Okay, so it's my turn to do a little ass kissing.
YOU GO, SETH!!!!!
Besides having the best music promotions business, I just LOVE how you kick corporate ass!!!
There are good businesses and corporations and then there are bad and we all know here which is which.
Hutch, I agree that more venues is good, and even Seth has said the very same thing in the past. The issue, as you seem to be aware of by your last statement, is how all this was done. This wasn't just a new venue moving into town. This was a dirty political dealing, at the already strained tax payers' expense. Also stunk of doing dirty business by trying to squealch any of the others, probably also at the expense of the musicians themselves as it's public knowledge how Live Nation controls it's bands.