CCDC
Team Dave Suporters Run For G-BAD, Is Baseball Park The Motive?
March 29, 2013 
While the upcoming election for the Greater Boise Auditorium District board is like a massive dose of Ambien to most folks, we see a potential behind the scenes “take over” by Team Dave which could be a dream or nightmare, depending on your point of view.
Incumbents Stephanie Astorquia and Rob Perez are seeking reelection to six year seats on the five member board. Peter Oliver is seeking reelection to a two year seat. Other candidates for 6 year terms include include Noah Bard and John May.
Although the seats are supposedly “non-partisan” it looks like candidates Steve Berch and Jim C. Walker have Dem backgrounds (running for 6 year terms) along with George Tway who is after the two year seat currently held by Oliver. The three, along with G-BAD chair Hy Kloc and Mayor Dave Bieter, are all Dems.
Kloc has failed in his duty to act as G-BAD chairman after being elected to a second government seat as a member of the Idaho Legislator. During the campaign for the House seat, he said he could serve in both positions, but has missed several G-B AD meetings during the legislative session. Hard to be a servant of two masters.
Enter Mayor Dave Bieter and his “field of dreams.” Bieter makes no secret of his desire to put a baseball park somewhere in Boise. Recently he appointed himself to the Capitol City Development Corp. (CCDC) board. That agency has authority to sell bonds for projects within its districts without consent of citizen taxpayers. They get their money from taxes that are diverted to CCDC, but would otherwise go to Boise, Ada County, Schools, ACHD, etc.
Combine that revenue source with the $11 million-plus cash reserves currently held by the G-BAD boys and girls and you have a sock full of public money just waiting to be spent on a $30,000,000 ball park that Boise residents overwhelmingly say should not be publicly funded. Furthermore, citizens will not have a vote on how any of the funds are spent.
We need some legacy media folks to get the views of all candidates on the record and then hold them to it.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Mar 29, 2013, 8:44 pm
Baseball is a dying sport, as evidenced by several years’ worth of youth participation, empty seats everywhere, and poor television ratings. It is too slow for the modern world. Wasting money on a baseball park might have made sense back when baseball mattered, in like the 1950s.
Mar 30, 2013, 2:31 am
We should all be alarmed by what Dictator-wannabe Dave is doing! He is diverting funds from many sources and he is absolutely dumb enough to use what he amasses for a street car or for the idiotic baseball park – JamesBond is right, baseball is not a good investment.
Mar 30, 2013, 9:14 am
It really doesn’t matter whether baseball is a good investment. The point is that it’s not an investment government should make.. either way. It’s a private enterprise decision and should be done solely with private money.
Mar 30, 2013, 9:21 am
Guess what, boise has created yet another RAA called the 30th Street U/R and guess where it is located…..right where team dave wanted the baseball stadium. Conicedence>>>>>you be the judge
Mar 31, 2013, 10:22 am
Excellent point Erico49! Dictator-wannabe Dave doesn’t care. He can’t get his little streetcar done so now he is focusing more attention on the stadium – he just wants his name on something! Ego out of control. Bieter is bad for Boise, bad for Idaho
Mar 31, 2013, 6:22 pm
There are a lot of people who aren’t really fans of the game, but they don’t pay much attention to it and are oblivious to the fact that baseball is dying and has been dying for quite some time. I tend to trace it back to the strike in 1994. But we cannot let this fundamental knowledge gap fool us or guide us. Moreover, we cannot let baseball pollyanna’s slide one by. A baseball stadium is a foolish, foolish investment.
Mar 31, 2013, 6:30 pm
and again…each of the new (and old) candidates have no knowledge of the Tourism industry, which is vital for the Valley’s success (with the exception of John May). Bill Connors from the Chamber, Schmader from the River Fest and IFEA president, Beacham, who is a turncoat and works for the RedLion and Mike McKnight (BW Lodge hotel manager) have sneaked behind everyone’s backs and made a promise to the Mayor…”we will get you your stadium” if you help us get the Convention Bureau moved to the Chamber (the Chamber has its eyes on the $850k Idaho Travel Council grant)…oh-so-sad situation. Have heard that there is a movement to “dismiss” GBAD next election due to their incompetence of spending lots of $$$ on study after study…and then deciding NOT to build a new convention center…what a bunch of complete fools. If you are inclined to vote – do your homework and select a candidate that KNOWS the ins and outs of HOW tourism works. Perez seems to be a logical person…May has the experience…
Mar 31, 2013, 6:40 pm
Any debate this community has about a baseball park needs to seriously deal with the fact that baseball is dying. Here is an excellent article about it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576232753156582750.html
I am not a fan of public funding of private enterprise, but if we want to argue about sporting arenas, it is clearly more important to have a field that could serve football, soccer and lacrosse, as well as a few other similar sports (rugby, etc.) a larger indoor arena might also make some sense. Baseball, however, is an archaic, slow, dying game. If Bieter actually is trying to do this, he needs to get out of the 1950’s.
Apr 11, 2013, 5:57 pm
Hey Ivan, whatever happened to the Chuck and the boys? They promised us they would take GBAD down, but after they took Bobbie down, they seemed to lose all interest…
Apr 18, 2013, 4:58 pm
Where did you find the filing information for the candidates? Doesn’t appear to be listed anywhere on the GBAD website or Ada County Elections website.
EDITOR NOTE–Got it from the G-BAD Director.