YOUR COMMENTS

No Mr. Kerr,
I'm saying no one in the private sector is as stupid as all the municpal governments who have risked so much money building arenas and civic centers for so little hope of a return.
- Jim, Manchester

". . . Y'all are dreaming if you think a private entity will pony up enough money to buy the Verizon Center and run it as a for profit. Too much risk, too much competitiion, all the rewards go to neighboring restaurants.
- Jim, Manchester. . ."
- Jim, Manchester == Are you saying that there is something that the private (for profit and greed) sector cannot do better than government?
- Gary L. Kerr, Chichester

I'm confused about this bond. I thought Charlie Arlinghaus said yesterday the city was NOT on the hook for the remainder. That the bond holder accepted the risk/reward that the City's portion of the Room & Meals Tax would shrink/grow. What if the economy takes off next year and revenues shoot up? Will the city get the increase above the bond payment or will it go straight to the bond holder? It seems like Mayor Guinta and Charlie A have 2 different interpretations of the bond's terms.

Y'all are dreaming if you think a private entity will pony up enough money to buy the Verizon Center and run it as a for profit. Too much risk, too much competitiion, all the rewards go to neighboring restaurants.
- Jim, Manchester

Just like the classic Simpsons episode regarding the Springfield Monorail...
- Jim Wilson, Manchester

All comments below were written before the correction was added to the end of this editorial.
- UnionLeader.com editor, Manchester

Next thing on the list is the Allen Bradley factory located in-between the Verizon and the Baseball park. It is closing in January. Be a great spot for a parking garage and retail / retaurant development. The parking lot along is big enough and the factory building could be saved/reused. The city doesn't have the money and is too deep in debt to undertake this, but must find/incentivize a private developer.
- Jim, Manchester

Because you guys call this civic center the Verizon Wireless Arena, why not out-source its assets and sell it to Verizon Wireless? You are usually stating that private sector businesses can run not-for-profit enterprises better than the government, why not put your money where your mouth is?
- Gary L. Kerr, Chichester

This is a very small example of what WILL happen if congress passes the healthcare bill. We have seen it recenly with city and town budgets falling short based on assumptions that tax dollars would be there. When layoffs happen, and tax receipts fall, this is the end result. Just wait until the big dogs get there hands around healthcare. As the saying goes "you aint seen nothin yet".
- Paul, Merrimack

The city has no business in the arena, sell it and tax it like every other business. When did our governments become investment bankers? I understand the desire to have an arena downtown, but I can't understand why the taxpayers should make the investment. The only investment the taxpayers should make is in marketing the land to a private company that SPECIALIZES in this business sector.
Parking is not the problem, there is ample parking, I’m sick of people complaining about parking. You’re lazy if you can't find parking!
Anyway, as much as I’d hate to see another union in town, one solution may be to have Verizon register an IATSE crew, they would be able to get big shows in the arena that currently will not come to the Verizon. I don't like idea of this overpaid union uping our ticket prices, but if the Verizon is sitting empty it’s something to think about.
- DL, Manchester

I think Verizon Wireless Arena and many downtown businesses would have more customers if Elm Street has plenty of free parking. The more customers that Verizon Wireless Arena has the more money Manchester could take in from a ticket surcharge. I hope Verizon Wireless Arena will someday have a ticket surcharge of a $1 or more on tickets and that 50 percent of the money raised from the ticket surcharge will go to Manchester's schools and 50 percent of the money to the police department.

People are more likely to eat and shop on Elm Street before/after going to a show at Verizon Wireless Arena if Elm Street has plenty of free parking. Manchester may want many streets downtown to have free parking.

Properties on Elm Street might be more valuable if Elm Street has free parking helping Manchester obtain more property taxes from properties on Elm Street.

Restaurants on Elm Street might be busier and generate more rooms and meals tax revenues if Elm Street has plenty of free parking.

I hope Elm Street will have a supermarket and possibly a movie theatre in the future.
- Ken Stremsky, Manchester, NH

Another reason why cities and towns should stay out of the sports and entertainment business.
- gr chase, Exeter

This is Manchester's problem and with the right leadership it can handled and shouldn't be an issue. There are people running this city who make it their platform to strangle services and benefits to the edge of collapse in the name of lower taxes, and then when things actually start to fall apart they blame everyone else. Every city has issues, but Manchester thrives in spite of it's leadership, not because of it.
- J Paige, Manchester

Here we go. Some of us knew financial distress could come of the civic center. It’s not rocket science: for the naïve, this is what happens to almost all of these types of civic centers. Let’s just not go through the, “I can’t believe it”, or the “but, if this happened or that happened then everything would be okay.” And does it matter who’s at fault?
The city could still pay its more than half of the bonding, but it might have to raise taxes or cut something else out of the budget. That’s what it had to do when it decided to use the rooms and meals tax money in the first place. Prior to building that civic center, the rooms and meals tax money had been used to fund city services. And the property generated property tax revenue. Which would be the upside is the city no longer owned it – it would once again generate property tax dollars – assuming it was not owned by a church or some such, and that the city did not give back the property tax dollars to incent the new owner to do things they would probably do anyway.
- Peter Sorrentino, Manchester

Jack Alex, thanks for writing. Manchester should make the payment next year.

How much would the tax rate have to be increased to pay off the bonds and own Verizon Wireless Arena in 1 year? How about 2 years? How about 3 years? How about 5 years? How about 10 years? How many millions of dollars in interest do we not have to spend by paying off the bonds early?

Mayor on Arena: NH to blame article from November 10 paper has

"There are still $43.1 million in bonds outstanding, out of an intiail $50 million." Manchester is supposed to pay $4.4 million in bond payments this fiscal year? How much is principal? How much of the $4.4 million is interest?

The sooner we own Verizon Wireless Arena the sooner we may use rooms and meals tax revenues to reduce property taxes and improve city services.

If we own Verizon Wireless Arena, I think Manchester would be able to have a ticket surcharge and not have to ask Verizon Wireless Arena to think about doing it. I believe Manchester signed a contract that said it could not place a ticket surcharge on tickets. If Manchester pays off all the bonds, I believe it then could do what it wants to recoup its investment.
- Ken Stremsky, Manchester, NH

Maybe, just maybe, one reason the Arena doesn't attract more patrons, thus more revenue, is down town parking still stinks. Now the meter maid runs around and puts out the $1.00 to park sign an hour before events. Perhaps the city fathers could redirect that pitiful revenue to help pay for the bonds, since they clearly aren't smart enough to figure out that down town will continue to lose business if they do not increase the availablity of free parking to compete with the free parking and multitude of services available on South Willow.
- Jeff, Goffstown

What happened to the insurance that we had covering the bonds. There was a additional premium that we paid on the bonds should the state decrease the rooms and meals tax, what happened to that?

I have a suggestion, raise next years tax rate to pay off the arena, it then becomes ours, any profit that is earned above running the operations and maintaining the arena comes back to our bottom line.
- Jack Alex, Manchester