Declined Counteroffer Should Cancel Deal

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It was never about a new Snappers stadium. It was never about moving the fairgrounds to a new facility. It was never about an auto race track. And it was never about a charitable foundation. As I and many have suspected, it was always just a real estate transaction, nothing more, nothing less. I have to credit the Rock County Board for not caving in to all the car salesman-like promises made by the buyers. The board had the wherewithal to call them on this by writing a counter-proposal asking the wealthy investors for a $45 million letter of credit, basically asking them to put their money where their mouth is. They declined. The board’s counter-proposal also excluded property south of Hwy.14 from the deal.

JG excerpt:
Hendricks urged supervisors to think of the deal as a simple land swap at Thursday meeting. “ I know the concept (of a stadium and fairgrounds) has gotten the entire county talking, but again, this is a simple transaction: land for land and $8.3 million,”he said.

With the time constraints and many unanswered questions, this should make it easy for the board to decide and it should also finally sink in on county residents who have been mistakenly connecting a new stadium or fairgrounds to the motivated buyers or the land swap deal. Residents should not hold this against the county board. We’ve all been taken for a ride and they were not the driver. As Ken Hendricks put it “this is a simple transaction.”

Fueling the confusion, today’s Janesville Gazette front page headlines story titled,” Get the drop on the swap” continued to include the stadium/fairgrounds plans in the sale despite the fact that the key players involved have insisted that the deal is nothing more than a real estate transaction. Have Fitzgerald or Hendricks asked the Gazette to stop this steady stream of misinformation?