INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said Sunday that the positions taken by Indiana lawmakers and local officials over a $47 million shortfall at the city's stadium agency could hurt attempts to recruit new businesses to the city and state.

Irsay, talking to reporters during a break from the NFL Draft, repeatedly expressed frustration at legislative attempts seeking $5 million from the Colts to help close the deficit at the Capital Improvement Board, which operates Lucas Oil Stadium, the Indiana Convention Center and Conseco Fieldhouse, the home of the Indiana Pacers.

"What business would come in and negotiate with the city and the state for three or four years and get all the details ironed out, and then three or four months after you're in the building have them say that doesn't really matter and then take your brand and rake it over the coals," Irsay said.

The current proposal to close the deficit includes $5 million each from the Colts and Pacers, creating a local alcohol tax, raising the city's hotel and car rental taxes as well as the ticket tax. It also would expand the sports development area to include a new downtown hotel.

Irsay called the ticket tax, which he said would jump from 6 to 10 percent, excessively high for one of the NFL's smallest markets.

He also said the NBA's Indiana Pacers and the city's Triple-A minor-league baseball team, the Indianapolis Indians, aren't happy either.

What really angers Irsay, though, is the $5 million request and the way his team has been portrayed publicly.

Irsay contributed $100 million to building the Colts new stadium, then pitched in another $10 million, he said, to help with cost overruns. On Thursday, Sen. Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville), confirmed that the Colts total was more than $100 million.

But in the 30-year contract that the Colts signed, the CIB took over the operating costs of the stadium. The Colts pay $250,000 per year to use the stadium.

The Pacers, who pay some operating costs for Conseco, are trying to renegotiate with the city because they say they've lost money for most of the decade.

"This is about a Pacers renegotiation," Irsay said. "They've done a lot for the community and I'm friends with Herb Simon, but somehow we've brought into this and I don't understand why. We put $100 million into the stadium and another $10 million for cost overruns and nobody else put in a penny. Then people say, 'Have they lived up to the lease? Have they lived up to their word?'

"I'm not going to renegotiate the lease. I've said it before. If people think I want to negotiate a lease for a quarter of my life, they're crazy," Irsay said.

Legislative leaders and Gov. Mitch Daniels have repeatedly said the Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Pacers also need to help find a solution for the CIB's deficit.

On Friday, team president Bill Polian said the Colts were willing to talk about a solution.

And although Irsay and Polian have not said that the Colts wouldn't pay anything, that is clearly their preference.

"We sat in the old stadium and labored for years in the smallest stadium in the league with one of the top three payrolls in the league and we waited our turn," Irsay said. "Yet it's not the case with the NCAA and the Pacers. What I'm saying is that we will defend our brand."

Last week, some lawmakers were vociferous in their demands that the Colts do something to help the CIB's financial dilemma and were angry about a letter the team issued to lay out its case.

The Colts claimed that they never asked for Lucas Oil Stadium to be built in the first place.

"At no time did the Colts threaten to leave Indianapolis or otherwise hold the city hostage," the statement read.

However, in a November 2003 interview with 6News, Irsay didn't discuss consequences if a new stadium wasn't built, but did directly say a new stadium was needed.

"It's certainly something that's going to have to happen as the decade goes forward," he said. "Ultimately, a new stadium is where we have to go. I think the question, of course, is when. There's no denying saying sooner or later you have to have a new stadium."

Rep. Phil Hinkle told 6News' Norman Cox that while he believes former Mayor Bart Peterson bungled the initial negotiations with the Colts, he also thinks Irsay had to know he was leaving the city without the cash to maintain the stadium.

"Jim Irsay and his negotiators had to know what they were doing to the taxpayers of Indianapolis. They literally took every single penny and sucked it like blood out of a turnip," he said.

Gov. Mitch Daniels said Friday that the Colts and Pacers should take part in a solution.