DBP
NF: Color me interested in the input you get from economics profs on this. I also like how you provided alternative revenue-generating possibilities for us to consider along with boring old sports franchises.
It’s true that many corporations have done quite well for themselves here over the years. Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon.com to name just a few. However, in considering corporate development as an alternative to sports franchises, please remember that the companies I just named weren’t exactly lured here. Rather, they started out here and got bigger on their own. So, as an alternative to throwing a big chunk of money at one big corporation, maybe we should also consider spreading the money around to fewer (but smaller) up-and-coming corporations. What about bio-tech? What about wind and wave energy development? Those are still boom industries.
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Unfortunately, some of the same problems that attend the wooing of sports franchises attend the wooing of corporations. Remember how the city of Duvall wooed Intel with flowers and chocolate and then got dumped anyway? Remember how the whole state wooed Boeing and then Boeing ran off with Chicago?
I know it’s not nice to say this so soon after Valentine’s Day, but . . . Love stinks.
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Anyway, thanks everyone, for making this a thoughtful and interesting debate.