WFCU Centre Open House

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• Take a course on economics, Guido. 99% of companies are built using leverage. You think a guy like Henry Ford, who's parents were farmers and dropped out of school in Grade 6 because he was so poor with his first job being shovelling coal into a furnace, could build the billion dollar Ford Motor Company from just his earnings in one of the lowest paid jobs?? No, he borrowed money and used leverage to make a difference. But, a union guy like you is so used to the union mentality that people with initiative have somehow ripped them off and, therefore, they're owed a high standard of living from entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs should be stepped on that a lot of businesses have grown sick of this nonesense and left the city. Cut the hand that feeds you and you'll see how crappy your standard of living gets. Help people fish with the proper tools instead of poking branches into the river and you'll see how this city recovers.

• Although this doesn't seem to be a popular idea, I was actually impressed with what I saw at the open house. Windsor wasn't just in need of a spectator arena. The number of ice pads in our community is below the provincial average and this helps address that problem along with adding a community centre for the east end.

  I was definitely on the side of having the arena downtown but I'm not sure if it's really necessary with the Casino expansion there as well, not to mention parking issues.

  Also, I don't think the Lear plant will be visible as the entrance to the arena will be on the opposite side.

  One thing I don't like is the new name. Couldn't a better, more prominent Windsor busniess have purchased the naming rights? ie: Chrysler, Hiram Walker, Royal Pita Baking Company;)

• Takes one to know one Mark. Figures you probably work for them in some capacity and have to take it upon yourself to defend the bread they put on your table. You haven't proven they've helped the community--all you did was attack me. They're absolutely not light years ahead of the banks. You just restated the obvious--WFCU paying to advertise to mislead the public into thinking they're the good guys. Any con artist can do that.

  Relieving the debtload of taxayers my ass. Advertising is not helping the community. Approving lots of commercial loans to promote economic activity in the area is.

  I'd have rather seen a REAL bank advertise on it like Royal Bank or BMO than WFCU. We could have even had Coca Cola, Pepsi, Caesar's, MGM, or any local realty company advertise. If they looked around, there's plenty of takers. Coca Cola and Pepsi spend billions each year on institutional advertising and pay huge premiums to have exclusive sales rights on marketing their soft drinks in arenas like this and I'm sure they would paid even more than WFCU. So, WFCU didn't do this community any favours. More favouritism from King Eddie in choosing WFCU. WFCU represents everything that's wrong with this city.

• Actually seeing that the WFCU won that bid is to me the silver lining in this cloud. Thanks for the background on that, Mark. If it was an "open bid" as you explained it, that means that this sponsor won it fair and square and selection by due process, not because of the wave of "King Eddie's" wand.

• Just because it was an open bid, it doesn't mean a lot of businesses knew about it. It's King Eddie's job to make sure they're aware of it with some kind of follow up. That's why he's paid his $150K a year job. I'm sure Coke, Pepsi, and a lot of other companies weren't even aware of it. But, hey, it's an open bid process. Let's see a list of how many businesses participated and how much everyone who participated bidded. What was Coke and Pepsi's offer??

• I can't speak for anyone else here, but the first time I was aware of the naming rights being up for grabs was the day they announced that WFCU had won them. Did I have my head in the sand, or was this another inside job?

• Scott, I'm not sure but , I'm in the same boat as you.. However I'm sure it was advertised. Personally, I don't care who's name is on it. WFCU doesn't offend me nearly as much as the location.

• Mark, all valid points however since all the land was expropriated, many proposal have come and gone for a downtown arena, all of them squandered by inept municpal government (Jebb group anyone?). Like it or not arenas draw people to events, and it's a slap in the face to every downtown business that the arena is moving where it is. Everybody is so quick to cry about parking, well the barn has made do since 1925...

  It's funny how it's now come to light about how decrepit the projects are beside the barn, a little forethough could have seen new housing built elesewhere, and a new arena rise on the reclaimed land where the projects currently are. Those building have all reached the end of their service life (50+ years), other cities have realized that housing the poor like rats clustered in highrises is not a good idea, it doesn't work. But we all know that King Eddie's legacy of a new city hall will end up on those lands...

  20 years of BAD urban planning has help to turn our downtown into the dump it is today. Before you try talking about the positives, realize that I live downtown, I have friends that live downtown, but rarely do I or anyone I know go down there because it holds nearly nothing for the average resident.

  As long as the emphasis remains on getting American Kids pissed up, absentee slumlords, and lack of retail, downtown will continue to flounder. The streescaping project is probably one of the most useless waste of my tax dollars I've seen in years. While I know that you guys at the DWBIA are trying, thinkgs are bleak, and there are NO bright spots on the horizon. My wife and I go downtown and patronize local restaurants frequently, however we avoid downtown like the plague Thursday night through Sunday morning.

