Close 6 libraries to save $2.4 million, but spend $40 million on NFL scoreboard (Jax, Fl)

[NightWatcher]

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/317068/483/63M-in-improvements-coming-to-EverBank-Field

The Jacksonville Jaguars announced Wednesday that it has agreed to terms with the City of Jacksonville on $63 million in improvements for the stadium.

The improvements are set to include a north end zone fan engagement area and two new end zone score boards that will be "the largest of their kind in the world," according to a release from the Jaguars.

<snip>

The capital project funding, $36.4 million, will come from the city of Jacksonville. These funds will go toward the infrastructure for the scoreboards and the north endzone area.

___________________________________

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=316875

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Some Jacksonville residents are trying to save their local libraries.

That's after the Jacksonville Library Board announced its plans to close six library branches in Duval county.

The new closures are expected to save $2.4 million.

A $64 million short-fall in the 2014 Jacksonville city budget has prompted the Library Board's decision

I have no words sometimes except for...

The stadium is used 10 times a year (8 pro home games, 1 college regular season game, and 1 college bowl game). The Jags lost all but two of their games this past year. They suck horribly and think that putting a bigger Jumbotron will make up for a shitty team with no direction or stars. No one wants to watch a team suck on a bigger screen. The city is also trying to cut pensions for city workers as well as close 4-6 fire stations.

But we'll have a fuckin big ass tv screen at the football game.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Bread and Circuses. We have to have our big sports stadia at any cost!

K/R and

[corkhead]

4. Here, let me cheer you up...

you are due beer money

[Mojorabbit]

35. I miss that poster. nt

[Scuba]

2. If the Jags were 16-0 every year, winning five straight Super Bowls, it'd still be dumb and mean.

[BrotherIvan]

5. What happens when the fans are too dumb to read the scoreboard?

Fire all the teachers!

[davidpdx]

38. and idiotic

As much a football fan I am (and I don't go to games), I agree that this is a huge waste of money. Let the team go to LA so they can stop bitching and whining about not having a team.

[MADem]

3. But..... but...... but......!!! It's foooooooooooooooooooooooootball!!!!

And who needs book learnin' after the first two or three concussions...ya won't remember anything you read, anyway!!!!!



Let me whip this out for the irony impaired...

[FLyellowdog]

7. But it's Florida...maybe this explains it.

http://www.inquisitr.com/792915/brain-eating-amoeba-in-florida-waters/

[dsc]

41. sorry to say pretty much every city falls for the scam of paying money for NFL stadia

[Art_from_Ark]

42. Yes, it's quite a racket

[siligut]

6. They don't want people to be well-rounded and informed

They want them to conform and spend money. Plus, keeping Shahid Khan happy is probably a high priority.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. Another day in Floriduh. n/t

[SoCalDem]

9. People must be voting for this crap

Where are their brains??

[tokenlib]

10. This is what America has become...really it has....

...should be food for thought. Food enough to choke on...

[n2doc]

11. And the Jags are most likely gone within a decade

To London or LA. No matter what sort of screen the rubes pay for.

[Quantess]

12. I have met people who openly mock libraries and whoever the hell goes to libraries....

since they can't figure out why anybody would go to a library.

A library? Who the hell goes to a library? That kind of tone.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. And think there's nothing wrong with reading only one book a year ...

if even that.

[Tom Ripley]

17. "Eggheads and the homeless, that's who goes to the library!!!"

Two of the haters' most despised groups

[Mr.Bill]

20. Yep, there was aleays one kid in the class

who could never grasp the Dewey Decimal System.

[Initech]

13. And why even waste that kind of money on a team that may not be there in two years?

Because that's what the people who own AEG and the still yet to exist Farmers Field have been saying for the last decade.

[mokawanis]

14. Can't they close some public schools, too?

Maybe they could use the savings to build a better parking lot at the stadium.

[Apophis]

15. I'm tired of seeing all the money going to sports.

At schools, art and band get cut but no sports do. God forbid if little Junior Sonofabitch can't play football or baseball though.

