Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious
“Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribune stands to make $45 million off the sale of its land if the Metrodome is replaced. It is hard to find news on the issue in the newspaper; most of the paper’s ink is devoted to questioning why lawmakers are not taking faster action to bring the stadium to their doorstep”
Every local daily supports the building of a taxpayer-funded stadium, regardless of whether a property sale is involved.
Imagine how their daily sales would tank without a local sports section? For many papers, local sports is the only thing keeping them in business.
Rent the field from one of the local high schools.
Cincinnati Ohio has its city and county budgets absolutely wrecked by having agreed to build the Bengals a new stadium.
The sports-loving portion of the public demands everyone pay for their amusement.Let the sports people foot the entire bill.Make the team owners pay to build the playpens or let them go elsewhere.
“the Minneapolis Star Tribune stands to make $45 million off the sale of its land”
Imagine that! A dying Dinosaur Media outlet pushing for the “quick” action by the state. If they’d have stuck to printing the news, instead of carrying the DFL’s water, they might still be in the news business. See ya, Red Star!
I’m going to play the devil’s advocate here. Zyggi wanted to build an outdoor stadium and foot most of the bill. To pay for the rest of the stadium, the state would have likely issued a tax on players playing in the state of Minnesota and memorabilia taxes. I.E, the public who doesn’t support the stadium don’t have to pay for it.
However, the state of Minnesota wanted to have a giant indoor rec center to replace the aging and crumbling Metrodome. The state wants a brand new giant rec center, but the GOP in the state wants a private person to pay for a building that’s going to be used by the general public. The state will try to host events in a brand new indoor Vikings stadium, paid for by the public or not.
It would be akin to you building a new pizza place in a small town that’s the hangout for everybody in the neighborhood and then having the mayor demand that you allow local chefs to do whatever they want to do at your kitchen.
If the state wants someplace to host its cultural celebrations, golf shows, et al, they should pay for it instead of putting some private citizen on the hook to pay for “the people’s stadium”.