he body isn't even cold but it's already giving off a curious odour.
Quite frankly, it smells like city council lost interest in having the Edmonton Indy as a summertime staple long before the Montreal-based race promoters actually draped the black flag over the Indy Racing League event.
It seems council was so pre-occupied with other matters -- getting re-elected, bowing at the feet of the Katz Group and shuttering City Centre Airport, among them -- that on July 21 they handed chief financial officer Lorna Rosen carte blanche to negotiate or, in this case, fail to negotiate, a three-year deal with Octane Motorsports to run the Indy race here from 2011 through 2013.
Let's face it, many councillors were lukewarm to the idea from the start, with council voting 7-5 to cap the city's sponsorship investment at $5.5 million over the life of the deal, throw in $1.5 million worth of policing and transportation in-kind costs, and leave it to Rosen to hash out the details with Octane.
The deal would have been done were it not for administration's game-changing insistence on moving the track from the west to the east side of the airport land. During the "three to four weeks" Rosen said it took her office to come up with a draft agreement to present to Octane, her office also decided the race absolutely had to move away from the location used by Champ Car and IndyCar for six races, the one included in the original Octane proposal, so as not to impact the operation of what is now the only functional runway at the airport.
Rosen delivered that shocking -- and expensive -- news to Octane in late August, along with an assurance that the city wasn't spending another penny.
Octane staff made a site visit in September and went home to draw up plans for a new track. The city estimated the extra costs of that plan at $3.2 million, most related to paving. Rosen found a way to cleave $1 million from that budget, but did not seek any more funding from council. When Octane refused to pay the extra freight and demanded an end to negotiations one way or the other by Oct. 29, the race died because of that $2.2-million rift.
"The city's final decision has made it impossible for us, as professional and experienced motorsports promoters, to offer an event complying with our high-quality standards," said Octane president Francois Dumontier.
The city's actions were at least baffling and, at worst, unprofessional.
At no point in the proceedings did council require Rosen to report the imminent demise of the deal.
At no point was Rosen required to sound alarms that might have triggered an emergency council meeting, you know, just to make sure that council didn't have any strong feelings about a complete change of track plans and the resulting funding hassle.
At no point did Rosen invite the Go Indy Committee comprised of local business leaders into the process, you know, just to see if business professionals who are already heavily invested in the race and care about Edmonton's reputation as a business community might want to chip in to ensure the Indy remained a going concern.
Nope. The last word was Rosen's and she said not a penny more.
"We just couldn't make the money work," she said.
We? Council had removed itself from the process and moved along. There was no we.
Allowing Rosen to negotiate on the city's behalf is fine, as long as the deal gets done. Allowing her to preside over the death of any event, sporting or otherwise, without seeking any outside help at all is entirely inappropriate. Unless killing the race from a distance was council's intent all along. And the conspiracy theorists are already tossing around that political football.
The event was losing spectators and money and Northlands incurred about $12 million in losses trying to run it on a shoestring for three years. Octane was going to run it properly, if only given a fighting chance. The deal would have reduced the risk for Edmonton taxpayers but Coun. Kim Krushell thought Octane would have simply asked for more city contributions if ticket sales didn't improve.
"I think they would have had to come back to us for more," she said.
Through it all, the IRL sounds like a spectator to the process, but they were actually invited to shelve the race for 2011 and restart the event in 2012. They apparently declined.
"If they wanted to keep it here, they could have brought their franchise fee down," said Krushell. "I don't think the IRL stepped up."
So now what? While council is prepared to turn its back and both Octane and the Indy Racing League have pledged to work together on a race elsewhere, perhaps in Vancouver or Calgary, a small group of those heavily invested businessmen are seeking a last-minute alternative. They met Wednesday and hope to find construction company that will try to pave its way into the hearts and minds of grateful race fans.
"The fact that council didn't reach out to the business community to solve a paving problem is ridiculous," said one of the interested parties. "This isn't a big problem to solve. We're going to run a $2-billion Expo but we can't find $2.2 million to keep a world-class auto racing event in our city? This is a road bump. This shouldn't be a show-stopper.
"How good would it look for a construction company to come in and save the race? Both Octane and the IRL have hinted the door is closed significantly, but open a crack. I can't imagine they wouldn't listen. If we find a construction company willing to discuss it, then we'd reach out (to Octane and the IRL)."
If it's over, and that seems more likely given the bitter taste left in the mouths of Octane and IRL officials, it shouldn't have ended this way.
It has at least one member of the Edmonton business community is seething mad. "I'm embarrassed by the actions of this council. This is a black eye on the city and the way they deal," said Curtis Serna, president of Safefreight Technology, an Edmonton-based company that is also an IRL sponsor.
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