Only in New Mexico and only under former Gov. Bill Richardson would the government hire consultants for a study that doesn’t exist. I was interviewed by KRQE Channel 13 for a story relating to Richardson’s efforts, specifically the commissioning of a $166,000 feasibility study, to determine whether New Mexico would be a likely location for an NFL team.
Now, I am a big NFL fan (Go Steelers!), but I could have outlined why New Mexico can’t support a team for a tiny fraction of that cost. After all, the Metro population of Albuquerque is about 750,000, making it the smallest of any pro-sports town in the nation outside of Green Bay, a city located in a relatively populated, wealthy state, and not too far from Milwaukee. This is a list of the 10 smallest pro-sports cities by state.
See the report from KRQE below which ultimately came to the same conclusion (and was thus spiked without so much as a written report being issued) for about $165,975 more than I just spent to figure this out:
This is such a loss to this state and the attitude of the people in Rio Rancho over the retirement of the Mr. jemenez. Hope this shows the catogory of the administration. Evil and corrupt .
To what end?
Is anyone dumb enough to think that any economic benefit arising from (professional) sports accrues to the people of the community where located?
How about net benefit from national monuments? Or movie scams?
Have they found a body of evidence suggesting that the mere juxtaposition of one zoning category to another affects the value of either?
Are the little green guys returning to Roswell?
Nope.
Gov. Bill Richardson was a bully and I don’t think anyone wanted to question the practicality of the situation. Besides he had a habit of pulling off the impossible on his quest for the Presidency (Railrunner, Spaceport, EnDWI, etc.). With him bringing some big boxing matches to Albuquerque I guess the reach for a Pro team wasn’t that far off. Interesting post. I enjoyed Paul’s stats.
I would say that there had to be a written contract for anything over $20,000 in value and that contract is suppose to have performance measures—one would usually be a final written report.