Arena opponents blame consultant for confusion over project
A leader of the Paso Del Sur group opposing building an arena in the Duranguito neighborhood has called out a consultant hired by the Paso Del Norte group for advice he offered during the 2012 Quality of Life bond process.
El Paso historian David Romo says sports consultant Rick Horrow is to blame for the city stripping the arena ordinance of the word “sports” in favor of “multi-purpose performing arts facility.”
Romo says Horrow taught cities, including El Paso, “how to do bait and switch projects.”
“He writes a list of 10 steps on how cities can basically fool, in very disingenuous ways, their own constituents to approve sports stadiums and arenas against the will of the voters themselves,” said Romo, pointing to the City’s current dilemma after an Austin judge ruled this week the City cannot use any funding for its $180 million arena to make it sports specific. “You can look up these rules yourself. The name of the book is ‘When The Game Is On The Line.”
City Council has voted to appeal the arena decision.
Romo pointed specifically to No. 1 and No. 10 on Horrow’s list. No. 1 states: “It’s not about sports. De-emphasize, even in triumphant cities, the sports model.”
Meanwhile, No. 10 states: “Each individual project, on its own, will have little chance of passage. together, bundled, is the most enticing way to present the idea to voters.”
Tripper Goodman was chairman of the El Paso Tomorrow political action committee and helped sell the bond proposal to El Pasoans.
“(Horrow) had helped other cities, Oklahoma City in particular and others, with this kind of situation,” Goodman told ABC-7.
Goodman admitted the City bundled the projects, but only to simplify the ballot. As for the exclusion of the word “sports,” Goodman said Horrow never told them to avoid it.
“I along with another 15 to 18 people were out there advocating for the passage of these bonds,” Goodman said. “Never did we ever say there was not going to be some sort of sporting event occassionally there.”
Attempts to reach Horrow have been unsuccessful. But in a 2012 interview on ABC-7, prior to the bond vote, Horrow did mention sports.
“It’s an 18,000 seat facility,” Horrow told ABC-7. “But it’s part of the overall quality of life plan and it includes an opportunity for regional and top NCAA Tournament basketball games, hockey, religious revivals, concerts, conventions. A first-class building.”
Romo estimates delays in the project will cost taxpayers about $5 million in legal costs and depreciation once its all said and done.
Goodman, who is upset about the situation, told ABC-7: “It’s too bad eight to 12 people are trying to stop something more than 110,000 El Pasoans voted for.”
