It’s one day short of a month since an election in Amarillo that defeated a $30 million-plus recreational center.

I’ve been thinking about why it went down in flames, what factors contributed to its defeat, how the city could have done better to sell it to a skeptical public. I’ve been asking some folks in the know around town.

Here are a few preliminary conclusions:

* The Amarillo Recreational Complex was sprung on voters with little discussion. It would have cost $36 million or so to build. It would have included ball fields, indoor tennis and basketball courts, proximity to public golf courses and swimming facilities. I’m not suggesting here that the Amarillo City Council pulled this notion out of its hat at the last minute. Yes, there was some discussion — but not nearly enough of it.

* The light turnout played against it. Turnout was in the teens, meaning that fewer than two in 10 eligible voters cast ballots on Nov. 5. Who are the most dedicated voters in any community? Old folks like me. The young people who would have the most to gain from the ARC didn’t turn out. That’s just the way it has been in this country for as long as I can remember.

* The city had just spent $2.6 million on an abandoned railroad depot. The timing of the election came just after the city plunked down a big chunk of cash to buy the Santa Fe Railroad Depot downtown, just east of the Civic Center. I realize that the money was available and it wouldn’t affect our municipal tax rate, but there well might have been a feeling among voters that the city was adopting a spendthrift philosophy with public money. Why give the city more of it?

* There well might be a latent tea party movement that stirred to life. The pro-ARC signs became almost part of the city’s landscape in the weeks prior to the election. They were everywhere. It made me think the measure was going to pass by a huge margin. The tea party movement across the country operates largely under the radar. It comprises people who are just fed up with government. There might have been some of that at play in Amarillo.

I hope the ARC — or some version of it — comes back. Quality of life issues are difficult to quantify. The pro-ARC gang did a good job of explaining how the complex would keep business here, how it would attract out-of-towners to Amarillo, how it would benefit the city’s economic well-being while providing families here significant new recreational opportunities.

There will need to be a cooling-off period to be sure of perhaps a year, maybe longer. If and when it returns, I would encourage the city to get ahead of the story in a major way, stay there and put forth a serious marketing campaign to sell this worthy product.

That’s how you win elections.