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Walsh: No plans to try to get U2 to play Fenway on upcoming Irish visit

Mayor Walsh says he was only joking when he told the Herald he was planning to use an upcoming trip to Ireland to try to recruit Bono and gang to play Fenway.

The Mayor is a well-documented U2 fan and would love to see them come to Fenway. However, the information reported by the Herald today was taken out of context as the Mayor was making a joke. Mayor Walsh did not announce that he was taking active steps to bring U2 to Fenway, and his trip to Ireland has absolutely nothing to do with this idea. Mayor Walsh is not a concert promoter.


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Comments

Apple already forced their new album onto my iPhone, Commie Bastards.

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...give the tickets away?

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Taxpayer funded boondoggle for Marty and his girlfriend (and cousin!)....why not!

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It's not like one of Ireland's biggest clothing retailers, Primark, isn't about to open its first US store in the middle of Downtown Crossing, replacing a blighted hole left by Menino or anything. Yeah, no possible business/government reasons to go to Ireland at all.

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I'm pretty sure Primark announced their decision to come to Boston back in January....so the decision predated Walsh.

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but in business....there is this thing called maintaining and building a relationship.

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But who's counting.

The point isn't whether Walsh had a hand in the deal being inked. The point is he's the mayor now when more deals can be inked with other businesses and Primark should continue to be glad they chose to come here first.

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You're saying you have to go to Ireland to ink a deal with an Irish retailer? Did Menino go? How on earth did that deal get done without our elected politicians going on boondoggles to other countries (and bringing their girlfriends/wives)?? Please enlighten me.

Perhaps the Walsh delegation will bump into Deval Patrick's 35 person posse ( on their way to that financial hotbed Belgium) at the airport.

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I'm saying you have to go to Ireland to meet with business leaders who might want to build/plan in your city. First off, Primark didn't ink any deal with the City of Boston that I'm aware of. They inked a deal with Millenium who was selling off the retail space in a private building. However, if you're going to spend a few hundred million GBP to break into a whole new (to you) market in the US, then having the mayor of the cities you're thinking about entering speak with you in person is useful. Furthermore, if you're a business that hadn't considered why you might spend that much to open a new store in a far away land, having the mayor meet with you to pitch you on the idea of his city over any others is, again, a really useful thing.

I know you think Boston is so great it sells itself, but it doesn't. Having our primary representative to the rest of the world go out and speak on our behalf in order to bring new and interesting proposals to our doorsteps is a useful goal for the mayor to have.

Being opposed to this just sounds like you don't know what you're talking about.

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"First off, Primark didn't ink any deal with the City of Boston that I'm aware of."

No, they didn't, so there's no need for the mayor of the City of Boston to meet with them. The deal was signed w/Millenium, so there may be a need for someone from Millenium to go there, but not someone from the city government.

"However, if you're going to spend a few hundred million GBP to break into a whole new (to you) market in the US, then having the mayor of the cities you're thinking about entering speak with you in person is useful."

They aren't "thinking" about entering. They've already signed a lease. It's a done deal, and has been so since at least April.

" Having our primary representative to the rest of the world go out and speak on our behalf in order to bring new and interesting proposals to our doorsteps is a useful goal for the mayor to have."

Is he a Mayor or our global trade representative?

"Being opposed to this just sounds like you don't know what you're talking about."

So being opposed to something you agree with means I don't know what I'm talking about? I disagree with that, so I guess I don't know what I'm talking about there either.

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Primark probably had a lot of choices in where it would open its first US retail location. Hell, it may not have even considered opening a retail location. The mayor (Menino and then Walsh) may have been influential in their choice of Boston over another city or any city at all for that matter. It may have been because the mayor showed them development plans for the entire area that made Primark's new location part of a bigger picture. It may have been to tell them about public-private partnerships that have really helped other Boston retailers take off. It may have been to collaborate on getting all the necessary paperwork in order easier. Who knows but any of those things would make this city a better opportunity than a city that didn't do any of those things.

Also, Primark in Downtown Crossing is a done deal...but what about Primark satellites in Allston or Mattapan. Gee, I wonder who could talk to Primark about the demographics and additional commercial zoning that might be available to them if they wanted to expand in the city before taking on a bigger chunk of the US market...

So, you don't think the mayor is our a global trade representative for the city? Then, who is? Who convinces companies that it's in their best interest to set up shop in the Innovation District or the reformed Downtown Crossing? You think they check "Yelp for Commercial Real Estate" on their phones to pick their next region of interest? You think *they* call up *us* to see if Boston has any coupons this month in the Globe Direct for establishing new businesses?

And finally, no, being opposed to something I agree with doesn't mean you don't know what you're talking about. Being opposed to the mayor acting as an ambassador on the city's behalf is what makes you sound like you don't know what you're talking about. How much new revenue are we going to get from Primark or some other comparable Irish company also coming to Boston? Take the few thousand dollars that this trip will cost out of that and we're still ahead of the game.

Of all the things you could criticize City Hall or whatever government official for wasting money, this is about the dumbest.

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They aren't "thinking" about entering. They've already signed a lease. It's a done deal, and has been so since at least April.

I know my favorite part of signing a deal is that I never, ever have to visit that client again. Or talk to them. Or know what their priorities are. In fact, I block their number entirely because hey, I already have their money and their signature, am I right?

[Brought to you by my lingering resentment that I have to go to scenic St. Louis again next week for meetings with a new client.]

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But does the mayor of Boston go to St. Louis to discuss further deals with your company?

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If the company was investing in major real estate and bringing jobs here, I'd expect the mayor's office to accompany me at some point, yes. My St. Louis client isn't making that level of investment so it's not an issue.

As it is, my CEO is going and a couple of other C-level execs. Once the deal is inked, it's pretty customary to trot out leadership to the partner's location to illustrate the kind of access the company can expect to those with decision-making power.

