Brings back memories of Vigilantes half time entertainment
Dennis Wilberg
, our Mission Viejo City Manager, continues to amaze me. We just received a last minute addition to his City Manager items on our council Agenda for Monday’s meeting. Under City Manager’s report is a proposal for building a minor league baseball stadium in Mission Viejo.
Under source of funding, in the proposal from Mike Higgins and Dave Kukuk, it reads:
“Most of the public funds come in the form of long-term municipal bonds issued by the civic authority (City, County, State, etc.). These bonds usually comprise the overwhelming majority of the contributed capital in a stadium development deal.”
They are right. This is a one sided deal. Dennis was a senior member of our staff when we had a similar “opportunity” in 1996,97 when the Long Beach Riptide moved to Mission Viejo and changed their name to the Vigilantes. We were to build a $6 million stadium at Saddleback College which later resulted in our filing a lawsuit against the college.
Didn’t Dennis learn from that experiment with the Vigilantes sneaking out of town in the dark of night after we lost over one million dollars.
I recall the Register cartoon of phony attendance with cardboard cutouts representing fans in the stands.
Great timing and opportunity.
Larry, how much money are they talking about. A valid question. Exhibit E-Mock Stadium Capital Structure.
Public funds $35 million, representing 87.5% of the total, and private equity of $5 million or 12.5%.
“Traditionally, in the case of stadium financing, revenue for the debt service is often generated via rent paid by the team (which appears as an expense on the team’s income statement), and from parking and concessions revenues that the team earns on game days. Increasingly, provisions can be built into debt service contracts whereby the team can use the revenue generated from ticket surcharges.”
No, Dennis, what Mission Viejo needs is a City mortuary and a grave yard for these pipe dreams. Lower Curtis Park would be a great location. And we would not have to contend with stadium lighting and noise.
Mission Viejo’s council already has three votes locked in for the city’s next boondoggle (whatever it is): Frank Ury, Trish Kelley and Dave Leckness.
If any other city would like to make a deal, trade these three for whatever they have.
Maybe they can play the 2011 MLB All Star Game there once it gets pulled from Arizona.
The last time around was apparently not a big enough failure, so the city kooks want to try it again. How’s the baseball mania doing in Fullerton with more players on the field than people in the stands?
When the city staff has three times the number of people needed to run the city, they try to look busy. Making a paper chain three miles long took only one year. Now what?
Larry, April fools day jokes are done on April 1st Not May 1st!
We are stuck with these fools until the November election.
What’s the staff recommendation in the agenda report?
The Vigilantes were allowed to play in Mission Viejo because they were bush-leaguers, not an official minor league team owned by a Major League team. It was my understanding no official minor league team could be based within 30 miles of a Major League team. Angels Stadium is about 20 miles from Mission Viejo.
So is Wilberg proposing subsidizing another bush-league team? The City fraudulently promoted the Vigilantes as Class-AA. Sports broadcasting students I took to see the pathetic Vigilantes rated them as sub-Class A level. Most of the players were re-trends who never made it to the majors and eventually fell out of the minor league system. The play was extremely ragged.
Average Vigilantes attendance was about 400, but the City of Mission Viejo fraudulently reported the average as 2,000 because the city rented 3,000-seat bleachers. Amazingly, the Register reporter covering the games used the 2,000 attendance figure. Apparently he was hit in the head by a foul ball and started seeing quadruple.
Big Mark.
This is not an April fools joke. Simply look at the council agenda for Monday under City Managers report.
Why didn’t he place this item on the original Agenda rather than a last minute supplement.
In either case this madness must be shut down NOW!!!!!
It’d be great if they did get a team. But they’ll blow it like the last time. They won’t sell beer. And I’m sorry, but who wants to watch a ballgame without a beer to wash your peanuts down? I’m serious. Minor league ball is where it’s at and much more fun to watch than the majors because these guys are playing for the love of the game. But without beer, hot dogs, and peanuts, well, it’s lame.
oh and JMB you’ll be “stuck” with these “fools” long after November. Don’t kid yourself.
Applicant and/or Mission Viejo City Manager pulls the plug.
We just got back from Palm Desert and turned on the TV to see the city council meeting still in session.
This was AFTER midnight where the city manager pulled the item saying it was a request of/from the applicant.
I believe the Orange Juice blog coverage had something to do with that decision.Furthermore, does he have to agendize every idea presented to him?
Didn’t he learn from our prior Vigilante experience that this will not be supported by the taxpayers?
What was he thinking?
We have just reduced some of our CIP’s. Oh but Larry, EVENTUALLY the economy will turn around. Nice try. Thanks to all for adding your comments to this post.