Month: April 2004

SAN ANTONIO SWEEP ENDS GRIZ SEASON

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 26, 2004

With Tony Parker and Robert Horry connecting from the outside and Tim Duncan dominating inside, the defending-champion San Antonio Spurs swept fhe Memphis Grizzles, playoff neophytes, in four.

The Spurs shot a phenomenal 11 or 17 shots from beyond the three-point line, and the Spurs shot nearly 59 percent overall., as they beat the Griz 110-97 before another full house, likely the last in the buildingÕs history, at The Pyramid.

Parker collected 29 points and 13 assists, Duncan scored 26 points and Horry added 14 off the bench for the Spurs, who await the Los Angeles Lakers or Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals.

Pau Gasol scored 22 points and James Posey added 20 and 11 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who had never so much as had a winning month in their 10-year history until January but finished with 50 wins under Coach of the Year Hubie Brown.

But the Grizzlies dropped their final four regular-season games, then were outclassed in their first playoff series by the Spurs, who have won 15 consecutive games overall. In this one, Parker scored 14 points in the first quarter, which ended with the Spurs ahead, 32-21. The cushion was 57-45 at the break and 87-72 after three quarters, and Memphis got no closer than nine points in the final period.

Sports Sports Feature

GRIZ SUCCUMB TO SPURS, LOOK TO NEXT YEAR

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 26, 2004

J-Will goes against Parker.
Photo by Larry Kuzniewski

As it had been all series, it was too much Tony Parker and Robert Horry for the Memphis Grizzlies to overcome Sunday night in the final NBA game at the Pyramid, as the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs swept the Grizzlies 4-0 to end the franchise’s unlikely postseason debut. Parker, the fleet 21-year-old point guard whom the Spurs considered parting ways with over the offseason in order to pursue free agent Jason Kidd, and Horry, the postseason legend whom the Los Angeles Lakers declined to bring back after a shooting slump last season, both had huge series against the Grizzlies. Reigning MVP Tim Duncan had a MVP-caliber game with 26 points on 10-18 shooting, but it wasn’t Duncan that buried the Grizzlies.

On Sunday night, Parker sliced-and-diced the Grizzlies’ halfcourt defense to the tune of 29 points and 13 assists, while Horry came off the bench to score 14 points and grab six rebounds. But it was more how they did it that demoralized both the Grizzlies and a sellout crowd hoping to extend the series back to San Antonio. The duo combined to convert eight of 10 three-point shots, leading the Spurs to 65-percent shooting from behind the arc. In the 4th quarter, after the Grizzlies had cut a 17-point deficit to 9 and brought a quiet crowd back to its feet, it was Parker and Horry who shut the door.

With 10 minutes left in the game and Parker on the bench, Pau Gasol scored over Horry on the block to cut the Spurs lead to 9. Parker re-entered the game after a Spurs timeout and immediately hit a three to bring the lead back to 12. A couple of minutes later, when a Mike Miller three-pointer cut the spread back to 9, Parker was fouled on a fastbreak, hitting both foul shots to push the lead to 11. Then Horry found small forward Bruce Bowen for an open jumper and Parker found Horry for a three that he hit with Gasol in his face and it was suddenly a 16-point game with five minutes to play and fans hitting the exits.

After the game, coach Hubie Brown was insistent on praising his team for the surprising 50-win season they’d delivered, refusing to let the playoff sweep take the shine off what had been a fabulous season. Instead, he gave credit to a Spurs team that may well be better than the version that won the title last season.

For the Grizzlies, there is now an intriguing offseason to look forward to: Gasol — who proved in his first-ever playoff series that he can score on anyone (22 points on 10-15 shooting last night, and over 50-percent shooting on the series) but that he also desperately has to improve on “little things” like boxing out and defending the pick-and-roll — and Shane Battier, who played well in limited minutes after getting into early foul trouble, will be eligible to negotiate contract extensions. Stromile Swift, who was ineffective for much of the series, and Jake Tsakalidis, who rarely saw the floor, will be restricted free agents. Bonzi Wells, who was productive for most of the series but was a non-factor last night, has an option for next season the team must make a decision on. There’s the expansion draft for the incoming Charlotte Bobcats, and the Grizzlies must decide whom to protect and whom to expose. And there will surely be trade discussions, where, one assumes, anyone on this team will be fair game.

They say the playoffs are an entirely new season in the NBA, and Grizzlies fans finally got to find out why. But the offseason is a pretty interesting “season” too, and this one will be crucial if the Grizzlies want to follow up their first ever playoff appearance with another next year.

News The Fly-By

TICKETS, PLEASE

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 25, 2004

We have discovered a number of Memphis-related concert tickets for sale on eBay. For about $100 each, you can pick up tickets to see the Artist formerly (and once again) known as Prince when he plays The Pyramid. For about the same price, you can get tickets to see Nashville heartthrob Kenny Chesney when he comes to town. Both great shows, no doubt, but priced just beyond the Pesky Fly’s reach. The good news: $1.99 will get you in to see a 1978 concert by ELO at the Mid-South Coliseum.

Plante: How It Looks

Sports Sports Feature

GAME 3: HEART-RACER, HEART-BREAKER

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 23, 2004

Jason Williams in mid-move
Photo by Larry Kuzniewski

After embarrassing themselves to the tune of a 24-point loss in game one and collapsing down the stretch in game two, the Memphis Grizzlies finally gave the San Antonio Spurs — and a sold-out Pyramid crowd — a performance on a par with what gave the team an unlikely 50-win season.

On an entirely improbable night — the most historically inept franchise in NBA history experiencing its first playoff series, a long-spurned city experiencing its first professional postseason game — it was a rather typical Memphis game. All season long, the Grizzlies’ biggest weakness had been defensive rebounding, where the team ranked dead last among 29 NBA teams. And, sure enough, on Thursday night the team’s lack of interior strength hurt them, as the Spurs bullied their way to 21 offensive rebounds. All season long, the Grizzlies have been able to offset this deficiency on the boards with opportunistic, ball-hawking defense and the ability to take care of the ball. And, sure enough, on Thursday night the Grizzlies forced 15 Spurs turnovers while giving up only seven themselves. The result was that, despite giving the Spurs so many second chances on the boards, the Grizzlies were still able to take more shots. This was Grizzlies basketball.

Typically, when these two elements cancel each other out, the Grizzlies’ ability to knock down outside shots has been the x-factor. In the series’ first two games, at San Antonio, the Grizzlies shot only 23.8 percent from long range (5-21). Last night, home cooking helped the Grizzlies improve that to a more respectable 35.7 percent (5-14), with Mike Miller and Shane Battier both finding a shooting stroke that eluded them in Texas.

But that modest improvement from the perimeter wasn’t enough to beat the defending NBA-champion Spurs, only enough to keep it close. And so, with two minutes and 45 seconds left in the game, the Grizzlies found themselves tied 90-90, and that’s when the Spurs’ superior talent and experience took over. While reigning MVP Tim Duncan was getting free for consecutive lay-ups, the Grizzlies were floundering in a half-court offense without such a clear first option, shooting only 1-5 in the game’s final three minutes.

Pau Gasol vs. Tim Duncan
Photo by Larry Kuzniewski

Up to that point in the game, Pau Gasol had been pretty much unstoppable on the too-few occasions when he’d gotten the ball in scoring position, shooting 7-8 and utterly embarrassing an over-matched Robert Horry on consecutive possessions in the second quarter. But with the game on the line, Gasol’s inexperience and the reluctance of the game’s officials to give him calls diluted his effectiveness. After watching Gasol get bumped by Duncan and lose the ball and then get hacked by Duncan on the next play to a “no call,” coach Hubie Brown apparently decided he couldn’t afford to go inside and put the game in the hands of the referees. And so Grizzlies fans watched two fade-away jumpshots — one from Jason Williams, one from Bonzi Wells — ricochet off the rim as the Spurs took the lead.

With the Spurs denying the three-point shot, a driving Gasol dunk cut the deficit to one (93-94) with under four seconds left. And that’s when the chess match entered its final stages. With the Grizzlies sure to foul, the Spurs, the worst foul-shooting team in the NBA, left their worst shooters, starters Bruce Bowen and Rasho Nesterovic, on the bench and sent Duncan, also a poor free throw shooter, all the way to the opposite baseline to avoid the play. The Grizzlies sent Manu Ginobili to the line, who hit one of two. And so the Grizzlies were left with a two-point deficit, 3.6 seconds left on the clock, and no timeouts. Brown called the same play he’d used when James Posey sent the late-season game in Atlanta to overtime on a celebrated shot, and the play worked just as well. Mike Miller got a clear look at the basket from the top of the key, about 30 feet way, and launched the potentially game-winning shot just before the buzzer. It rimmed out, and Miller, along with more that 19,000 fans, media people, and Pyramid workers, stood still and silent for a few seconds. Game over. Spurs 95, Grizzlies 93.

This series is a learning experience for the Grizzlies, and you have to appreciate the way play has improved with each game. It’s also a learning experience for Memphis fans, a point driven home when a local radio personality came out a half-hour before tip-off to warm up the crowd and train them on proper NBA playoff fan performance, including how to boo the opposing team and the intricacies of proper towel-waving technique. It was a very touching night, with Hubie Brown receiving the NBA Coach of the Year award from league commissioner David Stern at mid-court before the game and with team owner Michael Heisley delivering a very respectful, deliberate reading of the national anthem. Midway through Heisley’s performance, the sold-out Pyramid crowd, perhaps sensing that he could use a little help, began singing along, softly, as if a backing choir to his soloist. In an era when seemingly everything at a sporting event except the game itself feels orchestrated, this was spontaneous and chilling. The great game that followed was mere gravy.

The truth is that this playoff series has a lot more long-range meaning in terms of gaining experience (and not just for he team, but its fans and city as well) and evaluating talent in preparation for the potentially tumultuous offseason to come than it does in terms of wins and losses. But for this night it was just a game and it was gripping and it hurt to lose. And the good news is we get to do it again on Sunday.

Politics Politics Beat Blog

“Doing One Job”

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date April 23, 2004

Here and There on the on the campaign trail:

“I’m not stupid. The people made their wishes known, and I have responded.” So said state senator Roscoe Dixon two weekends ago, appearing at a forum alongside incumbent General Sessions clerk Chris Turner, the Republican whom Democrat Dixon is challenging this year.

Dixon’s “response” was on the issue of whether he would opt to remain in the Senate if victorious. He won’t, he said emphatically at the forum, held by the Dutch Treat Luncheon group at the Piccadilly Restaurant in East Memphis. Dixon thereby reversed his position of four years ago during a previous challenge to Turner when, as he now concedes, he “waffled” on the issue.

“The people want you to do one job and do it right,” Dixon now says, and he makes that change of mind known at every campaign opportunity.

The exchange between Dixon and Turner was civil and, for the most part, routine — with Turner citing what he said were cost-cutting efficiencies he has effected in office and Dixon proposing innovations like that of a downtown night court like Nashville’s.

• Something of an odd couple at a weekend event were Turner and incumbent Shelby County assessor Rita Clark, a Democrat. Both were attendees at Shelby County trustee Bob Patterson‘s annual barbecue at Kirby Farms and spent much of their time there in conversation with each other.

Though this was merely an instance of two local-government colleagues maintaining cordial relations, the presence at the affair of Clark, who is opposed by Republican Harold Sterling, also underscored her determination to practice an outreach to GOP voters similar to that which she accomplished with black Democratic voters during her successful primary campaign against county commissioner Michael Hooks.

Both Patterson’s annual outing and Kirby Farms itself are traditional venues for Shelby County Republicans.

• The GOP primary contest for state representative in District 83, the seat being vacated by longtime incumbent Joe Kent, promises to be something of a free-for-all. The favorite — via good financing and name recognition gained in a previous race against Kent — is probably Chuck Bates, but four other Republican candidates possess respectable credentials of one sort or another, and all four — Pat Collins, Brian Kelsey, Charles McDonald, and Stan Peppenhorst — showed up for the Patterson barbecue.

Kelsey and White will be returning to Kirby Farms — this and next Thursday night, respectively — for campaign affairs of their own.

Though District 83 is regarded as a safe Republican district, there is a Democratic candidate as well, Julian Prewitt. Both major parties this year made decisions at the state-committee level to offer opposition wherever possible, even in districts where success seemed highly problematic.

• An arguable case of the latter involves the challenge in District 89 of Republican Jim Jamieson to Democratic incumbent Beverly Marrero — though, arguably and ironically, Jamieson may possess more name identification on the strength of two prior races than does Marrero, who beat Jeff Sullivan in a special election primary last December that was notable as much for its scant turnout as for a disproportionate bitterness.

Jamieson, who ran previously against longtime incumbent Carol Chumney, now a city council member, is counting on potential fallout among Democrats from last year’s contest. He balances conservative economic positions with moderate social ones — a mix that is potentially saleable in this Midtown district.

But Marrero, a protÇgÇ of state senator Steve Cohen and a longtime activist in her own right, has made new party connections and solidified existing ones since last year’s race. Moreover, she inherits a tradition of female representation that began with Chumney’s predecessor, Pam Gaia. And the district is definitely inclined toward Democrats.

He wishes (And Best Wishes)

At last month’s Gridiron Show at the Al Chymia Shrine Temple on Shelby Oaks, city councilman Brent Taylor made an unscheduled appearance onstage during a skit. He hung a pair of boxing gloves around the neck of the actor playing Mayor Willie Herenton, then draped a pillowcase over the face of the actress playing council mate Carol Chumney and escorted her offstage.

It remains to be seen how completely life imitates art, but for what it’s worth, when Taylor showed up late for an appearance by His Honor during a council committee meeting this week, he apologized thusly: “Sorry, Mayor, I thought you said meet you outside.” Yeah, you remember!

Music Music Features

Rhythm & Bruise

Post author By Andria Lisle
Post date April 23, 2004

Music fans who tuned into UPN-30 last Saturday morning got a big surprise. Guitarist Tom Nunnery was walloped in the head with his own instrument by wrestler Doug Gilbert, then Memphis music icon Jim Dickinson was brought out to great acclaim. They were promoting the Memphis Slam Jam, which is being billed as “A Night of Rock-and-Wrestling.” The event, to be held at the Mid-South Coliseum Friday, April 23rd, will include 10 matches and one main event — a lights-out, “non-sanctioned” match teaming manager Jimmy Hart’s Money Inc. against Jerry Lawler and Animal (of the Road Warriors). Ticket prices range from $30 for ringside seats to $10 for general admission.

The big show, however, will be when Hart, “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant, and Lawler quit brawling and pick up the microphones to deliver some hard-hitting rock-and-roll. Hart, the promoter and brainchild of this event, says, “Lawler will sing ‘Bad News’ and ‘The World’s Greatest Wrestler,’ of course, and Handsome Jimmy will do ‘714’ and ‘Son of a Gypsy’ with the Nunnery Brothers. I’m singing ‘We Hate School’ and ‘Monday Night Memories,’ backed by Dickinson. All the ringside ticket holders will get a commemorative CD with our music on it and artwork by Jerry Lawler.”

Combining sports and music is hardly a stretch for Hart, who started out as a musician, fronting the Gentrys on recordings for MGM, Sam Phillips, and Stax. He got involved in wrestling by managing — and feuding with — local hero Jerry “the King” Lawler in the early ’70s, then climbing in the ring to beat Lawler for the Southern Heavyweight title. He repped dozens of other characters, including Andy Kaufman, who worked under Hart’s wing during his brief but legendary career as a Memphis wrestler.

With Lawler, Hart also initiated the wrestling music-video phenomenon — filming versions of “Bad News” and “The World’s Greatest Wrestler.” He’s also made videos for Hulk Hogan (“American Made”), Shawn Michaels (“Sexy Boy”), and scores of others.

Locally, he’s a famous face. As a mainstay on WMC-TV’s Saturday morning wrestling program and the Monday night bouts at the Mid-South Coliseum, the “Mouth of the South,” as Hart is called, was, during the ’70s and ’80s, the man most Memphians loved to hate.

Now, after 15 years away working for Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation and for World Championship Wrestling, Hart has returned home to Memphis. Determined to restore wrestling to its wholesome roots, he and fellow promoter Corey Maclin have relaunched the TV broadcasts — on Clear Channel affiliate UPN-30 this time around — and brought live wrestling back to the Mid-South Coliseum.

“Memphis was what got me to the penthouse,” Hart explains today. “We’re the home of ‘Rhythm & Bruise.’ So many big wrestlers came through Memphis in the ’80s — guys like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. Memphis let me be wild, flamboyant, and crazy.

“You know,” Hart says, “we didn’t [understand] how big wrestling was back then. We were working five days a week. We were too busy to realize what kind of impact we had on people. But we were drawing 6,000 fans to the Coliseum on a Monday night, typically the worst night of the week. My house was getting rolled with toilet paper several times a week! My son got beat up on the playground for being my kid! It was huge!

“And now,” Hart continues, “we’re putting wrestling together the way it used to be.”

Maclin, who heads the company behind UPN-30 wrestling, agrees. “Our show is so clean and family-oriented,” he says. “I needed something my kids could watch. We’re trying to stay with the sign on the marquee. People want to see wrestling, not all that behind-the-scenes stuff.”

“Everybody here grew up with wrestling,” Hart adds. “They love to get their frustrations out through the characters in the ring. I really believe wrestling has never left Memphis. When Vince took the top talent, other regions collapsed, but Memphis somehow managed to hold on.”

“I’ve got to give Corey and Jimmy credit,” says UPN-30 general manager Jack Peck. “They have a lot of persistence. I told them that my studio wasn’t ideal for wrestling — the ceiling is too low — but they insisted they could do it.”

Maclin and Hart surveyed the studio space in early 2003, and, within two weeks, they had their mats installed — after cutting a foot off the ring posts. “Corey swung the deal,” Hart says of his partner. “Jack and [general sales manager] Jim Doty welcomed us. They wanted to keep the Memphis tradition going too.

“It’s a marriage made in heaven,” Hart enthuses. “Now we’ve got the highest-rated weekend show and plenty of sponsors with annual commitments.”

Peck confirms Hart’s boasts. “In the last several ratings books, it’s the number-one regularly scheduled weekend program,” he says. “It’s amazing.”

And with weatherman Brian Teigland taking up the announcer’s vacancy left by WMC-TV’s Dave Brown, Memphis wrestling has come full circle. “We’d considered bringing Dave over,” Maclin explains, “but that didn’t work out. Brian contacted me, saying, ‘I’d love to get a crack at this wrestling thing.’ Well, we were getting ready for the show one day, and Jimmy’s flight got held up, Jerry [Lawler] was out of town, and Brian walked in and said, ‘What can I do?’ I just threw him in there.

“Since then,” Maclin says, “the station has gotten tons of phone calls every week. Now they’re putting up billboards promoting our show. We’re also syndicating in other markets, like Jackson, Starkville, Tupelo, Miami, Pensacola, and Little Rock.”

