We had the same thing occur here up in Toronto with our Skydome (I submitted the name “Condome” for a naming contest back when it was built…it wasn’t accepted. I wonder why?;) )

You can read my post here on it:

* Built over three years from 1986 to 1989 at a cost of $600 million dollars, paid for by three layers of government (federal, provincial, and municipal) and a host of private insiders. When it opened, it was $165 million dollars in debt.

* By 1990, the Skydome (or the “Condome”) was bleeding debt. Some say it was estimated that it would have to operate 600 days a year to book an unknown amount of profit. Personally, I think that number was simply “to break even”.

* By 1993, it was $400 million dollars in debt.

* In 1994, The provincial government issued a bailout by paying off all the debt with it’s extortion money taxes collected from it’s citizens and sold it to a private insider-connected cartel for $151 million dollars.

* In 1998, the cartel filed for bankruptcy protection.

* Another cartel (Sportsco) bought it out for $85 million in late 1998.

* Finally, Rogers (a cable and wireless company) bought it in 2004, for $25 million dollars.

* Note that all these numbers quoted have not been adjusted for inflation, so Rogers got it for much less. In fact $600 million dollars in 1989 converts to about $847,010,869.57 in 2004 dollars. Rogers bought the stadium for about 3% of the original cost of construction.

Glad to hear from you again, it’s been a while!