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Michael Fitzgerald
Mike Fitzgerald is The Record’s award-winning metro columnist. His column runs in the paper three times a week. Born in San Francisco, he was raised in Stockton. His column covers diverse beats including, sometimes, the offbeat. Read FullCategories
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- Sass Bar & Grill, the replacement for Paragary's, was supposed ot open July 20. What's the delay? http://t.co/ZDHA1Lw 3 days ago
- Here's an idea: we use the Swedish J35 Draken interceptor warplane for sale at Stockton's airport for crimefighting. Ja! http://t.co/1BDauhT 1 week ago
- The Council's OK of pot shops is a step away from silly, destructive marijuana policies. Did I mention I have glaucoma? http://t.co/VlCm3T5 1 week ago
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Reader: City Hall will ruin the Thunder
Reader Jack Smith writes:
“I feel that if the City of Stockton were to purchase the remaining teams left at the arena, the teams would suffer.
“I have season tickets for the Thunder. Many families have adopted this team, purely because it is good fun, and most importantly, it is affordable for a family. I could easily see the blundering city bureaucrats trying to immediately recoup their past losses by hiking anything and everything up, especially the ticket prices.
“In doing so, in a typical bureaucrat’s manner, they would be driving income down, as people would stop going. It would no longer be affordable. … Most likely the entire family will then stay home, reducing income from ticket sales and resulting vendor income. The same would possibly happen to any one that purchased the teams, as the city would hike the arena fees, making the ticket prices rise also. ”
I reprinted this letter because it is typical. People don’t trust City Hall to steer the Thunder and the Arena to a better financial footing. But what’s the alernative? To allow the IFG’s mismanagement to cost the city $3 million a year? Getting rid of IFG does involve risk. But surely that’s preferable to municipal bankruptcy.