“Part of my past is now part of my future,” Hart says. “What’s old is suddenly new again.”

Art Art Feature

Act Up

Post author By Carol Knowles
Post date April 23, 2004

Through his influential performance works in the 1970s and ’80s, Joseph Beuys confronted and expanded our experience of self and the world, saying, “Art can heal the wounds of contemporary society.” In the Delta Axis at Marshall Arts’ exhibit “Action Packed,” two Memphis artists and eight out-of-state artists also seek to heal the wounds of modern life by heightening this generation’s awareness.

In a remarkable interactive installation titled “Those Who Do Not Remember the Past Are Condemned To Repeat It,” Michigan artist Adam Wolpa invites us to explore “the manifestations of extreme faith.” Before you handle the snakes crawling in and around Wolpa’s terrarium, listen to his sound system’s speakers (one of which jokes about the body’s foibles while the other quotes biblical passages) and receive a cup of red Kool-Aid in return for telling a joke into a hand-carved wooden ear.

Adam Wolpa’s snakes

Most of the elements of passionately held opinion can be found in Wolpa’s work: unexamined superstitions and folk tales, nationalistic sentiments, props and icons that reinforce dogma, and assumptions of superiority and infallibility. Here also are fears masked by sardonic humor, the endless sound bites of advertising and political propaganda, and feelings of uncertainty handwritten beneath skewered hot dogs.

The ideas driving Anne Beffel’s artwork are poignant and powerful. Following September 11, 2001, she spent nine months in a studio at the World Financial Center (just west of ground zero), creating art that included worldwide stories of personal tragedy, regret, and reconciliation. By posing questions — “What do you really want, why, what would it take to fulfill your desire, and is it worth the time and materials involved?” — Beffel helps her clients design their made-to-order purchases which she then constructs from discarded objects, charging only for the cost of the glue, stripper, paints, and dyes incurred to restore the trashed parts that make up her creations.

Beffel’s bent, chipped, and peeling throwaways are reassembled into portable personal altars — file cabinets on rockers, oversized lazy Susans, and chartreuse futons that convert to writing tables or beds with shelves. This artist’s sculptures, with their disparate components that don’t quite fit into classically harmonious wholes, look something like her vision of a world where people are flawed, where limited resources are wasted, and where cultures have not yet learned to smoothly work together.

Tommy Foster, sculptor and University of Memphis graduate student, combines performance art with Southern kitsch.He has“performed“ over 300 Elvis weddings, and he designed an Elvis tour for the “Action Packed” out-of-town artists, which included lots of boxes of Krispy Kreme mini-crullers and stops at obscure but important sites, such as a parking lot where a young Presley got autographs from some master blues musicians. You’ll find photos of the tour, an automobile seat from the tour bus, and an empty Krispy Kreme box in Marshall Arts’ front gallery next to an “iceberg.”

A few suggestions for enjoying some of the exhibition’s other works: Bring along a fresh package of Krispy Kremes. When you enter Marshall Arts, pull down one of Ohio artist Nathaniel Parsons’ 15-foot wooden staffs piled into the right corner of the front gallery. Climb onto his large slab of simulated ice and row. It’s good exercise and will prepare you for life’s mishaps. Eat some Krispy Kremes to regain your energy.

Finish off the Krispy Kremes while viewing Kevin Hamilton’s video of his M.I.T. projects that synchronize the sounds of various electronic devices with the footsteps of humans crossing streets and walking up stairs. As passersby become aware of the sounds that their footsteps create, they begin to accompany the booms and the beeps with some spontaneous pedestrian choreography.

Bring along 10 bucks and purchase one of Miles Wolfe’s decaled T-shirts. This University of Memphis adjunct professor’s T-shirt images run the gamut from Walt Disney movie posters to scenes of terror.

