[QUOTE=Bouw N Arrow;3024091]If the team leaves it's FAR worse for the tax payers. /QUOTE]
I'm not certain that the argument you present is persuasive: while it may be a side-issue it is not the main issue. The main issue is whether the CoG is conferring a benefit on MH through the deal structured as it is.
If the CoG cannot irrefutably substantiate that the amount paid to MH is (at this point) realizable in the future - no hindsight allowed here - then they are offside. It doesn't matter what the *purpose* of the payment is, or whether there are economic benefits being preserved. The law is clear: as a governing body they cannot confer a benefit on a private group.
If the revenues don't add up - they are providing that benefit.
It's not a political judgment (which is the argument that some daft lawyer named Becker was trying to make on Prime Time Sports to Bob McCown the other day - he was shot down by Bob) -- it's an economic one.
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