A lot of stuff is swirling out there about who deserves credit for making construction of the ballpark and arena at Harbor Yard a reality.
Fact: There’s no ballpark, no Bluefish and no arena without Mary-Jane Foster and husband Jack McGregor. They were the driving private-sector forces behind the sports entertainment complex.
Fact: There’s no ballpark and arena without former Mayor Joe Ganim.
Fact: No ballpark and arena without former Governor John Rowland.
Fact: No ballpark and arena if business leaders such as David Carson, retired chief executive of People’s Bank, hadn’t urged Rowland to support the project.
Fact: City Council members Bill Finch, Mike Marella and Patrick Crossin rallied other council members to support it. They deserve credit.
Fact: Not one City Council member, whether Marella or anyone else, had the business skill and financial savvy to make the complex a reality.
Fact: Others deserve credit not mentioned.
Fiction: Finch claiming Foster did not win the development contract for the arena because Foster wanted to spend $50 million in taxpayer funds and keep ownership of the structure. What a bunch of hooey. Where did Finch come up with that?
Connecticut Post story:
www.ctpost.com/local/article/Foster-s-claims-on-Harbor-Yard-complex-come-under-2168978.php
Fact: You could fill up our Cathedrals of the Yin and the Yang of the Arena and Ballpark with the Litany of Aint’s sung by Paul Timpanelli and the BRBC. He is so YesterYear!
Fact: Bill Finch loved Mary-Jane when she unwittingly cooperated to raise money for Finch under the guise to reduce his legal bill to Bohannon but really served as a cash conversion transaction to “People for Excellence for Government” that will prove to be a straw operation for Bill and bag men.
Fiction: Bill Finch keeps attacking Foster about balloon mortgages issued by the bank she served on as a board member. Does Finch even know what a balloon mortgage is?
Fact: Sonya and Bill Finch over the years have created their own little cottage industry, heavy on the large curd, with their PAC and Deputy Treasurer, Consultant Scams.
Fact: You can’t make this stuff up!
Fact of Life: Success has many parents while failure becomes an orphan. It looks like an awful lot of people are now jumping on Foster’s Bandwagon! Ballpark and The Arena are a Success.
Science Fiction: Bill Finch is the cleanest, greenest mayor of this global-warming Universe. He should be starring in the “Green Blob!” or “Counterfeit Bill!”
Bill Finch is such a clean green mayor, he will be remembered 10,000 years after we are all long gone. Look at his lawn signs. That plastic will be littering the earth for eons. Really Bill, couldn’t someone in your campaign figure it would be beneficial to go green and biodegradable? You are not so green! Maybe in a parallel universe where plastic lawn signs do not exist. Anyone can say what they will about the Ball Park. It is a great asset to this city and a beautiful sight on a cool summer night looking down from I-95. That is the best marketing the city could hope for. Not the vacant green fenced lot known as Steelepointe only to those who have been following it for 27 years. A simple billboard on that site could have redeemed you, but alas not even something so simple and basic that could have sent a message to 100,000 people a day. A loss to Bridgeport. Questioning MJF’s contribution to the city makes the Finch administration look desperate. The Ballpark at Harbor Yard is one of the biggest assets we have. “Take me out to the ballgame, Take me out to the park. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack …”
“Foster said the partnership paid for the lobbyist that helped secure the state funding and for independent consultants that ended up helping the Kasper Group, which ultimately ended up with the arena contract. In a letter sent by the chairman of the MHC board and another sent by McGregor in December 1999 to Ganim, the groups ask the mayor to explain why talks had all of a sudden broken down.”
Remember Kasper Group? Paul Pinto was one of the partners and the behind-the-scenes man in derailing the Arena contract. One very important fact left out by the CT Post is the name of the Councilman who was the Chairmen of the Contracts and Appointments Committee at the time: Councilman Bill Finch.
… My guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now …
If remember correctly the Bluefish were named the 2006 Business of the Year by Paul Timpanelli’s BRBC.
Hey Paul! Will you love me in September like you loved me in July? If you Follow the Money you will see the CEO and president of the BRBC had his own business problems when he had an Appraisal business in the late 1980s.
This was before he was bailed out by the “Good Old Boys!” They must be afraid this Foster woman is going to clean their clocks.
Bill Finch is such a pimp, taking credit for other people’s work.
Inch by Inch the Feds will get Finch, LOL.
Hey! Fluck, that’s my line!
I always thought the harbor yard and arena were done by State money after Rowland double-crossed the people of the city with his casino election lies. He figured the buffoons in Bridgeport would not know or care about their lost jobs.
Hail Mary, full of grace, look over MJF. Hail Mary, full of grace, look and watch over MJF.
I’m surprised Bill Finch hasn’t taken credit for reinventing the wheel and composing the Beatles’ biggest hits.
*** THE PROBLEM IN BPT IS NOT THE BLUEFISH, NO? *** FACTS ***