Indiana

Ain?t Life Grand? Yeah, About 250 Grand!

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Colts owner Jim Irsay is quick to point out these days that he pays $250,000 in rent for Lucas Oil Stadium.  Well, he’s half right.  He does pay $250,000 in annual rent, but has gotten back $5 million, most of which has nothing to do with the Colts.

As part of the lease agreement, the Colts get up to $3.5 million annually in non-game revenue.  So for just about every event in Lucas Oil that has nothing to do with football, the Colts get a cut.  In addition, the Colts get reimbursed up to $1.5 million a year in “game day expenditures.”  What’s a “game day expenditure”?  The ushers, security, guys in the press box and those guys on the sidelines who hold the chains marking first downs.  There are a whole lot more, but those are the ones you are most likely to see.  So at the end of every season, the Capital Improvement Board gets a bill for those costs.

A quick phone call to the CIB this afternoon, showed the Colts maxed out in both those areas.   They got $3.5 million for non game events and the taxpayers reimbursed them for $1.5 million worth of game expenses.  Now match their $5 million they get back, versus the $250,000 they “contribute.”

Ain’t life grand?

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on April 27, 2009 (boomark / email).