Why Does Fort Worth's New Multi-Purpose Arena Cost So Much And Do So Little Compared To Phoenix Arenas?

It seems as if it has been weeks, maybe months, since I've made note of a bridge built somewhere in the world in less than four years, compared to the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing, those being three small, simple bridges scheduled to take four years to build.

Well, it's a construction project of a different sort than bridge building which has me puzzled today.

In this past November's election Fort Worth's voters were asked to vote on three bizarre propositions regarding a proposed multi-purpose arena to be built in the Fort Worth Stock Show zone, to replace the antique Will Rogers Rodeo Coliseum.

Fort Worth voters were asked to approve three fees, such as a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall in the new arena.

No, you reading this in the democratic part of America, I am not making this up.

The actual funding mechanism of this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena was not much discussed. Such as, how was it determined that these three fees voted on by the voters would be enough to pay for half the cost of the almost half billion dollar arena?

What is freshly perplexing me is the cost and capacity of this small Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena. The Dunce Confederacy propaganda regarding this arena claimed it was needed so as to attract acts to Fort Worth which were not attracted to the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena which could hold only around 12,000 ticket buyers.

However, this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena will hold only a couple thousand more ticket buyers. So, are we to believe those extra couple thousand tickets sold is the tipping point to get Beyonce or One Direction to do their thing in Fort Worth?

I think not. Not when the Dallas Cowboy Stadium and other venues are in the D/FW neighborhood.

Now to what is bugging me, that being the almost half billion dollar cost of this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena.

On February 1 the Super Bowl will take place in what is called University of Phoenix Stadium, so-called due to the online school which plays no inter-collegiate sports buying the naming rights for the stadium in which the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL play.

Construction on this stadium began on April 12, 2003, with the stadium opening less than four years later, on August 1, 2006.

This stadium costs $455 million, which amounts to $532 million in 2015 dollars.

At its peak seating configuration this stadium can accommodate in the neighborhood of 78,000 ticket buyers.

This stadium is a multi-purpose arena which can be configured for all sorts of events, and features the world's first fully retractable natural grass surface, which is able to be slid out of the stadium so an event can take place on the stadium floor without damaging the turf.

In other words, this is a much more complex arena, which holds a lot more people, than Fort Worth's relatively puny arena. And which costs only slightly more than Fort Worth's arena.

Adjacent to University of Phoenix Stadium you will find the Gila River Arena.

Construction began on this arena on April 3, 2002, with the arena open for business on December 26,  2003.

The Gila River Arena cost $220 million, which amounts to $282 million in 2015 dollars.

The Gila River Arena can hold 19,000 ticket buyers, significantly more than Fort Worth's relatively puny Multi-Purpose Arena.

At a fraction of the cost.

So, what is going on here?

Why does the new Fort Worth arena cost so much more than the Phoenix area arenas, relative to the number of ticket buyers the Fort Worth arena can accommodate?

How can Fort Worth spend almost a half a billion dollars on a multi-purpose arena which can only hold around 14,000, while the Phoenix area can manage to build a multi-purpose arena for around a half a billion dollars which is big enough to hold an enormous rodeo?

And a Super Bowl.

With the Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena proposal not vetted in the way such things are examined in democratic parts of America, one can only wonder what type shenanigans are taking place with this project.

Unlike the Dunce Confederacy's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle I've not heard about any local politician's son being hired to oversee the arena building project, so we are not looking at, as far as I know, the price being inflated due to paying the beneficiaries of nepotism an inordinate amount of money over an inordinate amount of time for a project which should have been completed in a reasonable amount of time.

This is all very perplexing...