Amiga fails to deliver cash, loses naming rights to Kent arena

[TjLaZer]

Well it was really silly to invest in an Arena for AI, they need to start acting like a company with valid products first, THEN try to get sponsorship!  Not the other way around!

[amigakid]

Yeah AINC should be more concerned with actually producing something rather than trying to pony up monopoly money to name an arena.  I mean what good is it to have your name on a building when there isn't anything that company sells.  Oh well maybe in the next ten years we'll have a $1000.00 386 25 mhz based machine using ISA slots and a CD-ROM.

[redfox]

@redrumloa

:lol:

they always had plenty of smoke and mirrors.  ;-)

---
redfox

[da9000]

Oh my... these Amiga Inc. people are utter idiots... Even making "reruns" of old Amigas would have sufficed and would certainly have cost less than $2.5 million!

I bet Amiga Inc. would fare better even in the hands of DoomMaster!!!  :roflmao:
(even though all that Doomy's Amiga Inc. would produce, would be Mil. Spec. A2000s :-D)

[redrumloa]

Wayne wrote:
... and yet you guys wonder why Amiga Inc never really went out of their way to support the Amiga community ...

If I were them, even if everything were "on schedule and rockin", I'd stay as far away from you guys as possible.

You have got to be pulling my leg :-?

[CLS2086]

I'm not sure what to think.
If they got, the deal they would have royalties on any advertising in the stadium and much more for a broadcasted match...
But they will have a long time to get their money back.

[Orjan]

redrumloa wrote:
The headline and article is wrong. Here is what it should say, short and sweet.

The Amiga Circus Has Left Town.

The circus, otherwise known as Amiga Inc has left town. Unlike your typical circus there were no lions, no jugglers, trapeze artists etc. The only thing the Amiga Inc circus brought was a single clown, named Bozo McBill.

Come on now, dont be like that.. They have a dog and pony show too, right?  :lol:

[Terse]

Re-read that seattle times article.
Kent needed a sponsor to promise money in order for construciton to be approved.  Once construction was approved, the city could vote to continue construction EVEN IF the sponsor backed out.  That means that Kent just needed ANY promise to get the construciton going.
 
It's very likely that Kent knew this would be the outcome all along and witheld the truth a bit to get construction under way.  The article even says that the city council knew more about Amiga than was let on and that they voted a week ago to proceed with construction even if Amiga backed out.

Kent used Amiga to force construction of a building that would not have been approved without a backer.  

So to ask the most relevant question:
Did Amiga get anything from this deal?  

It may sound farfetched, but the only really good organized crime in Washington State is in the construction business.  It's not unheard of for this sort of crime to use a city council as a o between.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colacurcio_crime_family

[da9000]

Terse wrote:
So to ask the most relevant question:
Did Amiga get anything from this deal?  

Interesting take Terse. I didn't see it like that, but then again I don't know about these things.

No matter, to me the most relevant question is:
Did AmigaNS get anything from this deal?

Answer is simply: we got nothing but empty dreams, just like in the past from Amiga Inc.

redrumloa wrote:
You have got to be pulling my leg :-?

Hey, I'm not defending them in any way here.  It's really none of my business.  I just don't understand why people adopt such a... what's the word... hostile maybe, attitude about all of this, then expect Amiga Inc to be their biggest supporters and buddies.

So, AI messes up again.  No real surprise there, but does it really need 5 different threads with everyone adapting a "b*tchbunny" attitude to discuss it?  In my viewpoint, I really don't care, but I ponder whether anyone on the planet was actually surprised, or whether everyone is just using this as "yet another excuse to beat the dead horse"?

I'm sure there's more to the story.  There's always AI's side we haven't heard, though honestly I'm not sure I'd believe it at this point either.  

All I'm saying is it would be nice for a change to have both sides of an issue before rolling out the ancient head chopping machine, unless all this bashing is just a matter of fodder for the entertainment mill, in which case, fire away..

Wayne
 
edit : strictly guessing and playing devil's advocate here, I would say that Amiga Inc and the city of Kent had an agreement and/or maybe even a contract which specified how much and when was to be paid.  

