Sports Industry Execs: Don't be Godfrey Dupes

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men."

Charles De Gaulle
Military Leader & Statesman
1890-1970

We'll turn our attention to this morning's shameless Boss Godfrey endorsement piece, masquerading in this morning's Standard-Examiner edition as a "thank you" letter to the citizens of Ogden. What's apparent is that the Geiger boys have been hard at work again, rounding up signatures of sports company executives who've moved their operations to Ogden. We know that these nice folks have moved their companies here for a variety of reasons, including close proximity to mountains, lakes and streams, low labor costs, relatively cheap housing, and closely proximate highway, rail and air shipping infrastructure, among others. Nevertheless the Boss Godfrey Brownshirts who composed this piece have proceeded to twist the facts to suggest that all of these companies arrived here, due solely to the indispensable efforts of Blessed Boss Godfrey, Ogden's Economic Savior. In the case of Mike Dowse and Amer Sports, of course, there was the little matter of that fat $12 million tax incentive package, lavished upon his company thanks to the seemingly unending largess of those in the Governor's office who control the public public purse, (including a couple million of Emerald City tax dollars -- just to sweeten the pot.) Strangely, that part goes entirely unmentioned.

We're happy that people like Mike Dowse took the time to thank the citizens of Ogden for their support. Such thanks are quite overdue, we think. But we do have a few suggestions for people like Mike Dowse, whose multi-billion dollar multi-national companies companies are nevertheless on the public dole:

Keep a lower political profile; and butt out of our local politics.

Whether your aware of it or not, the lumpencitizens of Ogden are now in the process of kicking our little mayor to the political curb. In case you didn't notice, Boss Godfrey got trounced in last Tuesday's primary by a 3-2 margin; and we'll finish the job in November. The citizens have good reason to bring Godfrey's administration to an end, including, but not limited to: gross incompetence, malfeasance and cronyism.

We're glad you moved your sports companies here. For those of us who already lived here and already loved Emerald City, we viewed your decisions as a "no brainer." But leave our politics to us, Mike Dowse and friends. And we assure you you'll all love working with Mayor Van Hooser, once you get to know her. Once you do, we think you'll find that Matt Godfrey is nowhere near indispensable.

And turning to the article itself, we'd like to highlight these wonderful excepts:

"His (Godfrey's) energy in enhancing outdoor options for all includes a sincere vow to respect and protect the environment...

"We came on the awareness that this city has grown more... environmentally friendly during the past eight years."

We dang near fell out of our chair when we read those parts. Boss Godfrey, after all, spent the last two years scheming feverishly to pave over our east bench parklands, and plant 400+ McMansions in our pristine foothills, and over our existing trails.

We don't know what possessed these otherwise fine sports company folks to affix their signatures to a Boss Godfrey endorsement letter. Perhaps they're merely ignorant of the true facts.

In that connection, we suggest that they consult with another sports industry colleague, whose name was strikingly absent from this morning's endorsement. Peter Metcalf, a bona-fide Utah-based sports industry guy with whom we're sure you're all familiar, can provide some real information about Boss Godfreys so-called "environmentalist" credentials.

Talk to Peter Metcalf the next time Curt Geiger sticks a letter under your noses, our newly-arrived sports industry friends. That way you won't appear to be Godfrey dupes, as you appeared from the point of view of informed Ogden City citizens, upon reading this morning's Std-Ex.

Update 9/15/07 6:27 p.m. MT: Final Score: Utah Utes - 44; ULCA Bruins (#11 ranked) - 6. Go Utes!