Saturday, October 29, 2005
Winning Nike with subsidies
In response to Nike's conflict with Beaverton, Oregon, Oregonian editor Doug Bates pens a humerous "confidential memo" from the city of Portland to Nike founder Phil Knight offering all sorts of tax breaks and subsidies if only Nike will move its headquarters to Portland.
"we'll help you build the Nike Tower, the tallest, coolest skyscraper in the Northwest," Bates promises. "We'll surround it with a cluster of sleek spires with condos for your employees. We'll hook you to the airport with your own light-rail train, one that goes really fast." (As opposed to the existing one, that doesn't go fast at all.)
Of course, Nike is located in the suburbs because it wants a low-density area where it can provide its employees with spacious athletic facilities. But Bates suggests that Nike "won't miss . . . those gyms and soccer fields and running tracks." In their place, Portland can offer "Memorial Coliseum and PGE Park" -- one a basketball court that was surplused when the Portland Trailblazers built a new one and the other a football-baseball statium that the city invested heavily in that proved to be a financial boondoggle. "And we'll connect them all by tram or trolley -- your choice," says Bates.
This wouldn't be so funny if it weren't all true -- the city is building trams, trollies, and subsidizing buildings throughout the greater downtown area. The tax burden required to do so is one reason why Nike is the last Fortune 500 company to still be headquartered in Oregon -- the rest have moved to Georgia, Tennessee, and other more business-friendly states.
"we'll help you build the Nike Tower, the tallest, coolest skyscraper in the Northwest," Bates promises. "We'll surround it with a cluster of sleek spires with condos for your employees. We'll hook you to the airport with your own light-rail train, one that goes really fast." (As opposed to the existing one, that doesn't go fast at all.)
Of course, Nike is located in the suburbs because it wants a low-density area where it can provide its employees with spacious athletic facilities. But Bates suggests that Nike "won't miss . . . those gyms and soccer fields and running tracks." In their place, Portland can offer "Memorial Coliseum and PGE Park" -- one a basketball court that was surplused when the Portland Trailblazers built a new one and the other a football-baseball statium that the city invested heavily in that proved to be a financial boondoggle. "And we'll connect them all by tram or trolley -- your choice," says Bates.
This wouldn't be so funny if it weren't all true -- the city is building trams, trollies, and subsidizing buildings throughout the greater downtown area. The tax burden required to do so is one reason why Nike is the last Fortune 500 company to still be headquartered in Oregon -- the rest have moved to Georgia, Tennessee, and other more business-friendly states.
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