What Does It Cost to NOT Go to a Colts Game?

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE NFL football. I just do not like to pay for it when I am not at the game. I earn the right to watch it for free when I have to endure nearly two hours of commercials for every game on the tube.

For starters, the new Lucas Oil Stadium will cost around $725 million before interest, cost overruns, and maintenance. To give you a round number, that will end up costing approximately $2 billion dollars over the next two decades. If you break that down on a per capita basis, it adds up to $1,300.00 for every man, woman, and child who is living in metro Indy.

Also, thank Bart for giving the Colts all of the revenue generated by the new stadium during Colts games and half of the parking and concession revenue for non-Colts events like the NCAA finals that will be here in a couple of years. It would have been nice to use those monies to lower our property taxes, but Jimmy needed the cash.

The Pacers received a similar deal, but it was cheap compared to the Colts. The Conseco deal is only going to cost us about $500 million. This assumes that the city will not refinance the venues. When they blew up Market Square Arena we still owed $8 million on it. Even worse, when they implode The Hoosier Dome (RCA is effectively out of business) we will owe about $46 million on a stadium the city built at a net cost of about $40 million due to the generosity of the Lilly & Krannert Endowments.

So, Indianapolis keep eating out every night. Two percent of your purchases will go to paying off the bonds while Mr. Irsay takes home the cash.