crawfish
03-11-2008, 07:43 PM
Superdome panel $20 million short next year, faces $3 million gap now (http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080311/UPDATES02/80311037/1006/SPORTS)
http://content.clearchannel.com/Photos/sports_photos/NFL/Saints/superdome_GI465.jpg http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/imgsed/superdome_aerea_vertical050.jpg http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/imgsed/superdome_gente050831.jpg
The state board that operates the Superdome and the New Orleans Arena faces a $20 million shortfall next year because of increasing insurance costs and the growing price tags of the state’s contracts with the New Orleans Saints and Hornets, the manager of the facilities said.
Doug Thornton, vice president of SMG, the firm that operates the two state facilities, described to lawmakers the estimated gap for the new year that begins July 1, and said the Superdome also face at least a $3 million shortfall in the fiscal year that ends June 30. The shortfall could be reduced, Thornton said, if the Legislature approves a bill that would let the state purchase the stadium debt as a way to lower interest costs. Those interest costs have reached about 12 percent, instead of the 4 percent Superdome officials expected to pay on the $290 million it owes.
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/images/020302/superdomeLR.jpg http://estaticos02.cache.el-mundo.net/elmundo/imagenes/2006/09/26/1159246485_0.jpg
The House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved a bill by House Speaker Jim Tucker that would give the state the option to buy the variable-rate bonds, which have escalated in cost because of the national mortgage lending crisis. The Dome is paying about $60,000 a day more than expected in interest costs because the bonds are “auction-rate debt” bonds whose interest rates are set every seven days, said Tucker, R-Terrytown.
Tucker said allowing the state to buy and hold the bonds until the market improves will set the interest rates back in the neighborhood of 4 percent. The committee passed the bill without objection and sent it to the full House for debate. Even with help on bond debt, Thornton said because contracts require the state to pay the Saints $23.5 million and the Hornets about $7.5 million in the fiscal year starting in July, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District is looking at $20 million in red ink by June 30, 2009. To meet its obligations, Thornton said the commission will have to look at cost-cutting measures as well as possibly renegotiating contracts with the two teams or seeking increases in the hotel-motel tax, car rental taxes or other revenue measures dedicated to the commission.
http://content.clearchannel.com/Photos/sports_photos/NFL/Saints/superdome_GI465.jpg http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/imgsed/superdome_aerea_vertical050.jpg http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/imgsed/superdome_gente050831.jpg
The state board that operates the Superdome and the New Orleans Arena faces a $20 million shortfall next year because of increasing insurance costs and the growing price tags of the state’s contracts with the New Orleans Saints and Hornets, the manager of the facilities said.
Doug Thornton, vice president of SMG, the firm that operates the two state facilities, described to lawmakers the estimated gap for the new year that begins July 1, and said the Superdome also face at least a $3 million shortfall in the fiscal year that ends June 30. The shortfall could be reduced, Thornton said, if the Legislature approves a bill that would let the state purchase the stadium debt as a way to lower interest costs. Those interest costs have reached about 12 percent, instead of the 4 percent Superdome officials expected to pay on the $290 million it owes.
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/images/020302/superdomeLR.jpg http://estaticos02.cache.el-mundo.net/elmundo/imagenes/2006/09/26/1159246485_0.jpg
The House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved a bill by House Speaker Jim Tucker that would give the state the option to buy the variable-rate bonds, which have escalated in cost because of the national mortgage lending crisis. The Dome is paying about $60,000 a day more than expected in interest costs because the bonds are “auction-rate debt” bonds whose interest rates are set every seven days, said Tucker, R-Terrytown.
Tucker said allowing the state to buy and hold the bonds until the market improves will set the interest rates back in the neighborhood of 4 percent. The committee passed the bill without objection and sent it to the full House for debate. Even with help on bond debt, Thornton said because contracts require the state to pay the Saints $23.5 million and the Hornets about $7.5 million in the fiscal year starting in July, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District is looking at $20 million in red ink by June 30, 2009. To meet its obligations, Thornton said the commission will have to look at cost-cutting measures as well as possibly renegotiating contracts with the two teams or seeking increases in the hotel-motel tax, car rental taxes or other revenue measures dedicated to the commission.