No wonder our country is full of dumbasses.

[bigwillq]

18. Maybe you can try to see if there is something you can do about it.

When I was 8, my Mom wrote and wrote, and pleaded her case, and got a group of other mothers together in attempt for the city to budget $30,000 to add a children's wing to our town public library.

They built that wing.

[Blue_Tires]

19. I'm sure the 39 fans who regularly attend will love the increase on the ticket prices...

[Squinch]

21. Bread and circuses. But they aren't doing very well on the bread part.

[NightWatcher]

25. $7 for a Bud lite and they won 2 games last year

They'd do better with an actual circus.

[HiPointDem]

22. kr

[intheflow]

23. Who needs literacy when yoo hav pickchurs on a big skreen?

Hoo boy. Society is fucked.

[Scurrilous]

24. 3rd lowest scoring team in the NFL last year.

A bigger and better way to remind the few fans remaining that their team sucks.

[Auggie]

26. Not much else underscores the problems of this country better than this ...

Disgusting

[1monster]

27. Damn, do the Jaguars ever milk the people of Jacksonville and give so little

in return.

I'm glad I don't live in Duval County. The Jags are constantly getting upgrades to the stadium and they make the Duval taxpayers foot the bill. It's no wonder that Jacksonville's enthusiasm for the Jags went from wildly welcoming to the eye rolling they elicit today.

[Half-Century Man]

28. A few things.

Question 1: Jacksonville Florida has a football team? really? Since when? Ignore televised sports for 30 years and this happens...

Question 2: Why doesn't the owner of the team or the owners of the park pay for the giant TV? Won't they be the ones benefiting from it existence?

Question 3: How much voltage was applied to Shad Khan to achieve that hair style?

Question 4: Why attack the Library? If the leaders of a community can't tell the difference between a historically long standing traditional community institution and a money pit; Then I say, the first place to cut to find monies to do stupid projects is the salaries, benefits, and political treasuries of public officials and parties.

[Fuddnik]

29. I'm a football fan, and I say fuck all of them.

Let these billionaires pay for their own damned stadiums and improvements. If they don't like it, they can build another stadium somewhere else. They'll just return, hat in hand asking for more in a few years.

I've been to Jacksonville Stadium a few times, and even though they take whole sections out of circulation, covered by tarps, the can't come anywhere near filling the place. And then the locals who paid for the fucking thing, still can't watch it on TV.

[YOHABLO]

30. Sports Trumps everything .. Progressive Radio replaced with Sports Channels etc etc etc

[emmadoggy]

31. How infuriating! Priorities in

this country are so fucked up.

[Lochloosa]

32. NightWatcher, you know I'm a fan but a little reality check here.

I don't agree with what I'm about to post but it is the facts.

The new owner, Shad Khan, is putting up the first 20 million. The rest is coming out of a special fund derived from a tax on hotels rooms.

By law, this tax cannot be spent on anything but capital improvements in the city. No funding of libraries, salaries etc.

If the construction budget goes over the estimated 63 million, Khan is on the hook for it.

It will provide a lot of jobs for the renovations.

[NightWatcher]

33. But it shows the city's priorities

Cut the pensions of the fire and police, close libraries, close fire stations, but somehow find a way to make sure that the shitty football team gets a fancy scoreboard. I wonder if at least the city got assurances from Khan that he won't move the team for a few years.

If the city gave a shit, they'd find the libraries, pensions, and fire stations. They really care about kissing the ass of a rich guy in the hopes that his football team (which sucks) will put the city on the map.

[Lochloosa]

34. No argument from me on any of your points.

Taxing First Baptist downtown property would go a long way to paying for all of those. IMO.

[Uncle Joe]

36. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, NightWatcher.

[avaistheone1]

37. WTF!

This should help to dumb down the kids in Jacksonville.

[ctsnowman]

39. Tax payers

building stadiums for billionaires to employ millionaires who play a game.

[raccoon]

40. thanks for posting. nt