From the Arizona Republic:
After months of negotiations, the Sundome Center for the Performing Arts will soon be under new ownership.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted this week to approve the purchase of the 7,000-seat performing arts center.
The board agreed to pay $10 to the Arizona Board of Regents, the owner.
The Sundome is a failed arts venue, a failure even before newer and better free-market competition came on line. This “sale” simply moves its losses from one cadre of taxpayers to another.
But there are three little ironies here: If the property had been “sold” for $10 to a private party, we would all understand that the taxpayers had been robbed by a sweetheart deal. But if ASU had sold the property at market value to a private developer, it would have received a huge sum of money for turning a vast parcel of land to a higher and better use. But, best of all, ASU will campaign next spring for the lion’s share of a City of Phoenix bond issue to build a new campus for itself in Downtown Phoenix. If the taxpayers are willing to kick in yet another $855 million, ASU will be happy to donate the ten bucks it got from this “sale.”
Actually, there is potential for a fourth and crowning irony:
Del E. Webb Corp. gave the Sundome to Arizona State University for $1 in 1984, with the university promising to keep it an arts venue.
That reads like the grant to ASU may have been a qualified fee estate subject to condition subsequent, meaning that title would revert to Del Webb (now a division of Pulte Homes) if the property is not maintained as “an arts venue.” But a common-enough provision in such a qualified fee estate would be that title would also have to vest in ASU, no other parties. In other words, it’s possible that the original deed says that if ASU does not wish to retain the property, it automaticaly reverts back to Del Webb. The fallout from that would be an entertaining spectacle, worth ten bucks at least…
