Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Who Makes These Decisions?

People make stupid decisions when they travel. Mostly because they are not familiar with the cultural, social and even criminal details of the places that they only visit for a few days. That excuse doesn't hold up when a city, community, state or nation makes a bad decision when trying to attract visitors.

For instance, the Super Bowl is coming to Glendale in February. Hosting a Super Bowl in Glendale is not a stupid decision in itself. The University of Phoenix stadium is relatively new and still state of the art even if it does look like one of the notorious "Phoenix Lights" UFOs landed in the middle of nowhere. The stupidity is that we're trying to pull it off this season. Immediately following a Super Bowl in Miami which everyone - from sportscasters to athletes to fans - LOVES.

What's wrong with this season? Well...
  • Downtown and significant chunks of Tempe and Mesa are torn up with light rail construction that isn't scheduled to be complete until LATE 2008.
  • Hotel construction in Glendale is way below demand and unlikely to meet needs.
  • Traffic around the Valley is already bad and becomes horrendous during big events.
  • We're in the middle of a drought.
To add insult to injury, the teams are staying at Kierland and Wild Horse Pass, meaning they will spend an hour each way in transit, though much of it will be on a freeway. Out-of-town media will be staying downtown which poses another unique set of transportation issues, including the light rail construction and confusing freeway access. At this rate the Phoenix metropolitan area is going to get slammed with negative impressions and press making it very difficult to attract future big events.

Unfortunately, the Super Bowl is not the only example of bad decisions. Fortunately, Mesa, which is considering building a water park near a sewage treatment plant, can still back out of the arrangement or relocate the project. Waveyard is a proposed water park including multiple surfing, whitewater and swimming pools, 2 hotels and office/residential space looks great on paper. Claims that it will use only as much water as an 18-hole golf course seem a bit optimistic. Even assuming that is true, a desert is an odd place to put a water park, especially since the Valley is facing an imminent water shortage just from growth. Then there is that sewage plant....

Such decisions really make you wonder about how officials make decisions around here. They obviously have the best intentions but that isn't enough. They need to think about what they are doing, not just the good they hope to do, but also the potential problems and risks. Constantly looking at the world through rose colored glasses is going to leave the Valley and those who love it with some massive black eyes.