|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We Should All
Be So Lucky
Everybody’s talking about Lucky, “Millington’s wiliest stray hound.”
Well, The Commercial Appeal is, anyway. The daily drew out the
saga of an elusive beagle, who was finally apprehended by authorities
and later adopted, into a whopping five-story extravaganza. Here’s
a synopsis of the groundbreaking series:
Dec. 24: “Law Dogs Pooch Till Luck Ends” reports, on the front
page no less, that the beagle has finally been captured by Millington
authorities. Residents sleep soundly for the first time in years,
knowing the reign of terror is over.
Dec. 25: “Lucky for Him, Beagle Has Much Help on the Way.” Everyone,
it seems, wants to adopt Lucky.
Dec. 27: “Callers Hound Shelter After Doggie Tale.” Everyone,
it seems, still wants to adopt Lucky.
Dec. 31: “Pooch’s Adopter Says She’s Lucky One.” Someone adopts
Lucky.
Jan. 3: “Former On-The-Run Stray Settles Into Domestic Life.”
Lucky has not yet run away from his new owner.
We haven’t seen a story get this “lucky” since Wolfchase Galleria
opened.
Stadium, Inc.
Monday, the Memphis Redbirds continued a trend that will soon
leave no venue unlogoed, by announcing that the team’s new downtown
stadium will be dubbed “AutoZone Park.” That’s crass, all right,
but it could’ve been worse. In December, the team-formerly-known-as-the-Memphis-Chicks
– now the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx – announced that soap-giant
Proctor & Gamble would acquire the naming rights to Jackson, Tennessee’s
new baseball stadium. Come April, the Jaxx will be playing in
“Pringles Park.”
“This partnership is a bold affirmation of P&G’s future commitment
to Jackson,” said Jackson Mayor Charles Farmer in a press release
announcing the name. “In our sports history, Pringles Park will
be just as significant as Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Ebbets
Field, and other great stadiums in baseball history.”
And more lucrative, too, since P&G plans to spend more than a
million dollars over 15 years for the naming rights. The Redbirds
deal is valued at $4.325 million.
Zoned Out
| PHOTO BY DAVID SPARKMAN |
 |
Speaking of AutoZone Park, high-level officials of the company
treated those in attendance at Monday’s press conference to a
public performance of that strangest of all ’Zoner rituals by
contorting their bodies to form the letters in the company’s name.
Learn it well, as it looks to replace the “Seventh Inning Stretch”
at Redbird home games. n
|
|
|
It’s Official: Redbirds Will Play In AutoZone Park
by Dennis Freeland
 t rained on their picnic, but it didn’t spoil the day for several
hundred AutoZone employees who walked en masse Monday morning
from the company’s headquarters on Front Street to the site of
the new downtown baseball stadium at Union and Third. Clad in
their red AutoZone sweaters, the employees, who are called AutoZoners,
participated in a mini-pep rally after the name of the new stadium
was announced: AutoZone Park.
The company signed a $4.325 million contract with the Memphis
Redbirds for  naming rights to the stadium. Redbirds owner Dean Jernigan says
he and his wife, franchise co-owner Kristi Jernigan, had discussed
for several months the naming-rights deal with their friend, AutoZone
founder and retired chairman J.R. “Pitt” Hyde. Both Jernigans
say the renowned enthusiasm of the AutoZoners was an added element
in the deal.
“We’ve been discussing it for some months now, but we couldn’t
be more thrilled, because of AutoZone’s commitment to downtown,
because of this enthusiasm you see with all these AutoZoners out
here today who will be fans,” Dean Jernigan says. “It seems to
me to be a perfect match.”
AutoZone CEO Johnny Adams agrees. “We talked about it for a long
time to figure out what the marketing value was,” Adams says.
“Auto Zone had already made a huge commitment to downtown, and
our AutoZoners are so excited about the downtown work experience.
Having an added attraction like baseball seemed like a natural
thing to do.
“Fortunately, we’ve had a good year financially – the company’s
growing and we’ve got a very healthy balance sheet,” Adams continues.
“And we just felt like it was a good investment in the future
of Memphis and particularly downtown.”
The naming-rights contract brings the Redbirds one step closer
to finalizing its deal with NationsBank, the financial institution
underwriting the bonds for stadium construction.
