Saw It Coming

Here's a followup to a story from last year.

Last year, ESPN held its Outdoor Games in Madison. Madison, being dominated by wacky liberals, threw up all kinds of hurdles to the outdoor games dominated by rugged outdoor activities. For instance, they hemmed and hawed about issuing them a permit to use firearms for the target competition.

After they finally happened, the games were a huge economic boom to Madison, bringing in an estimated $2 to $11 million dollar economic impact to the city.

At the time, I said this:

Madison is going to lose a great event because of their stupidity and liberal arrogance.

Today, this happened:

In a tersely worded press release Monday, ESPN announced: "We worked extremely hard to deliver tremendous economic impact and promotional value to the area. Published reports of Madison's offer have been greatly exaggerated and were primarily speculative. It has become clear that further discussion would not result in an agreement that fairly recognized the value we delivered."

By that, senior director of communications for ESPN George McNeilly said, the last offer from the state, Dane County and city of Madison of $750,000 to bring the Great Outdoor Games back to Madison for a second year, was "not really $750,000 but something less" and did not meet what ESPN thought it needed.

"In fact, when we came to Madison last year we came in considerably below market value but felt the city would be a good fit for what we were presenting," he added.

I'll give you a hint. It wasn't just about the money.

(Cross posted at Boots & Sabers)