You remember that big Michigan State Fair lease brokered in secret, and how the $200 million pact with theater mogul Joe Nederlander was supposed to put the fair on firm financial footing? At last week’s meeting of the State Fair Council, fair officials produced two budgets, with one projecting that the fair will lose $133,000 this year if Nederlander stays in the picture and manages the grounds for the 11 months of the year when the fair is not in session. But if Nederlander’s outta there, fair management contends, the place could turn a $500,000 profit. Few of us here at News Hits claim to have actually passed an accounting class during our college daze, but, given the fair’s shaky financial history pre-Nederlander, that latter figure sounds an awful lot like lemon meringue in the ionosphere. No matter. The situation has clearly reached a breaking point.
Do things look bleak for our pal Joey?
You do the math.
News Hits is edited by Metro Times news editor Curt Guyette. He can be reached at