“This was the big piece today to come together for us, and we
are very close,” Jernigan says. “We still have a couple more contracts
of lesser size to negotiate; we’re in negotiations on those now.
The luxury suites are sold. So we’re really hoping that perhaps
by the end of this month, the very first part of February, the
bonds will be sold and we’ll be well under construction.”
AutoZone Park will count among its amenities 14,000 seats, retail
space, a bar and grill, and an 850-car parking garage. Jernigan
hopes that the ballpark, which incorporates the Wm. R. Moore Building
and the Winchester Building at 8 South Third, will inspire additional
downtown development.
“Oh, we hear things,” Jernigan says. “I’m very hopeful that these
bus stations are going to disappear. I’m very hopeful that this
hotel’s going to expand. I’m very hopeful that there’s another
hotel going to be built next to the expansion of the Radisson,
and those bus stations go down to the South End terminal. You
know, we keep hearing possibilities about the Sterick Building
being converted to apartments/hotel. That would be very nice.
I even hear that it’s possible that we could have a developer
out there for the old Rhodes-Jennings building.”
AutoZone Park is scheduled to open in time for the 1999 baseball
season. The Redbirds will play the 1998 season at Tim McCarver
Stadium at the Mid-South Fairgrounds. n
Ticketmaster Owes County Back Taxes
by Phil Campbell
Shelby County officials have recently discovered that Ticketmaster
Tennessee Inc. has been operating for several years in the area
– and, as it turns out, Nashville’s Davidson County as well –
without holding a business permit and without paying business
taxes.
Waylon Winingar is the head of Shelby County’s business-tax division.
He says he doesn’t remember how his department discovered last
summer Ticketmaster had been operating without a permit, but he
says that a staff member is working with the national company
to see how much money it owes the county.
“We’ve been in communication with them for a few months,” Winingar
says. “Until they pay these back taxes, they actually don’t have
a license at this time.”
It isn’t unusual for small businesses to be ignorant of business-permit
regulations, Winingar says. Most of these incidents are discovered
when suspicious competitors or dissatisfied customers call to
complain. Ticketmaster, however, is a national firm, and one of
the largest companies to go without a permit.
It’s not clear yet how much the corporation owes the county. The
actual permits, required to operate a business in Memphis and
Shelby County, are a pittance. These cost $42 each in the city,
$22 each in the county. According to Winingar, each ticketing
outlet – each Ticketmaster service in Cat’s record stores and
Piggly Wiggly grocery stores – counts as a business, and the company
must buy one permit for each location.
Ticketmaster has 29 outlets in Shelby County, six of which are
outside Memphis. That puts their permit bill, for each year, at
$1,098. For three years, that’s $3,294.
The ticketing company will probably get hit harder with a tax
on its gross sales receipts, however. Each business in Shelby
County must pay the business-tax division one-eighth of 1 percent
of annual gross sales receipts. If the business is located in
Memphis, then the business is charged one-fourth of 1 percent
of gross sales receipts.
“We’re still in communication with them,” Winingar says. “We haven’t
gotten all of their figures yet.”
Winingar says the county will only pursue three years in back
taxes, which is typical. From 1981 to 1991, the ticketing company
was owned as a franchisee by the city and county, according to
Charlie Ryan, general manager for Ticketmaster Tennessee. The
company then went independent by merging with another ticketing
company, Ticket Hub. The newly formed company has gone without
a permit since 1991.
Ryan says his company has been complying with the county’s tax
division. “It’s not like we’re trying to rip anybody off,” he
says. “I don’t quite understand why this is newsworthy. It was
an honest mistake and an oversight. We’re not trying to avoid
taxes.”
Winingar says his division only collects taxes for Memphis and
the county. Ticketmaster also has locations in Germantown, Bartlett,
Collierville, and Millington, which have their own business-tax
structure. These suburbs may also go after the ticketing company
for their delinquent taxes, he says.
Once Shelby County officials found out about Ticketmaster’s missing
business permits, they notified government officials in Nashville.
Davidson County Clerk Nelson Keen says he checked his county’s
records and discovered the same thing.
“In my opinion, they’re liable,” Keen says. “They do not have
a license, but it looks like they need one.” He says his division
hasn’t calculated how much the company owes, either. n
|