#ncpol: Steinburg’s B-ball tourney ALREADY violating Currituck rules?
Curiouser and Curiouser.
My friends, we learned that state (and state senate candidate) Rep. Bob Steinburg got paid $50,000 by Currituck County to promote an NCAA basketball tournament in Asheville over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Here’s what we learned about the payments to Steinburg from the county:
[…] Scanlon said Steinburg’s request went through Currituck’s tourism board, and Currituck vetted his proposal as it would any other. That included review by County Attorney Ike McRee, based on an “action history” Currituck provided with the contract.[…]
There’s a potential problem with that approach. The rules the tourism board has in place for applicants to qualify for funding:
[… ] In order to be eligible for funding, the event must be held in Currituck County and the majority of attendees must be from outside of the County. […]
Steinburg’s proposed event is slated to happen IN ASHEVILLE. On the other side of the state. IN BUNCOMBE COUNTY.
If you take a look at the proposal Steinburg’s LLC presented to Currituck County, you find a few more problems:
In exchange for this sponsorship, WolfeStein agrees to provide SPONSOR with the following:
Title naming rights to the event:
CURRITUCK.COM BATTLE IN THE BLUE RIDGE
Any time the tournament is mentioned ( television, radio, public address etc.) it will be referred to as the CURRITUCK.COM BATTLE IN THE BLUE RIDGE.[…]
Proposed tourney participant UNCW released its 2018-2019 basketball schedule to its local driveby media. The schedule IDs games against the other three proposed teams, but does not mention the full name of the tournament.
MORE:
[…] Full event name will appear on logo specifically designed for the event. SPONSOR will have right to approve logo.
SPONSOR titled logo will be at center court as well as on both basket paddings.
Two “Sponsor” logos will be located on each side of the court facing seating.
A large temporary jumbo-tron will be placed in the arena with SPONSOR
commercial, SPONSOR website still frames, and SPONSOR titled logo running on a loop beginning 1 hour prior to game time and running constantly until 15 minutes after the final game each day.
Any event gameday or souvenir program, pamphlets, or booklets will include the SPONSOR titled event logo on the cover, as well as a full- page advertisement for SPONSOR on the inside cover.
Facility will run SPONSOR titled event advertisement on a loop (6am- 12am) on outdoor jumbo marquee daily for no less than 6 months prior to event.[…]
Here we are FOUR months in front of the proposed tournament. The US Cellular Center does not advertise Steinburg’s tournament on its website. It’s not even mentioned on the Center’s calendar of upcoming events. So, I doubt it is being run on the outdoor jumbotron. 
MORE:
SPONSOR will have option to set up advertising tables/booths in the venue during all 3 days of event.
WolfeStein will promote SPONSOR titled event for 8- 10 months ( should be specific) prior to event by the following means:
Various forms of social media ( event specific webpage, twitter, facebook,
youtube, etc.)
A web page is up. We can’t find a Facebook page for the tournament. Here is the only mention of the tourney a Facebook search produced:
There’s nothing about the upcoming tournament on Youtube. Here’s the Twitter feed.
MORE:
[…]Promote event to national, regional, and local sports analysts with large
networks so that they may tweet, post to other forms of social media, mention in broadcasts etc.
Promote to sports networks (ex. ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, NBC
Sports) to air any or all of the event contests, and at the very least, show
highlights on their newscast.
Promote to all local, statewide, and participant’ s home television networks for coverage ( including footage) during their newscast.
Aggressive ticket sales and marketing campaign to help ensure large crowds at the event.[…]
Large crowds? For Eastern Illinois, Arkansas State, Gardner-Webb and UNCW? Over Thanksgiving weekend? In Asheville? (GOOD LUCK.)
[…] Include SPONSOR commercial link to website and all forms of social media.
As part of the contract with venue, venue has agreed to promote event through Ticketron, US Cellular Center Website, US Cellular newsletter.
[…]
Again, it’s NOT on the US Cellular Center website (as of today).
For what it’s worth, Currituck has already paid out the entire $50K to Steinburg. (Here are the invoices.)
Steinburg is a money hungry self serving man. He and his buddy Hanig are already ripping off taxpayers. Just wait till they get in Raleigh. Tag Team Tax RIP-OFF.
Some of the key people in this boondoggle will probably be lucky if they are not indicted for this abuse of taxpayer money. Republicans, however, have a more immediate concern in that it makes a couple of our legislative candidates radioactive for the Fall election. Pressure needs to be put on to get them to resign their nominations if there is still time to replace them on the ballot.
The Senate district was in jeopardy when Berger seriously watered down its GOP vote when he gerrymandered it to take Bill Cook out of the Senate. It was placed in further jeopardy when the much weaker general election candidate won the primary in an already extremely marginal district. This scandal is probably the final straw.
The House district is considerably more Republican than the Senate district. but with Dare not having a GOP nominee for the legislature, the Democrats will scoop up the swing vote there and make the district more competitive. Hard feelings over Hanig’s nasty campaign of personal smears adds to the competitiveness, and now this scandal is likely to make a district that should be safe Republican a toss up.
The smart play would be to talk Hanig into giving up the House nomination and putting Clark Twiddy in that slot. Much as I think Bev Boswell is a great legislator, Twiddy is a better fundraiser and would be better able to jump start a late starting campaign. At least that way, we could save the House seat. Steinburg would be a drag on the ticket and he needs to go, too. He could be replaced by the new GOP House candidate from his current House district, who at least has a campaign on the ground in a fair portion of the Senate district.
Steinburg and his buds have put the GOP in quite a pickle.
Once again, REP BS has duped the taxpayers and voters of Currituck and northeastern NC. This will get worse before it gets better. Where was the oversight of Currituck Manager Scanlon and Currituck Commissioners in this slimy deal? I think REP BS should return to upstate NY where he belongs to con potential diamond/jewelry customers.
I have never liked this guy Steinburg. He attacked my family and friends who disagreed with him at the Hatteras Island oyster roast in February. A friend forwarded me this link. I had never been to this site before. But there is a lot of disturbing info on here about Mr. Steinburg…. We will not tolerate this corrupt self-serving politician here in the village of Hatteras Island. Now is the time for my fellow Republicans and my Democrat friends to unite against this corrupt person.
Corruption rules for those in “higher places.” Shame on this ego-maniac … we have so many families and children in Currituck that this money could have helped! Absolutely shameful!