Broncos should pay for stadium

Editor,

As I was flipping through the Rocky Mountain News the other day, I read an article about how Hispanics have a very high drop-out rate in high school.

When I turned the page, there was yet another article about the Denver Broncos stadium tax. As I kept turning pages, I started to notice every type of Broncos memorabilia being advertised. Iām talking about mugs, shirts and plates. (And who came up with this idea of having a bunch of Broncos commemorated on a plate anyway?
Plates are for eating. Do I need to think about those guys when I have dinner?)

Anyway, when I turned on the TV there was a commercial with the buck- toothed John Elway, smiling and waving his fists in the air and looking at his double, telling people to buy his trucks at the John Elway Dealership.

All this really got me to start thinking about the morals being displayed in this city.

Last year we had to vote on a tax that would expand the RTD system. This issue wasnāt even second guessed by most people, they simply voted ćnoä on it.

Now, the majority of people support a new stadium tax, and the Broncos are smart enough to try and have an early election in May.

Now letās take a look at these two issues. Instead of voting to reduce traffic and smog as well as getting people to work faster and providing better transportation for people who canāt afford cars, people have chosen to make a small number of already rich people, richer.

And thatās all this really comes down to. Every time you buy a Broncos sweatshirt or hat, the profits go right into the hands of a few greedy, wealthy men. In other words, you pay to advertise someone elseās product. Itās just free advertisement, I mean shouldnāt they be paying us to wear it? As Jerry Seinfeld would say, ćItās just laundry.ä

Players get traded so often that in reality you are really rooting for a piece of clothing. Or in our case, a picture of a donkey with orange hair.

The senatorās plan calls for taxpayers to pick up 75 percent of ćwhatever the new stadium ends up costing.ä The cost estimate is at this point is at least $300 million, and it could get higher.

The Lacy Bill calls for continuing an existing sales tax, a penny on every $10, in sales in the six-county metro area that is now being used to pay for Coors field. If you or Pat Bowlen agree with this, then I invite you to spend a night or two with the homeless on Speer Boulevard or drive over the potholes all over Denver if you can even drive with  all the traffic.

 Forget the illiterates and failing educational system at the Denver Public School system. A new stadium is really what is important!

Like it or not, this is the view that you hold if you support the stadium tax.

Now I will admit I did root for the Broncos in the playoffs and Super Bowl, and I did go to the rally at Civic Center Park. But there was a guy next to me who was screaming so loudly and passionately that I started to wonder what the hell he was doing.

Those guys up on the stage donāt even know him and if they were offered more money to play somewhere else, they would take it. Yet people like him and others were cheering like it was the second coming of Christ.

Let me pose this question. Are any of your lives any different because the Broncos won the Super Bowl?
You still have to wake up early every morning and go to school and or work everyday.

You still struggle to pay for tuition and make ends meet while these guys sit in their mansions and can build pools filled with their money.

I admit, itās fun to go to Broncos games, and it brings people together on Sunday afternoons to watch their mighty heroes. But asking the city to pay for a new stadium is going too far.

How will a new stadium really affect you lives?

How would the Broncos leaving town affect your lives?

Daniel Weintraub
Community College
of Denver student