We will not have an open wallet for this. We will have to keep food and lodging expenses to a minimum.

But accounts are a nightmare because you are not parting with the cash out of your wallet and therefore you don't miss it immediately. The amounts being talked about are hellish ones but then players earn a hellish amount of money. But before we all start to condemn the players, we must also take account of the time frame involved as well.

[But overall,] these new annuity products are not bad, ... If they would get their total expenses down a percent, they would be very good.

In reviewing our tax structure, our lodging tax had not been addressed in a number of years. The recommendation was made by the Industrial Board to the city council that the tax be brought up to the levels of Montgomery and Mobile. Acting on their recommendation, we are going to adjust the lodging tax to 8 percent. It will be effective after a notice is placed in the paper and the owners of lodging establishment are notified.

Now with the regional lodging dollars we?re not bound by that structure. We can do more creative and experimental things like the winter advertising we did for the first time.

You can't compete when one team has an open wallet and another team has both hands covering it up. It really can create disparity, not just at a club level, but at a player level as well.