Don’t attempt to row Parsons’ iceberg out the front door. Do push it across the floor to a wall lined with pictures of people seeing the Manhattan skyline from the vantage point of a small, slow-moving row boat captained by Christopher Moore, a sculptor/photographer more interested in creating moments of silliness and intimacy than in instilling metropolitan awe in the hearts of his passengers.

Curator Cedar Lorca Nordbye (a U of M professor and multimedia artist) has produced an “Action Packed” show of art that plays with the edges of consciousness. As you push around icebergs, design what you buy, tap dance to the sounds of technological devices, purchase a shirt with a visual attitude, and tell jokes into a wooden ear surrounded by the raw feelings and unadorned accoutrements of extreme ideological positions, you may find yourself not only looking at art but also thinking about your life and laughing out loud.

Through May 1st

Opinion Viewpoint

Shortfall Surprise

Post author By John Branston
Post date April 23, 2004

There is a $2 million to $3 million shortfall in the hotel/motel tax that funds Memphis tourism promotion and pays debt service on the Cook Convention Center and guarantees a piece of the financing on the new $250 million FedExForum.

The shortfall doesn’t mean the new arena has money problems, because the complicated financing package drawn up two years ago takes revenue from several sources to back the bonds. But it shows how projections can be disrupted by changes in technology and consumer spending habits. And if the trend continues, it could spell trouble for the arena, the convention center, and the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau down the road.

In this case, one of the main culprits is the Internet.

John Oros of the CVB told convention board members at their meeting last week that roughly 12 to 15 percent of hotel rooms are now booked via the Internet, which results in lower rates and introduces various middlemen into the equation. He said that trend could account for $1 million of the shortfall.

“It’s a nationwide issue,” Oros said. “It’s a real problem.”

Savvy travelers are now their own travel agents. Instead of booking a room directly with a hotel, they go to Travelocity or Expedia and book their room and rental car at a discount of 10 to 40 percent. The 5 percent county hotel/motel tax winds up being paid on the discounted price. Tax collections are down, even though hotel occupancy, revenue, and demand are up, Oros said.

Mike Swift, administrator of finance for Shelby County, told board members the shortfall “may go as high as $3 million.” The tax brings in about $11 million a year. It funds the CVB and pays operating costs and debt service on the convention center, including the recent $92 million expansion.

The shortfall is the first indication that financing projections for the FedExForum could be overly optimistic, as widely scorned “naysayers” suggested when it was approved by the City Council and County Commission in 2002. Politicians insisted that the arena be off-limits to property tax revenues. So financial consultants cobbled together a mix of tourism taxes, rental car taxes, arena fees, special downtown taxing zones, and MLGW water division payments.

The surprise comes at a time of mixed reports from downtown. On one hand, the Grizzlies are in the NBA playoffs sooner than expected, boding well for future attendance in the FedExForum. On the other hand, the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is again threatening to move its annual convention from Memphis, and other conventions are negotiating to cut costs. Downtown is battling a crime-problem image in the wake of last week’s rape and murder of a young woman at the Gayoso Apartments on Front Street. And the city and county are weighing a settlement of convention center construction cost overruns that could cost $17.8 million.

Convention center board members were supposed to get a briefing last week on the tax shortfall from Jim Huntzicker, the county’s director of finance and administration. But he canceled just before the meeting. He later told the Flyer that the hotel/motel tax shortfall is “just one piece of a large pie” and that general revenues in the county are up for the year.

“It impacts the convention center because we are going to have to provide more of the operating funds that would have come from the hotel tax,” he said.

In the arena financing plan, the county hotel tax guarantees bonds that are actually repaid by taxes from the downtown tourism development zone, which had no track record at the time the arena was approved. The city of Memphis levies its own hotel tax of 1.7 percent, which is applied to arena debt beginning in 2017.

