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Friday, March 21, 2008
Ind. Courts - More on: "Suit filed over RCA Dome auction"
Updating this ILB entry from March 17th, Brendan O'Shaughnessy of the Indianapolis Star reports today:
Bowing to public opinion and facing a lawsuit, the Capital Improvement Board reversed course Thursday on what to do with the money generated by the sale of RCA Dome memorabilia.Rather than allow the dollars to go to two nonprofits, the board unanimously voted to keep most of the proceeds.
The CIB now will pay a fee of $200,000 to one of the nonprofits, the Indiana Sports Corp., to manage the auction and return the rest of what could be more than $1 million in proceeds to its general fund. That means taxpayers will keep the money.
The original plan was to allow the Indiana Sports Corp. and Indianapolis Colts Foundation to run the auction and keep all of the money.
The money going to the Sports Corp. will cover the cost of running the massive operation of taking out, selling and delivering the Dome's seats, aisle signs, pieces of cloth from the roof and even urinals.
Board members said the stadium's field turf, which will be mounted in pieces on plaques for $60 each, and lockers are the Colts' property and therefore not covered by the new agreement.
Public reaction to the original plan was negative, with criticism that proceeds from the sale of furnishings in the stadium should be returned to the taxpayers, who built the Dome.
Also, the Downtown law firm of Roberts & Bishop filed a lawsuit Monday asking that the auction money be returned to county taxpayers to help reduce the still-owed $75 million debt on the Dome.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 21, 2008 08:19 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts