I’ve been proud to be a Hoosier all my life. So what do non-Hoosiers think about when you say Indiana? Why, basketball of course. We’ve got an awesome movie about it, Bobby Knight (I promise I won’t go there on this blog) and class basketball (which is NOT awesome and I may go there someday). I love basketball just as much as the next guy. In fact, it’s March, quite possibly the best time of year for basketball.
But this is a political blog, not a sports blog, so back to my original thoughts. There has been a lot of chatter about basketball on the blogs lately. Many folks in the blogosphere have had much to say about the Pacers, Conseco Fieldhouse and the Capital Improvement Board. You can read it for yourself here, here and here. I’ve read it all, and everyone has a motive for posting their theory of what has happened and why. More on that later.
What I really want to do is give one piece of advice to the Simon’s who, despite being a very successful family otherwise, have apparently lost money in 26 of the 28 years that they have owned the Pacers. My advice is simple and pretty straight forward. It actually saves taxpayer dollars too: Keep Your Players Out of Jail.
Shocking concept, I know. It’s a wonder that most of society can abide by all those pesky criminal laws, but somehow we manage. Look, no one wants to take their kids to see the thugs that play for you. And if an NBA basketball game can’t be a family affair, then you’ve lost a lot in ticket sales. There are many options to achieve this goal…security guards, private drivers, vetting (although let’s hope they can vet better than Obama can).
But the Simon’s either haven’t grasped this or have begun to accept it as a normal cost of business to operate this way. Matthew Tully hit the nail on the head here. Just Say No Indianapolis. Or at least, put a condition on the Simon’s request: before you start begging for a bailout, from politicians who know their own cost of business if they give you a bailout, can we get a Felony Free year? Please? It’s really a simple request, just takes a lot of that stuff folks call tough love.