So should taxpayers be concerned? This naysayer thinks so. Internet bookings of hotels and rental cars are going to become more commonplace, not less. Convention booking agents are just as ruthless. Kevin Kane, head of the CVB, said it’s now a routine opening offer for agents to ask that building rent be waived.

Projections can never account for unexpected events. The big wind storm of 2003 wrecked MLGW’s budget and contributed to a rate increase. The utility’s charter clearly states that surplus revenues are supposed to be used to reduce rates. It says nothing about basketball arenas.

Everybody wants to tax the food and drink and merchandise sold at Peabody Place and on Beale Street. When that money is diverted to an arena, somebody else has to scramble. And I seem to recall a mall closing last year.

Rental cars depend on airport traffic. The Pyramid is vacant. The convention center is over budget. Oh, and the people who negotiated the arena deal for the city and county three years ago are all out of government today. Think positive!

Opinion Viewpoint

Reality Check

Post author By Molly Ivins
Post date April 23, 2004

My, what a full plate we have here as a result of President Bush’s prime-time news conference. Most important is that the president believes in freedom. Also, we are trying to change the world. (Did we sign up for that? I thought we were trying to catch terrorists.)

There are always moments of cognitive dissonance in listening to Bush, when you realize that what he is saying simply does not accord with any known version of reality. He proudly bragged that “we” created the Department of Homeland Security. That would be the department whose creation he opposed all those months. Also, he is looking forward to the report of the 9-11 Commission. That would be the same commission that he so vigorously opposed for all those months.

Meanwhile, the administration is expected to nominate John Negroponte to be our first ambassador to postwar Iraq, to take up residence in what will be the world’s largest embassy after June 30. Negroponte was one of the key figures in the Iran-contra scandal, the cockeyed plot that sold American arms to Iran and used the money to finance an illegal war in Nicaragua. So our first ambassador will be a man who armed Iraq’s enemy during that war.

Negroponte speaks no Arabic and has no Middle East experience aside from the Iran-contra insanity. He is, however, a bona fide, certified, chicken-fried neo-con. Is anyone else appalled?

On the matter of Bush’s chronic inability to admit mistakes, I think he and Karl Rove are making a mistake-mistake. I’ve never thought that apologizing for errors was a mistake. (I make them with some regularity myself.)

Over at the 9-11 Commission, you may recall there was a difference of opinion between former Clinton honchos and the CIA as to whether President Clinton had issued an order to kill Osama bin Laden or merely capture him. Lo and behold, what should turn up in the Clinton documents that were being withheld by the Bush White House but the very order to assassinate bin Laden.

Perhaps the most impressive witness last week was the former director of the CIA’s counterterrorism section, Cofer Black, clearly a spook’s spook. You could tell he was furious when he said quietly, “We didn’t have enough people to do the job, and we didn’t have enough money, by magnitudes.”

I think this is where the disconnect between Bush’s strategy and reality is the most crucial. He has been led astray by his own rhetoric about the war on terrorism: War is conducted by the military — ergo, send in the marines.

Actually, fighting terrorism is closer to a cross between a criminal investigation and traditional spook work. What we need most is good intelligence married to good detective work married to undercover penetration and then precise military strikes.

One trouble with Bush’s “stay the course” rhetoric (he never changes his mind, he never backs down, what a macho guy he is, etc.) is that he does change his mind, often — why do you think Condi Rice testified? — but you can’t tell if he realizes it.

Maybe he thinks rigidity is reassuring, but anyone who doesn’t change strategy when the facts change on the ground is going to wind up toast. Flexibility is not a pejorative word, whereas the neo-con ideological fixations are a real handicap.

As long as we’re playing the blame game, the Republican Congress might want to step up to the responsibility plate. It spent more time in the 1990s trying to bring down Clinton than trying to bring down bin Laden. Black sure could have used the $64 million that Ken Starr spent investigating Whitewater.

Molly Ivins writes for Creators Syndicate and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.