333pg333

Dumb question, but what is this politician implying? That the black locals don't enjoy motor racing therefore the money could be better spent on something else, or that these people are trouble and don't deserve any Christmas presents? Either way, it's a stupid thing to say and for someone in office you'd have to say political suicide. Especially now as this statement has been indelibly cast for all time.

Mahler9th

I have not seen any information that says they can't get $80M in area revenues from some other source. Maybe they should spend the money on helping to enable an air show. Or a rodeo. Or a bass fishing contest.

I do not know what $80M in revenues really means. And of course all of you here realize that this is not direct shot of all revenues into their city budget, although likely estimates include some type(s) of direct revenue opportunity(ies).

I see indications that many (most?) want to go forward, but want a different (better in their opinion?) deal.

I see indications that the government there may take into account diversity aspects of the "partner(s)" in such and event, and I suspect also environmental impact. Whether any of this is right or wrong or good or bad is up to them in my opinion.

I have no idea what, if any, are competing "opportunities," for that spend. So I do not care to draw conclusions.

If I lived in SF, I would not make the automatic decision that spending city budget to enable the hosting the America's Cup is the best use of said funds. If I wanted or needed to take a position, I would seek information.

If stating, more or less, that I like to consider more information than provided in the initially-referenced article or the posted message before drawing a set of conclusions is "politically correct," your definition is different from mine. I think considering more information is just common sense.

I don't interpret the statement in question as black people shouldn't fund racing. I could interpret the statement, standing alone, as attempting to put pressure on the promoter to address diversity "opportunities" in their business. And if not the promoter, perhaps the business entity(ies) that own and/or run the track. But any of that would be a WAG without further information. I do not know anything about the promoter or have any information on any of this stuff.

As far as diversity in racing and whether black people or any other people should "fund" racing, I see pro racing as an entertainment business. The relationship between any entertainment business and government for events is a matter for discussion on a situation-by-situation basis. And I am sure that many types of disagreements, arguments and even lawsuits have occurred when entertainment business entities and governments have discussed events. And likely a broad range of behaviors, statements and postures can be observed in both private and public settings when these discussions take place. Including comments like the quote attributed to this council member.

BostonDMD

Why isn't this thread been moved to the political forum?

Mahler9th

I am not sure I can reach the same conclusion as you have Scott.

Funny you mention IndyCar...

I have cousin, an African American woman, who worked at Disney and with the Petty School and also in Detroit. At one time focused on diversity in pro racing. She told me some stories of going to meetings with Tony George... very interesting stories. I spent quite a bit of time speaking with Walter Payton at Laguna Seca about 15 years ago when he was in business with Dayle Coyne. That was an interesting conversation.

I imagine their is some web site somewhere you can read about every instance a politician makes statements and/or arguments like this fella did this toward whatever end. I imagine some would be shocking, others hilarious.

I prefer to read about sway bars.

multi21

^^ full of speculation. The only facts are what the counselman said. He was clear and concise and based solely on racial lines based on a particular event.

What you fail to mention is that the ONLY reason the series is coming to Birmingham is because they have a track. They dont care about the demographics. the second thing they care about is if they can sell tickets and atV rights. It's not rocket science! Every race track needs to make changes to their venue to accommodate the series demands. Laguna Seca did it in your neck of the woods when Moto GP showed interest in coming there. That 300k is such a pittance to the big picture.

I live in a city that has hosted a few Super Bowls and worked at a hotel where one of the teams was staying -- there is a tremendous amount of trickle down affect to everyone and brings in new funds from out of town folks. Money that otherwise would not be coming.

The bottom line is that we shouldn't expect politicians be be economists. And if the 300k was coming out of the general fund for roads or the rodeo then he should have said that. All I know is what he said and it wasn't about that.

Mahler9th

???

The internet is so fickle. I found this related thread to give me a chuckle...

http://www.crapwagon.com/forums/show...-No-To-Indycar

Different people do business in different ways...

multi21

^^^ and none of those ever brought demographics into it.....

Mods. This thread really doesn't belong in this section. Would you be so kind as to
Move it to OT. Thx

Streak

The "politician" is nothing more than a race baiting POS no matter how much you want to sugar coat it. He is pandering to the ignorant using race to rally his voters and create his 15 minutes of political fame and to curry favor with our current "P"OTUS.

Nothing more.

That's every black politician today BTW. It's the in thing. It's OK.

They all claim to be underrepresented in govt but yet every govt office I visit I'm surrounded by people that don't look like me.

So he gets his political cred boosted by calling whitey a bunch of racists and costs his city a ton of money that could be used to help his voters.

rlm328

Here is an opposing view. The 300k is a drop in the bucket. They will hold the race at Miller regardless if the city ponies up or not. I personally do not think that gov't should be giving $s to sporting events. If the economics for whatever is great then it should stand on its own merits. We end up giving the Bernie's of the world huge amounts of tax $s and for what?

LuigiVampa

Because its about racing and its giving Mahler something to do. He is so offended that he can't stop posting.

winders

It's not that he looks like that councilman or anything like that!!

Scott

333pg333

Anyone?

9.5 Degrees

It's easier to pull someone else down than to pull yourself up. Growing up in a black neighborhood I saw this all the time. Google Bill Cosby and problems with black America and you'll see what I'm talking about

9.5 Degrees

Don't know if they have these kinds of issues in Australia, but in America, everyone is afraid to not say what is on their minds or what is right for fear of being politically incorrect.

This City Counsel person is not saying black people don't enjoy motorsports, he is talking in code that there needs to be more black people working at Barber Motorsports track. He is not going to give the white man $$$ unless the black man gets a high level job, VP of anything at the Barber track. If he doesn't get what he wants, he pulls the funding. As alluded to in other posts, some of these politicians scream unless they get their way. It doesn't happen with just race events, in fact this is the first one I've heard of. It's usually ball parks, and other things.

333pg333

Right, thanks for the explanation. Everything is always tied up in something else of course.
Coincidentally, just been watching the last series of 'The Wire'. Talk about a desperate city which would could only wish to have problems of a Car Race.

In Australia, we have much more subversive racial issues. Because the Indigenous people of this land were basically culled by the English and brushed under the carpet by the Aussies they are in a total minority and don't have much of a voice. In many cases they're in a much sadder situation than the Afro-Americans. They would love to be in the position that a Car Race mattered.