasn't necessarily talking about success, but fan participation and loyalty was muuuch stronger before the Grizzlies. Growing up around the area it was all Memphis Tigers basketball all the time in school and in the city. Fast foward 20 years and most of the tiger hats have been replaced by Grizzly hats. Most UM fans are fairly open about the apathy created by the pro franchise, and die hards feared it in the beginning.
For example, Memphis and Louisville have no love for each other. I visit the biggest memphis basketball message board quite often, and not one thread about Louisville losing a title. 12-15 years ago there would have been a parade.
Indiana sports have nose dived and you'll hear their fans bring up pro sports as a coping mechanism. UCLA basketball is a distant 10th behind every pro team in the state. I look at my own personal experience in Tennessee and compare those situations with Kentucky and Alabama. I think there's some truth to it. UA and UK have one real tradition.
People under 30 set the trends of how these things work. If Kids in Kentucky have a pro team who's competative, they're probably not going to care as much about Kentucky basketball missing the final four. Id hate to see the state become a "there's always the pro's coming up" type of way.
But It would be cool to have a pro team called "The Kentucky Thorkbreds" or something. Id be a die hard day one, regardless. Proving my own point.
I dunno man, we are a pretty damn passionate fan base. I can't see many of our fans not caring to much if we miss a FF etc.
just as I think - even with a pro team - A UK title / FF would "mean more " the fans In KY than a pro team
Now, maybe after like 50 years A if our pro teams ends up being consistently good etc; I can see peeps getting REALLY invested and into it - but Uk bball fandom >>> anything else
I think they could peacefully coexist.
Like I'm a huge UK fan in general , but I mean we've always sucked at football and will probably always suck (sans maybe a few 7-4 , 8-3 season ... which isn't even guaranteed) so while I root for the cats in football - anything we accomplish in football is just kinda like icing on the cake
Kentucky is a basketball state - forever and ever lol
WDRB Story on the subject....
McDaniel said Harmon, a Republican and former state representative, is the first public official “with the guts to look at the financial issues surrounding the Yum! Center. McDaniel said the arena deal “unfairly” funnels public money to U of L’s athletic association.
McDaniel said Harmon, a Republican and former state representative, is the first public official “with the guts to look at the financial issues surrounding the Yum! Center. McDaniel said the arena deal “unfairly” funnels public money to U of L’s athletic association.
Isn't it a shame that the State and Louisville approved this years ago and it is tax payer fraud?? Takes this long to bring it light and you have to hope - not know- that the elected officials in this state will correct it? Not know for sure they will but hope they will! Sad
The deal is about to get worse too, the LAA won't be getting banner space rent for the cards 2 most recent banners, Im sure the LAA will be the ones flipping the bill to have the removed also.
Question for the Attorneys? Improbable as it seems would the tax payors of Jefferson County and possibly the State have the grounds to file a class action suit allegeding they were wronged by this scam of a lease?
Mike Harmon really wants to get this into the public eye. I feel like I'm dreaming. Never thought the UL ring of corruption would be brought down.
Where are the piece of shit UL fans who defended the arena deal years ago? We've been talking about the arena authority fiasco for YEARS. It's insane that it has taken this long for re-negotiation to be pushed. UL should be servicing the majority of the bond debt for the arena. End of story.
Didn't Jurich say if push comes to shove UofL can just move to an on campus facility? now that there underhanded financing has been exposed I guess he won't be able to build that.
I appreciate what Mike Harmon is doing. It's high time our duly elected officials actually do what they were elected to do...watch out for our (KY taxpayers) best interests.
Having said that, for those of us who care, isn't this all old news? Those who follow sports in this state have known for at least 5 years that the Yum deal was as crooked as an eastern KY road.
Maybe this is just the start of the hoops that need to be jumped thru to finally force some kind of change, I don't know.
But, I'm tired of hearing how bad the deal is and how taxpayers have been fleeced. I want to see some action that preferably includes indictments!
Having said that, for those of us who care, isn't this all old news? Those who follow sports in this state have known for at least 5 years that the Yum deal was as crooked as an eastern KY road.
Maybe this is just the start of the hoops that need to be jumped thru to finally force some kind of change, I don't know.
But, I'm tired of hearing how bad the deal is and how taxpayers have been fleeced. I want to see some action that preferably includes indictments!
The news of corruption was old but the audit is new. It takes a hefty push to break years of corruption. We are heading in the right direction, IMO.
As someone who grew up in Knoxville, I can say that the passion for Tennessee football dropped when winning at a high level dropped.
They simply haven't had an elite level team since 2007. Has nothing to do with the Titans, who don't even get much attention or thought in Knoxville.
They eventually get the right coach (it ain't Butch Jones), and start winning again at a high level, then there will be 103,000 butts in the seats every home game.
You're probably right and yeah, I know the audit is new. But, is anyone really surprised by what has been revealed? This is UofL we're talking about. Anything...and I do mean ANYTHING they're had their hands on is dirty. More and more evidence of that everyday.
I'm just impatient I guess.
And I love the fact that I'm working 40 hours a week to give my tax dollars to bail out those $&@#^ crooks.
Computer hard drives are being erased and reformatted as we type.
I have observed politics and various elected officials for a long time . I think our Auditor Mike Harman is one of the most courageous and intelligent I have seen.
He is to be commended as he took on a lot of very important people in doing the audit which btw his predecessor refused to perform.
He is to be commended as he took on a lot of very important people in doing the audit which btw his predecessor refused to perform.
Looks like it's back to the carnival fairgrounds with the bearded lady and pixie dust spreaders.
