KEEPING YOU INFORMED: Anyone Here in Mesa Howling About This Yet?

Not just one but two reports in the last two days have put the focus on off-the-field behind-the-scenes speculation flying under the mainstream media radar.This is just early research and who knows what’s going to happen at this point in the Rio Salgado Crossing - will the deal get sealed by crossing the 'T's and dotting the 'I's ??? . . . and who's playing ball?
Just warming-up now in the bullpen of a new media blitz to use a legislative trickery in another play for taxpayer money to finance yet another stadium here in Mesa

None other than Mesa multi-millionaire mover-and-shaker Bob Worsley might hold the key by pitching a kickback deal scheme to a close-knit cohort of cheerleaders on the sidelines in another field of schemes shaking dollars out-of-the-pockets of taxpayers who financed the construction of Sloan Park to the tune of going into a City of Mesa municipal bond-debt burden of over $200 million dollars to prop up the fortunes of 'elite franchise' Cubbies-owner conservative mega-millionaire Republican Tom Ricketts.

A similar taxpayer-money scheme foisted by a privately-financed $500,000 public relations campaign turned out to be a major screw-up when informed Mesa taxpayers REJECTED the bogus tax-hike plan in a referendum in the November general election that would have radically transformed The New Urban Downtown Mesa to benefit "special-interest groups" with real estate holdings surrounding the selected site for a satellite ASU campus
This time around it is the same cast of characters: Worsley, Giles & The FOG [Friends of Giles], Mesa City Manager Chris Brady and undisclosed others with overlapping family connections and business interests playing on their home turf in northwest Mesa.
Where do they draw the line? Let's face it: politics has always been the game.

Coyotes execs have met with Mesa City Manager Chris Brady to discuss a new arena! Twice!

Mesa Mayor John Giles chimed in, “If I were the Coyotes, I know I would want to be there. . . "

The more Arizona residents learn about Coyotes tax kickback plan, the more they hate it

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Neil deMause

Source: Field of Schemes 02 March 2017
So we know that Arizona state legislators aren’t crazy about the idea of giving the Coyotes $170 million in state sales-tax money for a new arena so they can leave Glendale (and possibly as much as $375 million apiece for another other sports construction deals that come along), but what do Arizona voters think of the plan? Turns out they really, really hate it:Seven out of 10 voters statewide and in Maricopa County say they oppose using sales tax dollars to help pay for a new hockey arena, according to a survey released Tuesday.Eight out of 10 reject state legislation that would create a special taxing district to build an arena. That number grew to nine in 10 when poll respondents were told about the remaining public debt on the arena that Glendale built for the Coyotes in 2003.
In case you think this sounds like the more residents learn about the deal the more they hate it, yeah, exactly: “The poll shows that the more voters know about the proposed plan the less they like it,” [poll conductor Bert] Coleman said in a release.

Related Posts:

1 Arizona officials just can’t quit looking for ways to throw tax money at Coyotes
2 Coyotes ask Arizona for sales-tax kickbacks to fund new arena, because they think Arizona is stupid

Report: Arizona Coyotes exploring new arena site in Mesa

0 New, 7 comments

These are extremely early discussions, but the Coyotes are at least interested.

by Brendan Porter@brendanporter Mar 3, 2017, 10:00am MST

Source: FiveForHowling 03 March 2017 

When IceArizona’s potential partnership with Arizona State University went underwater, the Arizona Coyotes’ ownership alluded to the possibility of other sites. We now appear to know one of those options.

The Arizona Republic reported late yesterday evening that representatives from IceArizona communicated with the City of Mesa about a possible arena site at Sloan Park, the current home of the Chicago Cubs during Spring Training. According to the Republic, Coyotes’ representatives inquired about Mesa’s current transportation and hotel taxes, while also contacting legal counsel for the Cubs.

Blogger's Note: Three items of overlapping interest in this context in previous posts
1. Post headline on 19 February:
    BEWARE: When Giles and The FOG Use The Catch-Phrase 'Community Engagement'
    Link > Community Engagement Districts 
2. Post headline on 16 February: Legislative Ticker: virtually all of a [tax incentive financing arrangement]  would be cannibalized from sales and hotel tax receipts
    Link > Moron of the Month: State Senator Bob Worley
3. This post on 03 February noting the awarding of a contract to develop a community housing profile for the City of Mesa selected Richard C Merritt, VP of Development for the PollCK/rAMRs Companies, a real estate and syndication firm, afflicted with EDP & Co.
Readers of this blog may also want to take note that he also supervised the economic and fiscal impact study for Rio Salado Crossing, a $1.8 Billion dollar convention, stadium, hotel-and-entertainment complex proposed here in the City of Mesa.
    Link > Community Housing Profile

Sloan Park is not terribly far away from the previous site on Karsten Golf Course. It is also on Rio Solado Parkway, but on the opposite side of the Loop 101 approximately two miles away from the old site, as you can see in the opening image for this post.

While Sloan Park itself is fully developed by the Cubs as a Spring Training complex, some of the surrounding land might be large enough to accommodate an arena.

There are a few other challenges that would have to be considered even if the Coyotes cleared all of the legal hurdles - a parking situation, traffic issues [One upshot of a Sloan Park site over a Karsten site is that the major north/south thoroughfare - Dobson Road, has on/offramps running both directions on the 202, whereas McClintock Road in Tempe only had a westbound onramp and an eastbound offramp. They would also benefit from on/off ramps of Rio Salado/8th street on the 101, which is just one mile west of the location.]

Third and finally, there is far less room for new developments around Sloan Park than there is at Karsten in Tempe.

In addition to the Mesa Riverview commercial development area, Sloan Park also shares a site with the Northwest Water Reclamation Plant, which is not going anywhere. As a result, it may be more difficult to secure other private investment if there are fewer opportunities for new developments.

Coyotes execs have met with Mesa City Manager Chris Brady to discuss a new arena! Twice!

Mesa Mayor John Giles chimed in, “If I were the Coyotes, I know I would want to be there. But whether it’s a good deal for Mesa or not is something that we’ll have to look into.” Which seems to be code for “If the state legislature agrees to foot most of the bill with sales-tax kickbacks, sure we’ll consider it,” but way too soon to tell about any of this.