This is a big step for Primark and it's a big deal that Boston is their inroad to the US. If I were in city government, I'd take big steps to make sure they know that the city is committed to partnering with them on this expansion. Frankly, the current state of Downtown Crossing is such a fucking blight that I'd expect the mayor to majorly involved with a deal to try and improve conditions there.

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"However, if you're going to spend a few hundred million GBP to break into a whole new (to you) market in the US,"

But how much is that in Irish punts?

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You poor witless urban hick.. No wonder we are a laughingstock.

You do realize the EU Central Bank is there... right? It's in a place called Brussels.

Quick ...what's the difference between Flemish and Walloon?.

Nearly every other EU Agency lives there and a 35 person delegation is not unheard of for a trade mission at that scale. I wonder if they were there to drum up business to stoke an economy for ingrates and malcontents who couldn't find Ypres on a map with a Maxim gun to what passed for their head?

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Congrats, you can use Wikipedia.

So is the EU Central Bank looking to move to the states? Perhaps they're going to open some branches in Boston? No?

Yes, there is plenty of "finance" in Belgium, but what amount of that is made up of international corporations looking to expand to the States?

Back to the Walsh trip. Does Boston REALLY need to promote itself....in Ireland? Are there no Irish people/corporations that have heard of Boston?

What type of security does the Mayor need there...and what is the wife of the head of his security detail going to do there?

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Congrats, you can use Wikipedia.

You should try it some time.

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And according to Wikipedia you're a copyrighted record label. Some lawyer could file suit that you've stolen their IP!

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a copyrighted record label.

There is no such thing.

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.. Wall Street Journal, Economist and nearly any business section of any newspaper anywhere.

Even if you just stay glued to WBZ and traffic on the 3's there is still an excellent chance 'Brussels' will be mentioned as shorthand for the Central Bank as in... "Today, from Brussels, European Central Banker Pepe LePew announced that an easing of interest rates is in store for the 3rd quarter as austerity gives way to stimulus" or some such.

Hell, if you have to go to wiki pie pie for that sort of information, you may as well also use it to look up the sky color.

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Tourism. It goes both ways.

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Belgium is the center of the EU (That's shorthand European Union in case you're not familiar with the term). Each country in the EU has offices there so if you want to do business efficiently with western European countries, Belgium is kind of like a one-stop shop.

And let's all be honest, Menino was NOT a grand thinker. There's a reason why the majority of the globe doesn't consider Boston a world-class city: our former mayor was too busy ensuring that the city was built in his honeky-tonk vision to actually go elsewhere and learn from other civic leaders.

Bravo to Marty Walsh for realizing that the Boston way isn't the only way...

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..to Kevin White to find a Boston mayor who isn't some kind of urban bumpkin.

And, given the region's growing South and East Asian constituencies, it wouldn't hurt to head over there.

Charlie Soong got his start here and made his clan one of the ruling families of China before Mao. His eldest daughter married Sun Yat Sen, Mei Ling married Chiang Ki Shek and the third married H H kung who has family here. I worked for Patrick Kung in 92 or so at his biotech company.

China is bullish about US real estate just like Japan was and they have to do something useful with all the money we give them for cheap crap that breaks out of the box. What a trade.

We get Ikea crap and they get Boston and New York. It's almost as good as getting Manhattan for a bunch of beads.

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Walsh is going to Ireland with his buddies to visit his mom's family/I mean speak at a conference. If you think this is anything other than a taxpayer funded boondoggle, you're naive.

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Marty's Not Married?

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Yes, he's spoken for, but not with a ring.

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... just a beard

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At least for all the hangers ons?

You have to be careful with this stuff - private or public sector - but if you are going anyway and take a few days for yourself and your family - what's the difference? As long as we aren't picking up the tab for his partner or the counsel's wife and as long as there is a reasonable definition of "official" nights in hotels and personal nights - no harm no foul (not really sure why he needs a security detail in Ireland though, I don't think irate developers or taxpayers are chasing him to Galway).

Given our historical relationship with Ireland and many close business ties, I can definitely see it - and might not be a bad idea for a US/Boston mayor to get out and see some fresh ideas that we didn't think of here.

As long as the accounting is on the up and up - I can definitely see some value in this for the city. And I'm only Irish one day a year.

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I hear they are just going to show up at fenway and just do a show, sort of like they did with iTunes.

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The band would just show up in your living room unannounced one day.

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Can anyone point me to data showing how many times the mayor has met with the CEOs of Mass General, Fidelity Investments, State Street Bank, or any of the other major employers in the city, to make sure their needs are being taken care of?

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I agree with you that it is important that the mayor have good relations with the heads of the major business players in Boston (heck, even Proctor and Gamble), no one is going to cover a trip to Quincy to meet with State Street.

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of the various things that own Massachusetts can never see enough servility from our elected officials.

I'll have you know the Mayor is losing sleep over the protocol of getting these suzerains milk, cookies and bed time stories!!!

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..CEO's have very delicate fifi's from their soul crushing overcompensation and must be fluffed by everyone within 50 miles at all times. There is no more important mission in American life than upholding grotesque CEO adulation standards that would make Zeus blush.

Otherwise those flaccid and collapsed 401k plans will never again reach their stratospheric heights before 2007 throttled them down to mere financial apparitions.

How can we ever thank Fidelity enough for its white hot performance and the fantastic new trading platform they rolled out?

The fretting and sweating of the minions is a thing most wretched to behold.

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Thanks for the link to the press release ... um, I mean, "article".

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We dnt need the mayor to do it lets do it for the mayor cantact iheart or sumthin we can do this people U2 is the shit and we need a good show although that billy joel show was kick ass,,make it two shows fri,sat nice

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