Then, when the initial story broke and Kent officials were slammed with dozens of armchair lawyer types from {bleep}bunny to include our favorite Amiga stalkers and the 10,000 pages of "evidence", they (kent officials) probably got nervous, did a little investigating, and wanted to change the terms of the deal to include more cash up front.  

Since that wasn't part of the original deal, Amiga Inc walked.  Again, I haven't heard from or talked to anyone, but if I were to guess as to what AI's side of the story might be....

Wayne

[TjLaZer]

@Wayne

I got to admit, this is a very good point and I commend you for it.  Everyone is so trigger happy with AI these days, without even knowing the whole story.  But then again you can't be surprised, Amiga users are known for being a strange breed right? LOL

[ffastback]

Wayne wrote:
strictly guessing and playing devil's advocate here, I would say that Amiga Inc and the city of Kent had an agreement and/or maybe even a contract which specified how much and when was to be paid.  

Then, when the initial story broke and Kent officials were slammed with dozens of armchair lawyer types from {bleep}bunny to include our favorite Amiga stalkers and the 10,000 pages of "evidence", they (kent officials) probably got nervous, did a little investigating, and wanted to change the terms of the deal to include more cash up front.  

Since that wasn't part of the original deal, Amiga Inc walked.  Again, I haven't heard from or talked to anyone, but if I were to guess as to what AI's side of the story might be....

Wayne

Way off Wayne unfortunately.
The original letter of intent was for $5 million USD upfront.  Then Amiga negotiated down to $2.5 million upfront for the actual deal between all three parties (Kent, the Thunderbirds, and Amiga).  Then according to Kent they tried to negotiate it down further, even though an agreement had been completed and even though Kent stuck by keeping the deal open for months despite bad press.

http://tinyurl.com/3d99aq
http://tinyurl.com/2g5zds

Amiga has little reason for excuse that we can see, Kent's only demand after the bad press, to pay early, Amiga resisted.  And when Amiga resisted Kent gave in and let them have until the originally agreed groundbreaking date.  And Amiga let the date come and go without paying, which voided the deal.

[guru-666]

LOL, could not disagree more Wayne....  What ever agreement they had with the city of Kent is pure ballony as there was never a chance that they would deliver, whether we point out the truth of not.  I believe we did the city of Kent a favor by  asking them to take a better look at AI. (the true spirit of the amiga community it to help each other)
AI is a disgrace to the Amiga, the sooner we loose them the better for the Amiga community.  
Why don't they just change there name?  Then they don't have to put up with the community.  Fact is they just want to rape the Amiga name without supporting it.  Truth is with out the Amiga name there worthlessness is obvious.

[CD32Freak]

We ourselves should stop using the name Amiga and change it into SAMiga :idea: :lol:

[Tomas]

Hey, I'm not defending them in any way here. It's really none of my business. I just don't understand why people adopt such a... what's the word... hostile maybe, attitude about all of this, then expect Amiga Inc to be their biggest supporters and buddies.

Look back a few years, and you will discover that it was the exact opposite. Amiga INC and McEwen was pretty much treated like some religious icon.

Why are people hostile now? Maybe it has something to do with the broken promises, scamming peoples money, lies, lawsuits, ruining the amiga brand so much that it is now worthless and so on...
If they actually did something good, then i am sure all the negativity would dissapear as well. +

@guru-666

You're certainly entitled to that opinion, but I wonder why you are so vehemently wanting to shout it from the mountain top?  They might have screwed you for $50, but I just can't help feeling that your reaction is rather "over-reaction".

After all, if AI doesn't matter, why get so pissy about it?  It isn't as though they came into your house, took a sledge to your Amiga, and raped your dog or anything.

I can't disagree (due to lack of factual basis) that this community would be better off without Amiga Inc.  Personally I think the last "shot" we had was with Gateway but even that is purely speculative and ended almost 10 years ago now.

Where I truly believe Amiga Inc is screwing up is in lording over all the people in the community who're at least trying to develop for the classic platform, telling them they can't do whatever because "it isn't licensed".  

I think if AI truly has little real interest in the classic community (and it's obvious that they do not), they ought to just leave it the hell alone and let people enjoy their hobby, even if it means letting people develop new stuff for the old platform without worrying about having to pay "30% of the total price" to Amiga for the privilege.  

Wayne