Monday, April 20, 2009

Soccer/baseball stadium house of cards revealed

There is a terrific piece of journalism in the Oregonian today spelling out the details of the Paulson family "guarantee" for the soccer/baseball stadium deals.

The reporter is Helen Jung. I dealt with Helen a couple summers ago when I was involved with the Blazer deal, and I found her to be an absolute professional who took pains to get the story right and explain it in a way that was easily understood.

The bottom line: the supposed guarantee the Paulsons have given Portland are sufficient to cover about one-sixth of the bonded indebtedness the city will have to take on for this deal. In addition, the pro-forma financials for the baseball and soccer operations were put together by Ms. Rosy Scenario herself, and the consultant the city paid $39,000 to analyze the deal had rudimentary math errors that materially changed the result.

In other words - a typical Portland deal.

The only think non-typical about the whole thing is that the Oregonian now has a real reporter covering the story, and she has laid bare the elements of this financial farce in a way that I would think could not be ignored.

OK, I admit I was chuckling when I wrote that last part. OF COURSE they will ignore it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adams reversed himself on the Memorial Coliseum today.

MAX Redline said...

UNBELIEVABLE! The Zero actually has a reporter lurking about? You'd think she could land a better job at WW.