The Memphis missing floor fiasco

I've been trying hard to ignore the missing floor fiasco regarding the new Fed Ex Forum here in Memphis.

In case you're not from these parts but are nevertheless still interested in reading about such things, here's a brief recap.

The Memphis Grizzlies professional b-ball team was the beneficiary of new stadium and parking garage a few years back. Their previous accomodations--our big white elephent called the Pyramid, wasn't luxury box-ish enough, so the Griz moved out (the Pyramid will now become the world's most expensive bait shop). In the process the state and federal guvmints chipped in about 40 mil.

There were a couple of stipulations with that money--the garage needed to fit 1800 cars and the state required some sort of intermodal transport hub, presumably so cars, buses, trolleys, bicycles and rickshaws could all come together in perfect gridlock before and after the game.

But in typical Memphis fashion they took the money and bent the rules, and whoops, forgot to build the intermodal hub. Whoops again, they left out one floor of the parking garage, too, which unbelievably led to a feature on George Noory's weird Coast to Coast AM radio show (as if the floor had really disappeared).

Now we've got three local politicos crying 'foul', a talk radio host about to pop a vein, and a local media personality defending every missing brick. Such is life in the little Bluff City.

Amidst all this, the Grizzlies owner has lately been hinting he's ready to sell the team. Maybe he's not satisfied with the seven dollar beers and four dollar hotdogs. Or maybe it's more the old Animal House comment, "leaving, what a good idea".

I've said enough. I'm not privy to any inside information (actually I'm still wondering what happened to the story about the guy who said he carried bags of cash into the Mayor's office, so I'm behind the curve)-- this is just the rant of a taxpayer.

And no, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. I understand "how things get done" and so forth, and yep we got the NBA team. But do we always have to emulate a Banana Republic to get anything done? Speaking of which, wonder how many illegals helped build that parking garage...on second thought, never mind.

If you'd like to read more about our stadium frolics, here's a fun place to go.