The Fundamental Difference Between Kraft and Irsay

[shmessy]

agreed, it is really odd actually. I've been on a handful of other boards (and lots of time on my teams board) but have never seen the short fuses that many have around here. The guy was having a legit argument with real ideas, not sure why that deserves banning.

As for Kraft, to compare a situation in Boston and Indianapolis is a bit of a stretch. It is really apples to oranges.

Boston can support a few thousand people paying $400 per game for tickets. Indianapolis cannot.

Boston can afford to charge their fans $50 for parking. Indianapolis cannot.

And a city like Indy (like many other smaller cities with pro sports teams) feels like they NEED the team in order to keep their city vibrant and to keep up their image. It is a waste of money, but that is how these cities think. Let's be honest, 10 years ago most of Boston really wasn't that bothered by the possibility of the pats going to Hartford. Real fans cared, but it wasn't the end of the world in Boston like it was in Cleveland when the Browns left.

So Kraft held the state hostage to some degree, got $75million from the state for improvements, spent $400 million on a stadium with a very nice loan from the NFL and is charging $50 for parking.

Irsay is no Saint, but neither is Kraft.

hope that doesn't get me banned.

Wow, just a little paranoid?

I'm a Mod. I've been arguing in this thread from the beginning. Can you show me ONE dissenting argument in this thread that got someone banned??

Are you from Roswell, Georgia?

We have over 2,000 members on this website. Two posters have yelled for banning in this thread. Way to paint with a broad, hysterical brush.

Now, to your point. Kraft's kept the team in Foxboro, MA. Real estate wise, I'm not sure, but I would venture to guess that downtown Indianapolis is a better real estate location than Foxboro, MA. Kraft bought the team in 1993 for a the RECORD amount for a sports franchise ANYWHERE. Was this a successful business that he bought for a record price? Nope. I implore you to do some research and find out exactly what the New England Patriots represented in 1993. He kept the team from moving to St Louis (ah, another beautiful domed stadium that says "football"). Kraft desperately wanted the team in Boston. He was subsequently kicked in the groin by the city and the state.

Comparing Kraft, who left almost a $1 billion dollar kiss from Connecticut on the table because he couldn't bring himself to leave Massachusett, to the carpetbagging Irsays who left Baltimore in the wee hours 5 days after promising Mayor Schaeffer that they had no plans to leave is beyond rational discourse.

The Irsays then refused to relinquish the Colt name (yeah, there's a great history of horse racing in indianapolis!). Even Art Modell had the humanity to recognize that the Browns name was Cleveland's.

The Irsays got an incredible deal from Indy in 1984 to move the team, along with a brand new state of the art domed stadium (who doesn't love artificial turf domes?). Now, in just 23 years they held up a very poor, rust belt state for $720 million on a stadium that the IRSAY'S get to keep naming rights for.

When faced with all these facts spelled out, Makewayhomer fled. I encourage you to try to come up with an answer when others equating Irsay and Kraft have disappeared.

Maybe you can try a new argument about how great Dan Snyder is, or Peter Angelos, perhaps. Otherwise, you can fall back on the old standby refuge of a snide comment about "I hope I don't get banned for disagreeing".

 

[pheenix11]

The reason why people have such a short fuse with makewayforhomos is because he has a history of making assinine confrontational posts based on nothing more than his own ****ty opinion. I'm sure many of us are curious why he is even here when all he ever seems to do is trash the Pats.

 

[Joker]

fear and jealousy, Pheenix...plain and simple

 

[shmessy]

Where did you go Bpeter? It's been more than 40 minutes since I asked you to respond to FACTS.

Did you pull a "Makewayforhomer"?

 

[shmessy]

It just turned 12:59 am and Bpeter just switched from green dot to blue dot (from on the board to logged off).

Go root for Dan Snyder, Peter Angelos and the Irsay family. And then take a shower before searching for UFOs on your farm.