Posted on 03/04/2010 9:05:47 AM PST by MplsSteve
The Vikings' uphill battle to get a new stadium paid for by Minnesota's taxpayers isn't getting any less steep.
A new poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Minnesotans say state funding shouldn't finance a new stadium for the team.
According to a SurveyUSA poll commissioned by KSTP TV, 64 percent of respondents said the state should not help finance a new stadium, which team officials insist they need. Thirty-one percent supported a subsidy.
The Vikings, who have said they won't renew their lease at the Metrodome after their lease expires next year, have deployed a gaggle of lobbyists at the Legislature to push their case for a new stadium.
It has a price tag of an estimated $870 million at a time when the state is facing multi-billion-dollar deficits.
DFL legislative leaders have said that in such an economic climate, there's little appetite for a stadium subsidy. And while Gov. Tim Pawlenty isn't actively pushing a stadium funding plan, he has suggested that state lottery proceeds could be a revenue source.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
“One thing I would mention is the taxpayers of Hennepin country bought the Pohlads their stadium and not the state as a whole.”
You are correct. But the Legislature and Gov Pawlenty signed off on a bill that stripped Hennepin County residents of the right to decide (in a referendum) as to whether we wanted to be taxed for a new stadium.
The Twins told ‘em that if the referendum amendment wasn’t stripped, they considered it to be a deal-breaker (IOW, we’ll leave).
We never got the chance to vote on it. I consider that to be extraorinarily unforgivable.
I love watching football in a snowstorm - on TV.
Reminds me of Boss Stein and old Yankee Stadium. Spent every day of his coherency (which has sadly failed him in the last few years) talking about how the stadium was a dump, it was going to kill people and the Yanks would die a death by a thousand cuts if they had to stay. Then he built a nearly identical stadium next door, just with more luxury boxes. Thanks, Mayor Mike.
I can see the need in some cases. However, the book is full of stories where others were put out of business in unfair taxpayer supported competition. There’s a few good stories about Steinbrenner.
I so want MLB to contract (by at least two teams)... too much watered down “talent” out there.
I’ll drink to that. First to go should have been the Expos. Instead, they got a nice taxpayer palace in DC that nobody goes to. Oops.
Go Minnesota! It’s time for every state to stop underwriting professional sports; if owners can afford to pay single players tens of millions, they can finance the playing fields themselves. Get off our backs!!
I would never go that far.We still have Franken and Klobuchar and many here worship Garrison Keillor.
The poorly-built-by-French-socialist-workers Big O.
Perhaps the fact that there are no other businesses in the state whose presence adds immeasurably to the quality of life of millions of people all around the region? It ultimately didn't turn out like we would have liked, but did you happen to notice just a tad of excitement in the area last fall? Did you notice what the vast majority of your neighbors were doing on January 17th and 24th? Do you really not give a whit about that? What's a good term for people that don't care at all about something that is really important to large numbers of their neighbors? And what is a good term for people that actually do enjoy the local team, but for some reason take a stance that seriously jeopardizes the teams continued presence?
I hope all of you no stadium types have never spent a single minute over the last 45-50 years enjoying the Vikings, Twins, North Stars, or Wild. Every single game they've ever played since 1961 has been in a publicly financed stadium. Do you really want to make the case that their entire existences have been illegitimate, and their histories and legacies are some sort of socialist scam to fleece you?
It's really too bad that the whole high end stadium thing has come to the point it has, but the Twin Cities have been getting by on the cheap for a very long time with the Dome. For some ridiculous reason, a few hundred million was sunk into a pathetic college football program nobody cares about that doesn't have the option to leave. The river bank is adorned with an ornate multi-million dollar theater very few people attend and fewer people care about.
Whether or not you personally care about the Vikings, millions of tax payers in high brackets do. Losing them would leave a massive hole in the lives of regular people all over the region, and a 50 year tradition would die. The Vikings have patiently waited their turn while less deserving Teams and artistic snobs have butted in line. Their lease expires soon and they don't have to wait much longer. Just build the damn thing.
I enjoy even more watching games where it's bight and sunny and ten below.The kind of thing that you can easily see at a Bills...Packers...and,once upon a time,Vikings home game.
(Ooops...forgot Bears games.)
To me, the quality of life are safe and driveable roads, not subsidizing palaces for the ultra-wealthy who can afford to build it on their own.
As for the vast majority of my neighbors on January 17th and January 24th, I honestly have to say that I don’t give a f___. If that vast majority wants to contact Zygi Wilf and offer to pony up about $50,000 a piece, maybe Wilf will let them in as junior partners and it’ll save the taxpayers from having to pony up.
Your assumption (of me) that just because Metropolitan Stadium and Target Center were built with public money makes them (and the teams that play there) illegitimate or a socialist scam is nothing more than a fallacy. There is nothing in what I previously stated in which you can claim this. Nothing.
This state survived when the North Stars left. It would have survived if the Twins had left and it’ll most certainly survive if the Vikings leave.
And that's the heart of the problem. Doing the math, it would take no more that a few hundred from every state resident that cares to get it done. There's just seems no effective way to do that. Large numbers want the pleasure that comes with being an NFL town. They then tell pollsters they don't want to pay, but would pay if it reality came down to a choice of paying or loosing losing the team.
I'd be happy to pay the portion that uptight cranky people like yourself are unwilling to pay in order to keep the team. (Just make sure you never decide to watch or take your kid to a game, or enjoy the team's presence in any way.) It'd be nice if they could come up with a financing scheme to let people do just that. "Adopt a Soulless Curmudgeon to Save the Region From Their Short Sightedness" we could call it.
“...uptight cranky people like yourself...”
I’m uptight and cranky because I care more about good roads than I do about a billionaire’s dreams?
If that’s your criteria, so be it. I’ll gladly allow someone to call me uptight and cranky.
Please contact Zygi Wilf and the Vikings now (and by the way, Glen Taylor and the Timberwolves eventually) and tell ‘em that you’re happy to pay your part to make Minnesota a nicer and happy place. I’m sure he’ll get the warm fuzzies over your offer - once you stops laughing at you.
I honestly wish they would leave. I sick of fighting them and people like you (but not so sick that I’m going to quit).
Article: Ventura plants a $1,000 seed in stadium fund; The governor said he would donate, and he challenged others, including vocal stadium backers, to ante up, too.(NEWS)
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-62459413.html
Just build the damn thing.
That was the money he saved on his reduced licensing fees for his cars, boats and jetskis that got him wanting to run for Govenor... ;)
As a former resident of Minneapolis I have a dilemma...I’m not a paid by the public guy, but at least Pohlad ponied up money for the stadium...the Metrodome IS a hovel and a terrible place to watch baseball (and football for that matter).
Still can’t believe they didn’t put a roof on the place, but chances are even living in Milwaukee now that I will go to more Twins games this year than I did in the 13 years with the Metrodome....5 games.
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