Miz Shepherd's comment: "What? Are they kidding?" said while standing within the city limits of Dallas.

Though, to be fair, cage fighting apppears to be a little-advertised attraction in Dallas...

Apparently Cage Fighting is finding a home in many Performing Arts Centers:

The Majestic Theater in San Antonio.

The Chicago Theatre in Chicago

Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre in Boston

Performing arts finding a home at "Wang Theatre." Too many jokes. Must lie down.

"My goal is to have people drive from Dallas and have to be here for an 8 o'clock curtain call because they couldn't see (the attraction playing here) in Dallas."

My goal is marry Megyn Kelly.

What? You gave up on Laura Bush?

Frankly , I like the idea of cage fighting . Especially when applied to the city council .

Can you imagine the gazillions of Midlanders stuffed into councils chambers to watch a city father defending his taxation proposal whilst locked in a cage with a rabid "aginer"?

Suggested new logo for the Tall City... "Midland , Texas ..Welcome to the greatest show on Earth !"

Wow! What an unbelievable coincidence!

I am beginning to pick up on a theme here. You really do not like any venue where there will be arts, sports, cage fighting, etc. if tax papers have to pick up any dime of it. Yet, how many tourism studies have you looked at? Honestly, with all this wit and sinicism, one might think that you were some authority on how these things work. Some further study on how these types of facilities actually aid communities would probably be in order.

AND, if the taxpayers need to chip in a bit to help better our community...I say ABSOLUTELY. I own property and I fundamentally understand that as our community improves so does my personal wealth, as well as my neighbors. And why shouldn't we take a vested interest in our community? Why shouldn't we help pay? Have we really gotten so far away from the depression-era generation that we no longer have a sense of civic duty? God help us if we have.

I figure I've read about 7 tourism studies in the last two years. Not to mention the last 10 years of Midland County and City of Midland budgets, CARF's, master plans, and every MDC annual report.

I won't speak for Walsingham, but I actually voted for the sports complex. I thought certain aspects of the complex were a positive for the community. However, that doesn't excuse the boosters for overselling the revenue and minimizing the general budget sacrifice that would be required to run the complex, or the generous facility agreements with the primary users that don't come close to addressing the O&M costs of the stadium.

I don't approve of the Horseshoe because the County went out and got a special bed tax imposed by the Texas Legislature and floated a revenue bond for several million dollars on a facility that never faced the voters.

I'm worried about the performing arts center because the scope of the project is not modest. UTPB is going to face substantial O&M on a facility, plus the infrastructure costs and impact on the water resources at the Airport are not fully known. In 10 years I'm not sure this "gift" from the legislature and the UT System is won't be an O&M curse that produces cutbacks in other services.

There are massive opportunity costs for building and maintaining these facilities, and while most people say it is OPM (other people's money), the reality with the Sports Complex and the Horseshoe, is that the special taxes and the rosy revenue projects don't tell the whole story, and in the end dollars that could go to our streets, or playgrounds, or other facilities with much higher utilization than these facilites suffer.

Not to sound condescending...but here it goes....

NOW THAT WAS A PROPER RESPONSE. Thank you. That response showed some poise and compassion - far less cynical that the previous posts I read the other night. This post was very eloquent.

And, to your point, there is definitely a risk involved in any venture such as this. But, I think the thing I love so much about our community and of West Texas is our pioneering spirit. So much of what we have done over the past 125 years should have failed. But somehow we managed (and manage) to make it work. LOL...and yes...sometimes it has taken tax money and time (I will concede the point). However, time does tell the story best and what will the real story be in another 125 years.

I am very glad that we have people who provide a dissenting view, but one that helps bring us to a stronger tomorrow. And dissention does not have to be cull of cynicism and void of hope. As a matter of opinion, I feel it should be full of hope – as you are pressing for what you feel is just and right.

These things have come to pass in our community and we cannot take them back now. But, there is much opportunity to help them succeed.

And for a community that should have dried up and blow away years ago, I guess the only failure would have been not to have tried at all. Thank GOD Midland has never stopped trying.