By: Owen S. Whitman

In a recent June 19^th article by Jim Sloan, staff writer for the Tampa Tribune, it was reported that TDC (USA) Inc., A West Virginia based subsidiary of a Japanese corporation -- a company that had apparently earlier bailed out the Japanese owned Tampa Bay Lightning with a $1 million emergency loan -- was suing to get its money back - plus over a quarter of a million dollars in interest. The Lightning are the primary tenants of the taxpayer financed Ice Palace hockey arena.

The Tribune's June 19 article noted that this is the second lawsuit filed this year seeking money from the owners of the Lightning hockey team and continued in part as follows:

"In March, a group claiming that team officers illegally conspired to squelch a privately financed arena in Tampa sued for $25 million, and upped the ante to $123 million in May. A Lightning official approached TDC President Hiroshi Kojima in 1994 and said the team was "experiencing a temporary cash-flow problem" and needed a short-term emergency loan to pay player salaries and other bills, the suit said. "Kojima agreed and, on Sept. 12, 1994, Lightning Governor David LeFevre signed a promissory note for $1 million.  

TDC began demanding payment in August 1995. But, the suit said, Lightning officials "invariably responded with an assortment of evasive and dilatory justifications" to the demands. Steve Oto, the Lightning's chief executive officer, said Wednesday that negotiations were taking place with TDC's parent company in Japan on repayment of the loan. He declined to comment further on the suit. LeFevre could not be reached for comment Wednesday."
 

And, following close behind these troubling revelations, a subsequent Tribune article detailed further Ice Palace woes as City Officials -- seemingly in anticipation of potential revenue shortfalls at the Ice Palace(?) -- began auditing to ensure that all Ice Palace ticket surcharges are being properly collected and disbursed to the City. And another story,  in the June 30^th Tampa Tribune, continued to keep focus on Tampa's massive and unprecedented new Sports taxes and facilities subsidies in general, as County Manager Kleman attempted to respond to charges of misuse of CIT (Stadium Tax) funds in the instance of the hiring of temporary county workers.

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