[Tuck4Bama]

First, I agree with you. Oregon should be able to pay whatever it wants for its new basketball arena and the state should just hand the money over. No questions asked. No money down. No payments until the Ducks feel like paying, and if they don't feel like paying, that's cool. It's a basketball arena, not a chemistry lab. It's important.



Also, Bob Rickert's right. Any stupid, know-nothing, buffet-bludgeoning writer who doesn't vote in the meaningless AP Poll the way Bob Rickert thinks should have his or her ballot stripped, and submit to flogging by irate OLive blogger while being forced to watch replay after replay of Saturday's Notre Dame-UCLA game.


But I digress. Back to the basketball arena. If you haven't read Rachel Bachman's story this morning about the way UO's setting up to finance its new palace, you should. It's right here.

When the project was first announced, in 2003, I was still covering Oregon. With much pride, Oregon officials said the project would be paid for entirely with donations. Now, they're planning on using no donations at all. Remember when David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear? It's kind of like that. Distract with something shiny -- Phil Knight's recent $100 million donation -- in the right hand, change the financing plan with the left.

UO thinks its new arena will make ... One ... Hundred ... Billion ... Dollars