Over the past year, as I’ve been commuting downtown every day, I’ve become a fan of ESPN Radio. In particular, I really like the 9am show with former NFL QB Brock Huard and Mike Salk. And over the past few days, as the possibility of getting a new arena has slowly gathered steam, they’ve been introduced to something that political nerds like us have known for a while: the Seattle Times editorial board is a complete laughingstock.
It started last week when Salk responded to their editorial by pointing out the poor logic in saying that there’s only a finite amount of money that people will spend on sports and that bringing an NBA team back will threaten the Mariners and Seahawks.
A few days later, Bruce Ramsey gets a few basic facts wrong in a “Civil Disagreements” section discussion with Lynne Varner. Even stranger, he doesn’t even seem to grasp that the things he demands of an arena deal are largely satisfied with what Christopher Hansen is trying to do. So this morning, Ramsey actually agreed to be on their show, and my goodness, it was brutal. You can listen to it here. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
It does make me feel a little better to know that folks even outside of the political realm are starting to realize what a disaster our last daily print newspaper’s editorial board has become.
Maybe Frank should put the editorial staff back on the news desk and make them work for a living. Including himself, of course.
A front-page story in today’s ST did ask a cogent question: Now that we know Chris Hansen’s investors include Steve Ballmer and the Nordstrom brothers why does the arena need $200 million of public financing? The answer, of course, is that rich people get rich and stay rich by making the “little people” pay for what they own. It seems to me that, at some point, us “little people” should get fed up with this system and put a stop to it. Oh wait, we already did, when we voted by a huge majority to bar any more taxpayer financing of sports facilities in our fair city; so how do Hansen et al. plan to get around that? I’m sure their lawyers are already working on it.
A front-page story in today’s ST did ask a cogent question: Now that we know Chris Hansen’s investors include Steve Ballmer and the Nordstrom brothers why does the arena need $200 million of public financing?
I’d love to see them pay for the whole thing, but if there’s going to be a public outlay, it should come from taxes on the folks who use it. And this plan would do that.
@3 I have an idea: Let’s pay for it by selling the Seattle Times to Oklahoma City.
@4
They’re not worth that much.
@5 The Times Co. used to have a market value of something like $900 million, before Blethen sold his Maine papers. He shelled out $150 million for his Bothell printing plant. If the company isn’t worth at least $200 million today the family shareholders should be demanding a new CEO, or at least cut Frank’s pay to $1 a year, like Lee Iacocca at Chrysler.
I’ve often wondered if he bought the Maine papers to have an excuse to buy a corporate jet, or at least a fractional share or a timeshare in a jet. I mean why even bother to be a CEO if you don’t have a private jet at your disposal for junkets? Does anyone know if the Seattle Times Company has a jet or access to one? I can’t imagine Frank driving over Snoqualmie Pass in a car to inspect his newspaper in Yakima, when that city has an airport that can handle corporate jets. It’s a 3-hour drive to Yakima, and his time is way too valuable to spend riding in a car, as his company’s business performance demonstrates.
If he doesn’t have a jet, maybe he sends Ryan to Yakima. Ryan’s time isn’t worth anything.
@6
A company is worth what someone would pay for it. Somehow I have my doubts that someone would pay 200 million bucks for it, but I could be wrong.
@9 Offer him $500.00 and see if he takes it. You would get to fire Bruce Ramsey. If he doesn’t, then in his opinion it’s worth at least that much, despite Bruce Ramsey.
What I can’t understand is how “The oracle from Omaha”, Warren Buffet, just spent billions to purchase newspapers around the ocuntry. Sure, the price was low, but so is the price of buggy whip factories. Buffit is quite a bit smarter than I am with regard to investing, so I’m wondering what he knows that I don’t know. Or is this one of the rare instances where he’s just got it wrong?
What’s weird is San Diego and the San Diego Union are on the opposite path.
A big developer bought the Union last year and vowed to use it as a vehicle to push for a new Charger Stadium.
The Public is very wary of another public stadium project cause they don’t trust the city council ( they did a horrible job on the financing of the last renovation of the Murph- ended up paying the chargers every game for all the unbought tickets). They don’t trust the owners at all, LA’s looking for a team.
And so the SD Union just fired their well respected columnist for being skeptical of the project.
Interesting how the dynamic is opposite.
Continuation of # 11: Of course, Buffett may have realized that the price of newspapers today has gotten so low that the basic printing portion of the business is at at discount. This means that if they lose the newsroom and editorial staff, they can still make a profit printing and distrubuting free coupon and advertising papers. At that point, then perhaps he’s getting a good deal.
But it depends upon the content, too. I’ll read the newspapers online to pick up wire-service stories, but I haven’t read an editorial in years. And the Seattle Times has declined faster than most – it’s editorials are laughable, and a good portion of what it tries to pass off as news stories are simply press releases with only slight revisions to conceal it’s origins. If you get press release feeds form some companies, as I do, you can easily see the duplication between the press release and the “news” story.
@11 “Or is this one of the rare instances where he’s just got it wrong?”
Nope. It’s the large metro dailies with their massive printing plants and costly overhead that are struggling. Small papers are profitable, and that’s what Buffett is buying. He wouldn’t take the Seattle Times if Frank Blethen gave it to him.
@12
Good comment, and in news related to which teams could potentially locate here, what’s happening in Phoenix is also an interesting case of taxpayer bamboozlement.
Strange how these things happen in more conservatives places, but not up here where all the “socialists” live.
@11, @13 It may be that Buffett has some insights we don’t (beyond our collective paranoid speculation) that there may be a major change in the way the Internet works within the next few years, or else he’s party to some new way to help journalism pay for itself.