Magic Throw More Money Into The Community Fire To Try To Push Arena Proposal Through

Sounds like the Orlando Magic read my blog yesterday, because first thing mentioned today in the Sentinel is that the Magic opened up the ol' tight wallets and pledged to burn at least 12.5 million on new gyms in the Orlando area. In addition, the Magic pledged the money necessary to make the new arena eco-friendly. This is somewhat in keeping with exec Alex Martins' words yesterday that the Magic weren't planning to directly toss more money into the arena...instead they threw it into the community and to the fringe costs of making the arena more efficient (and thus more cost-effective in the long term).

I am but a casual observer, but reading between the lines this plan seems to have three objectives:

1) First and foremost the Magic are trying to directly appeal to some of the County Council members' wishes. Mildred Fernandez and Commissioner Bill Segal wanted more money into the community, specifically with the aformentioned gyms. Commissioner Linda Stewart wanted assurances of an eco-friendly arena. Sounds like the Magic just bought themselves three crucial votes with their moves.

2) The Magic just stuck a spiked barb up the rectum of Darth Harris Rosen. How? Hotel Magnate (and repeat proposal killer) Darth Rosen was planning on screwing up this proposal by demanding that more money go into fighting crime in the area. This promise of gym centers is part of a plan to keep youths off of the streets and give them something to do with their time instead of, you know, killing each other. This is the equivalent of that scene in Return of the Jedi when Luke Skywalker chops off Darth Vader's hand and you just jump and yell, "Booyah! You're done!"

3) The Magic get off cheap. With the Magic proposing up front to give $50 million, they were well below the County Council's request of $100 million. Instead of meeting their demands by giving another 50 mill, they just gave an additional 12.5 mill and threw it directly towards the programs the council members were advocating.

It looks like the Magic are addressing the Council's demands creatively and intelligently, and with this additional promised money the weight is somewhat off of the Magic's shoulders for blame if the proposal gets shot down.

For those of you who prefer the bottom line: The Magic helped themselves the day before the big vote to see if they'd get a new arena. Sweet.

The Sentinel also ran a piece today in hopeful anticipation of the proposal being voted through on the success of teams that have new stadiums. Overall it was a long article just centered around the simple idea that teams do slightly better when in more up to date surroundings. Not much of a surprise there.

The one thing in the article I WAS surprised at was this:

Martins said the team currently loses about $20 million a year, but a new
building would help the Magic break even.

WOW! I had no idea it sucked so much to be an NBA owner. When a new arena deal that revitalizes a city helps you break even, you know you have it bad. -And the Magic are a relatively mid-range team when it comes to popularity! The Grizzlies and Hawks must lose enough money combined annually to feed every third world country. -or feed Rosie O'Donnell for an afternoon.

Updates will come as they happen, but for now we'll just wait patiently for the vote to happen at 2pm tomorrow to celebrate/mourn the fate of the Orlando Magic.