Sounding Off:

As you might have heard, our beloved fairgrounds is scheduled to go to the highest bidder. Here are a few scenarios I’ve come up with that shed light on the issue.

1) It doesn’t sell. The governor realizes we love our fairgrounds and want to keep it the way it is. There is no plan to move the fair to the Great Park because everyone likes its central location, historical significance, and how it’s been owned since 1949. The Fair Board is investigated, but the public is so happy, no one really cares.

2) A private fairgrounds operator outbids everyone, but has to pay so much that it can run the fairgrounds for only two years before going bankrupt. The lender acquires it and sits on it for 10 years while it’s shuttered and works diligently to change the zoning and get rid of what is now a nuisance and giant vacuum in the city of Costa Mesa. The fair moves to the Great Park. Costa Mesa loses a great deal of tax revenue.

3) A foreign investment firm sees an extremely attractive undervalued investment opportunity and buys it. They shut it down in hopes that it’s only a matter of time before they convince everyone that the zoning should change. Regardless of their success at changing the zoning, the fair moves to the Great Park.

4) A concert promoter similar to Nederlander buys it. It forces everything but the Pacific Amphitheater to go to the Great Park and runs highly profitable and loud concerts every night. They get sued for noise issues, file for bankruptcy and shut it down.

5) The county or the city buys it as a last resort. This means our local tax dollars are paying for something taxpayers already own.

The list of scenarios goes on. Sad thing is, there is no law to control who shows up at the auction. The best zoning in the world won’t prevent anyone from buying it. In fact, fairgrounds zoning makes it a bargain for a malicious developer to buy it and toy around with what they can get away with.

The Department of General Services made matters worse. It threatened Costa Mesa with what sounds like litigation if it tries to negatively affect the property value to make sure they get as many bidders as possible and it goes for as much money as possible.

I don’t care what political party anyone is from. You do not let the Statue of Liberty go to the highest bidder because the management team of Lady Liberty thinks they can make more money if they owned her.

The fairgrounds is the most important icon of American culture in this area. It’s a place where we come together and celebrate just how great we have it. Selling the fairgrounds is selling us out.

As U.S. citizens, we own it! We own it free and clear, and it doesn’t cost us any taxpayer dollars to run. It even makes a profit for the state.

Let’s enforce zoning it as a fairgrounds in perpetuity as suggested by Councilman Gary Monahan. Let’s also thank Mayor Allan Mansoor for standing strong and Councilwomen Katrina Foley and Wendy Leece for their tireless efforts to stop the sale. If you are against the sale start calling your local representatives all the way up to the governor. Write letters and send faxes, too. The sale is not a done deal. We can still save it.

BRIAN BURNETT is a Costa Mesa resident.