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LeBron’s Decision Cost At Least $10,000 in Security From Greenwich Police

Jul 20, 2010, 5:00 PM UTC

The one item that seemed to get lost in the aftermath of the LeBron James Decision hoopla was why James needed to be in Greenwich, Connecticut to make his long anticipated and ridiculously overproduced announcement on live TV.â†µ

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â†µâ†µWe were told that James had to be in New York City that weekend to attend Carmelo Anthony’s wedding. We were told that money from the television special was going to the Boys and Girls Club, leading us to believe that James’ handlers wanted to have the event in a “friendly” environment that was close to where LeBron had planned to be at the time.â†µ

â†µâ†µWe then spent so much time focusing on how terribly the show was handled and how awful James was to the people in Cleveland – not the least of whom was his former owner who gave us even more fodder after his Comic Sans rant on the Cavs’ website – that many of us neglected the fact that James was in Miami the next day for a three-man pep rally in front of the newly-renewed Heat fans before flying back to Carmelo’s wedding (to get booed) in New York the next day.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe entire process has been a case study in how not to handle a public announcement. The PR couldn’t possibly be more costly to LeBron’s brand…unless, of course, we start to factor in the actual costs. It turns out, LeBron’s sham of a location for his sham of a decision is costing him a decent chunk of change. From GreenwichTime.com (via Fangs Bites):â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥Producers of the July 8 primetime special hired 21 police officers, each of them earning $60 an hour for an average of eight hours, to work security, according to Lt. Kraig Gray, who was in charge of the operation.â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥So who gets stuck with the bill of at least $10,000?â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“I believe it was LeBron’s people,” Gray said.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Don’t look to ESPN.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“ESPN was not involved with the local police,” said Nate Smeltz, a spokesman for the Bristol based sports entertainment giant.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µLet’s be cynical for a moment and suggest that if James had done the event in a conference room at a hotel, or any “undisclosed location” that wasn’t announced to the world more than half a day before the event took place, he could have saved himself $10,000 – money that surely could have helped the very Boys and Girls Club he used as a backdrop that night.â†µ

â†µOh, right, two additional officers were asked to work the shift on an overtime basis, meaning the $1000 they racked up will come directly from the taxpayers. Maybe they'll cut the township budget for after-school activities to pay for it.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe report indicates that James wasn’t the only celebrity in town the last few weeks. Some police officers got to do security for the Dave Matthews Band charity concert. Yikes…who grabbed the short straws on picking between these two events? Babysitting LeBron’s entourage or a stuck listening to an hour or two of Dave Matthews? At least the officers who worked the LeBron charade weren’t stuck at home watching it like the rest of us.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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