David Rubenstein Interview with RKK

[Roberto71]

Some might be interested here. It's a good interview; nothing too revelatory about the team now or Bill etc.


View: https://youtu.be/eK9nJIjyAvY?si=6IqwEWxMwVfOF6aw


One thing though noticeable, and it's like this with many ultra-successful businessmen. They have this reality distortion field. When he was talking about the history of Gillette Stadium and his purchase of the team, and talked about refusing a lot of money to love the team to St Louis and how loyal he was to the area and would never move ete etc, it's like the deal he made with Hartford, Conn never happened! I mean, he actually signed on for that deal to move the team to Hartford, and it only fell through because of residents' objections. It's like these people have the ability to just push events that they don't like away and forget about them like they never happened.

I will give him huge credit, though for financing the build of Gillette Stadium without any local government money. That was all privately paid for, and it is very rare to have an NFL stadium in the country where tax dollars did not contribute. In fact, Boston is thus the only city in professional sports in which all facilities are privately owned and operated.

 

[BradyGirl]

The private ownership of all four teams should be emulated, but of course too many palms have to be greased elsewhere. Ironic that in a state where palm-greasing is an art form, we have this situation of taxpayers not footing the bill.

This state is so incompetent we had to give up the 2024 Olympics because people knew it'd be a clusterbleep. Can you imagine trying to use the clunker T to get people around to venues? We can't even get people to work!

 

[TommyD420]

Some might be interested here. It's a good interview; nothing too revelatory about the team now or Bill etc.


View: https://youtu.be/eK9nJIjyAvY?si=6IqwEWxMwVfOF6aw


One thing though noticeable, and it's like this with many ultra-successful businessmen. They have this reality distortion field. When he was talking about the history of Gillette Stadium and his purchase of the team, and talked about refusing a lot of money to love the team to St Louis and how loyal he was to the area and would never move ete etc, it's like the deal he made with Hartford, Conn never happened! I mean, he actually signed on for that deal to move the team to Hartford, and it only fell through because of residents' objections. It's like these people have the ability to just push events that they don't like away and forget about them like they never happened.

I will give him huge credit, though for financing the build of Gillette Stadium without any local government money. That was all privately paid for, and it is very rare to have an NFL stadium in the country where tax dollars did not contribute. In fact, Boston is thus the only city in professional sports in which all facilities are privately owned and operated.

Eh, that really only would have affected people coming from Northern New England (and even then not by too much) I live in Worcester, it's an hour to Hartford, and 45 minutes to Foxboro.

Also you might get some 'muh taxes' people crying about the $5 million in tax money that was paid to upgrade Rt. 1 and the 495 interchange. It's silly, and they would have eventually had to have done it anyway, but yeah, someone might cry about it, so be advised.

 

[Roberto71]

Eh, that really only would have affected people coming from Northern New England (and even then not by too much) I live in Worcester, it's an hour to Hartford, and 45 minutes to Foxboro.

Also you might get some 'muh taxes' people crying about the $5 million in tax money that was paid to upgrade Rt. 1 and the 495 interchange. It's silly, and they would have eventually had to have done it anyway, but yeah, someone might cry about it, so be advised.

Fair enough. But would it not have upset you to see the team literally in another state even though it's still NE? I know you were a Whalers fan!

RKK certainly pissed off the Conn Governor when the deal fell through when he said he would be a Jets fan going forward!

 

[TommyD420]

Fair enough. But would it not have upset you to see the team literally in another state even though it's still NE? I know you were a Whalers fan!

RKK certainly pissed off the Conn Governor when the deal fell through when he said he would be a Jets fan going forward!

Not particularly no - and if Kraft hated it, he could have made another run at a stadium in Massachusetts when the lease was up - except he probably would have put it on the Cape so he wouldn't have to drive/get driven.

In all reality, it was the State of Connecticut that bungled that whole thing - Kraft made sure he had outs in the contract because he didn't trust the governor, and when the project started dragging its feet, he just backed out.