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March 18, 2005
Ilitch back at the Detroit trough
As if Detroit residents haven't suffered enough since Tigers (and Little Caesar's Pizza) owner Mike Ilitch built Comerica Park largely with their money, now comes word that the 950 seats being added for this summer's All-Star Game will be in part paid for by $400,000 in county money. "Having 950 more seats brings more people to downtown to buy food and beverages and shop," insists city economic development director Mulugetta Birru, which might be an argument if 1) there weren't already plenty of good seats available and 2) Detroit actually still had a downtown.
Birru went on to predict that the new seats "would generate $1.3 million in spillover downtown spending during the week of the All-Star Game" alone, according to the Detroit News, which noted that "that amounts to $1,368 of spending per spectator." I'm also pretty sure that Detroit doesn't have a 30% sales tax, meaning the new tax revenues from even $1.3 million would amount to just a tiny fraction of the county's cost.
Oh, yeah, that's great. Now how are you going to PARK 950 more people's vehicles into an area where there isn't enough parking to provide for ONE stadium, let alone the TWO that are there?
Oh, that's right, they're probably going to demolish all the old buildings around it.
Posted by Eric Blade on June 6, 2005 03:47 AM