  More emphasis needs to be put on attracting businesses that IMPROVE the downtown. What I wouldn't give to have Coles back, or even Southshore Books. Clothing Stores? That would be nice too, and I'm not taling about the high end boutiques. Last year my wife and I spent a week in Saint-Etienne, France, once of Windsor's twin cities, and it was bloody depressing. There is nothing in common with these two cities. Saint-Etienne is urban , walkable and full of name retail shops on every street, it is the polar opposite of what Windsor is. Like Windsor it was dependant on an industry that closed up or that left town (coal mining and arms manufacturing). All of the major employers of decades past are gone, yet it has managed to reinvent itself and create a new vibe.

  Bars, Peace Beacons (where non customers can't sit in the seats that their tax dollars paid for), Parking lots, murals and vacant buildings don't make for a good downtown, despite what those wearing the rose coloured glasses say. Downtown Windsor died the day the wrecking balls hit the Norwich block.

  That arena belonged downtown and it's a crock of shit that it didn't get built there. King Eddie likes to talk that he cares about downtown, but under his watch the arena is leaving, and the "urban village" lands remain vacant. Where there's a will there's a way. There was simply no will. The big box stlye (drive in, drive out) arena is just plain dumb, and bad for the city. No foot traffic going to dinner before the game, or out for a few drinks after. My cat could do a better job at urban planing.

• I also never knew the naming rights were up for grabs until after it was announced. It may have been obscurely posted in the Windsor Star because I didn't see it. It's not negligence that a company should have seeked out the city about advertising. The city is supposed to market it properly to potential advertisers so we get bidders competing for it. I get phone calls all the time from Windsor Star, Pennysaver, Rent4all, Renter's News and a whole bunch of publications if I want to advertise with them. I've had marketers call me who I've never even heard of until they called me. Even real estate leasing agents go out cold calling head offices when they want to find someone to fill a vacant commercial building. The city is negligent in not doing it's job.

  And, to point out, it's 1.62 million over 10 years and then they get their name on it in perpetuity. That's $160K a year for advertising. And, it comes to less when you factor in the Time Value of Money as it's not a lump sum payment as some transnationals do. That sounds like pretty cheap institutional adveritising to be on a $65 million arena. How much does a 30 second commercial cost on a TV station during prime time? I think taxpayers been cheated by backdoor wrangling. I think transnationals would have offerred a lot more if they were made aware of it.

  Even in the ad, King Francis wrote that WFCU "best fit" the RFP process. What the heck does "best fit" mean? What gives him the right to decide what's a "best fit"? As a taxpayer, I want the company that offered to pay the most so my taxes don't keep shooting up.

  And, to add insult to injury, the Windsor Star stated that Marty Kosma, the President and CEO of WFCU, is now the made chair of the sponsorship/advertising search committee by King Francis. So, he now gets to filter who else gets to advertise on the WFCU arena? How do we know he's going to market it properly and we're going to get top dollar for these spots??

  And, why is the list of bidders and how many participated in the process held in secret? Make it public. I want to see how they conducted this "due process".

• The leader has to take responsibility for his actions. He made a lot of bad decisions and should resign.

  He screwed up with the Capitol being tied up in bankrupcy court. King Francis is a lawyer. He went to law school. He should know how bankrupcy law works. That's malpractice and negligence to advise council to go court. I'd give him some leeway if he wasn't a lawyer, but he is one and we expect him to know how the law works. Instead of bankruptcy procedings, why didn`t council bring in a private ADR arbitrator to try negotiating an outcome that would have seen it open today than watching the Capitol rot away empty. He`s a lawyer. He knows better.

  What about the flip flop with the Windsor Utility Commission and the $6 million spent that went unaccounted for and all the houses that didn't get billed, so I see my water bill skyrocket?? And, what gives him the right to cut off and berate Councilor Halberstadt for trying to get the Solitictor General to review WUC instead the Ministry of Municipal Affairs at council meetings. Francis is a lawyer. He doesn't know Robert's Rules of Order?? Why doesn`t he want a more thorough audit from the Solitictor General. Would they uncover that Francis was lazy and negligent.

  What about Andrews explanation of the mess in downtown?? What's King Francis` solution other than wasting taxpayer`s money on overpriced initiatives like the Bunker when we could have just kept a perfectly good Clearly Guest House with more appealing architecture than the overpriced piece of crap there now. All it is is a poured concrete basement with a roof on it. $3 million for that hunk of junk. That`s my taxpayer dollars being wasted!

  How about putting the location of the Windsor Arena to referendum on the municipal election
  ballot or whether the city can even afford it? It doesn't cost anything extra. And, it doesn`t logically follow that Marty Kosma is the best choice to chair the advertising committee because he`s not impartial in this matter. He can filter things so that only his friends get the best spots, thus, costing taxpayers more money., This is the basis of backdoor politics.

  He`s a terrible mayor. He should resign.
  Not to mention that fact that all the bad decisions are responsible for the highest commercial property tax rates in all of Canada.