Ice Palace Meltdown Continued... 

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The comments below, are edited and excerpted  from an  article appearing in the Thursday, August 21st Tampa Tribune written by David Whitley, Tampa Tribune Sports Columnist. Whitley's commentary constitutes a candid and shocking acknowledgment of the worsening financial crisis  facing Tampa and Hillsborough county  taxpayers  in the expanding debacle at the Ice Palace via  its chief tenant -- The Tampa Bay Lightning.

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"Tick, tick, tick...

It was enough to sidestep an explosion of the franchise's credibility for now. But the economic time bomb ticks on, and the Lightning are still strapped to it.

 And God help the Lightning. Or maybe float them a loan...

.... And making money is what it's all about with the Lightning. That's not bad. That's the way a business should be run. But the hockey business is getting pricey and the current ownership wants out.

The problem is that nobody seems to want to buy. The way big-market teams are starting to throw salaries around like they're under some Reinsdorfian spell, who wants to jump into the NHL money pit?

This little old hockey marketplace of ours just can't compete, and it's not going to get any easier with baseball dipping into local sports wallets...

Oto was the surprise star of Wednesday's news conference, proclaiming how the owners have pumped $100 million into making this a hockey town and have yet to make a dime...

``We don't have credibility?'' he asked. ``I don't understand that.''

The minefield only gets more treacherous from here...

It was the end of a long, strange week. Only it wasn't the end. One bomb may have been defused, but the ticking is only going to get louder..." 

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