Posted on 04/27/2006 7:19:58 AM PDT by Minn
The Minnesota Twins swatted their biggest political hit in decades Wednesday when the Minnesota House endorsed a proposal to build a $522 million stadium for the team in downtown Minneapolis. The next stop for the stadium proposal is the Minnesota Senate, where it faces challenges but where Twins spokesman Jerry Bell said he has been assured there is ample support. The Senate Taxes Committee could begin its deliberations today.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
As a vehement "anti-stadium weenie", I resemble that comment...OK, not really. I haven't been to a ball game in 20 years, and won't go just because they got a new stadium.
After all, nobody seems to beef when public radio receives tax money, or some new Center For The Arts.
And let's be real: if things go south for a professional sports team (perhaps for reasons beyond the control of the owner), he or she can move the team, but they certainly can't move the ballpark.
As it's a major part of a community's infrastructure, the taxpayers should be expected to kick in.
an open-air baseball stadium in Minnesota is about as useful as a Photo Finishing/Buggy Whip Tax in South Carolina
Just for the record, I do have a major beef with public radio and Centers for the Arts receiving tax money. Just because they rob us blind doen't mean we should allow a bazzilionaire like Pollad (who, IIRC, originally made his fortune off the public tit with some shady bus company/ public transit deal) to do the same, especially without the public referendum required by state law.
As it's a major part of a community's infrastructure, the taxpayers should be expected to kick in.
It's not the community's infrastructure, it's the baseball team's.
If it were the communities infrastructure, they'd have some kind of profit sharing with the team.
Maybe we should build the stadium and the state owns it. We can rent it out to the team, and get the concessions money and revenue from parking and naming rights.
The team gets a place to play, and the people that paid for the facility get their fair share.
The team itself is part of the community’s infrastructure, or fabric if you will. It’s enjoyed by a far greater percentage of the population, and means more to the area as a whole, than any silly train. Lots of people don’t like sports, but enough people do that failing to play ball in today’s team market is very short sighted, and can lead to massive regret and even bigger expense. (Cleveland, Houston) . Maybe the whole thing violates people’s libertarian ideals, but life in cities with new stadiums is vastly preferable to than life in cities with former teams. Maybe you don’t care, but large numbers of your neighbors do.
Carp all you want but let’s not hear any anti-stadium types discussing sports at the water cooler from now on. Pro sports are almost exclusively played in public venues and have been for about a century now. If the system is corrupt and a waste of your money, please opt out of that game day party your buddy is throwing. It’s the principal, you know.
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