Last time I looked, Houston, the home of the NBA Rockets, was still located in eastern Texas. The good people in Texas will tell you there's nothing more American than, well, Texas. Plus everything's supposedly big. Yessiree Billy Bob, everything from ranches, to saloons, to steaks, to the, ahem, pom-poms of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are quite sizable indeed. Also their collective egos, but we'll let that little detail slide.
However, for a state that is so fiercely proud to be American, there appears to be some serious hypocrisy that has gone on in Houston for quite some time. Enter Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander.
Alexander, now 70, was originally a bond trader from New Jersey. Obviously, he knew when to hold-em and when to fold-em, because he became a billionaire.
Back in 1993, Alexander bought the Houston Rockets for $85 million. At the time, they shared the same arena with the now long defunct Houston Aeros of the NHL. It was pretty much agreed all-around that a new venue was necessary. After much haggling between the Rockets, Aeros, and local government officials in Houston, finally a deal was struck.
A new arena would indeed be built. Also at the time, assurances were given that "no new taxes" (sound familiar?) would be assessed. It's probably a coincidence that a guy named Bush (George W.) happened to be the governor that signed off on it.
At any rate, when all was said and done, the new arena cost $235 million to build. Of that sum, the Houston Rockets (see Alexander) contributed $43 million. The city of Houston (see taxpayers) had to pony up $182 million. The spare change was kicked in by other donors, notably a company called Enron, their CEO at the time being one Kenneth Lay. As you will remember, Enron imploded and cost a lot of honest people a whole lot of money. Lay himself was convicted of 10 counts of securities fraud and other charges and faced up to 20-30 years in prison. Alas, he died of a "heart attack" while vacationing in Colorado, before he could be officially sentenced -- though rumors surfaced his demise may have been orchestrated by others.
Fast forward. Not long ago, Rockets' owner Leslie Alexander purchased a penthouse in Manhattan. $42 million worth for basically a condo occupying the 17th and 18th floors. And, oh my, talk about fancy. Besides the 6300 square feet, it features four terraces, an outdoor "infinity" pool (whatever that means), a heated whirlpool, 5 bedrooms, 5 and a half baths, a library, salon, formal dining room, and a gallery, amongst other amenities.
Nothing wrong with that. If you've got the bucks to spend $88 million on a basketball player like Dwight Howard, then spending less than half of that on oneself to live in luxury is totally understandable. It's the American way.
Alexander's net worth is now estimated at roughly $1.2 billion. That's 1200 million.
So let's see. We've got a filthy rich dude that started off in New Jersey, bought the Houston Rockets, had a new arena built that soaked the Texas taxpayers, even though promises were given otherwise, and recently just bought a Donald Trump style condo in Manhattan.
With all that money, guys like Alexander can pretty well do whatever they please to make them happy.
But that leaves one question. After the completion of the new arena in Houston to house his Rockets, again, mostly at the taxpayers' expense, obviously the venue itself needed a name. It could have been Houston this or Rocket that, but no.
Alexander sold out to a foreign company and accepted $100 million from Toyota for the naming rights. The Rockets now play in the Toyota Center, in Texas of all places, because guys like Leslie only have loyalty to one thing -- and it's colored green.
Shame on him, and the people that even go there to see the games. I thought the proud American people of Houston would reject the obvious slap in their faces and see through such typical one-percenter hypocrisy playing them as fools. NBA team or not, there comes a time when one has to make a stand.
Either you're an American and stand by your country and companies -- or you're for sale and can be bought by the highest (or lowest) bidder, despite the fact such foreign people are themselves in the process of attempting to destroy American companies for their own benefit.
It's hardly rocket science. I don't care who's in the building. No way is yours truly walking into something called the Toyota Center, let alone spending a dime there. Leslie Alexander could easily have taken bids, even if a bit lower, from many American companies for those same naming rights. Or better yet, don't sell the naming rights at all. Just name it after the team that plays there. It's not like guys like Alexander need the extra money that comes with selling out.
Actually, it's just shameful.....
No comments:
Post a Comment