In your article entitled “Lawmakers, Governor Concerned over Cardinals Stadium Funding Impasse — Some Question Oversight of Sports Authority,” there are a couple of statements warranting a response. [Aug. 20 issue, Page 8]

First, there is the erroneous suggestion that the three newest appointees to the board of directors of the Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority (AZSTA) were not aware of the Glendale funding impasse. In fact, as part of our new member orientation, we had begun to inform our new members of this issue before published accounts by either the East Valley Tribune or the Arizona Capitol Times. Their knowledge of this issue and its importance has grown with each succeeding week as they have become better acquainted with the duties and responsibilities of the Board as well as the status of a wide variety of AZSTA business matters.

Secondly, there is the misleading notion that there may not be sufficient oversight of AZSTA. In fact, AZSTA has undergone enormous scrutiny since its inception and will continue to be subject to enormous scrutiny as we move forward on the Cardinals Stadium project in Glendale as well as other Cactus League and youth sports projects.

For example, earlier this year, the auditor general issued a performance audit that was a year in the making. There have been three independent financial audits since the Authority was formed. Furthermore, the Authority CEO transmits a monthly report to the Legislature and governor that is also made available to the public through the AZSTA Web site (www.az-sta.com) and appears before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee at the request of its chairman as we did in September 2003.

With respect to the subject matter of your article, the Authority’s actions in this regard do not call for more oversight. The Authority has been concerned for several months that delays in completing Glendale’s required infrastructure financing could jeopardize the overall project schedule and budget. Pursuant to our development agreement with Glendale, the city is responsible for issuing up to $35 million of bonds to complete the overall financing of some $61 million worth of support infrastructure, parking and pedestrian plaza. These bonds were expected to be issued in August 2003. Because of the year-long delay, the Authority recently offered to issue additional bonds to complete the infrastructure financing, but only if the city of Glendale were to provide an irrevocable pledge to assign the same revenues to us that would be used were the city to issue the bonds.

Our offer to issue the bonds pursuant to such an agreement with Glendale is solely intended to complete this important aspect of overall project funding so that we can keep the $370.6 million Cardinals Stadium project “on budget” and “on schedule”.

We just completed our first year of construction and the project is nearing the 40 per cent completion mark. With a National Collegiate Football Championship game possible in 2007 and a Super Bowl assured for 2008, now is not the time to be taking chances with any aspect of the overall project schedule.

Brad Parker, Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority