Conservative Student News

photo credit www.ballpilgrimages.com

With the Twins, Gophers, and Vikings stadium bill awaiting a decision, stadium supporters and opponents alike have been voicing their opinions, albeit in opposition of each other. Supporters would love nothing more than to rid our state of the obsolete HHH Metrodome. On the other hand, opponents wonder why our billionaire owners cannot pay for the stadium themselves, since they will ultimately benefit the most from the stadium.

The Metrodome was built in the economy stadium era, when bang for buck was valued over quality. The state of Minnesota got bang for their $60 million dollars by building that stadium. It has housed the Vikings, Twins, and Gophers for nearly 25 years, drawing in two Final Fours, numerous regional championships, and even a Super Bowl.

But the dynamics of professional sports have changed, especially for baseball. Metrodome seating faces center field, rather than home plate. Every other ballpark in the country has the majority of its seating behind home plate and continuing down the first and third baselines.

This stadium was designed for football games and does a poor job of converting into a baseball stadium. People would simply rather spend their nice summer days outdoors than watch a baseball game inside the Metrodome, where it is always a cool 68 degrees and cloudy.

College football is also incompatible with the Metrodome; it is not the seating or the actual venue, however, that does not work, but the very location of the venue. An off campus stadium hurts student attendance. Many students lack the means to travel a few miles to the Metrodome. Although the U of M offers public transportation to the game, the whole process is complicated and tiresome. Many students would rather watch the game on TV or sleep through it altogether, than ride the bus or walk a few miles to the Metrodome.

Presently, the Viking’s stadium issues are the least pressing. The Metrodome is adequate for professional football, at least for now. However, the Vikings stadium bill was joined to the Twins bill. That means either both stadiums get put up or none of them do. This is a step backwards for the approval of a Twins stadium. The Twins and Gophers need new stadiums now. The Viking’s situation does not require such immediate attention. Stadium opponents have succeeded in attaching the Vikings and the Twins to the same bill. This strategy will make it difficult for Governor Pawlenty to approve the bill, considering the attached Vikings stadium will add nearly $500 million in public financing to the project, while a new Viking stadium is not urgent, as it is in the case of the Twins.

This brings up the real issue – why should taxpayers pay for the new stadiums? Don’t the owners have billions of dollars already and will only be getting richer if a stadium gets built? For one, it does not make financial sense for Carl Pohlad to personally finance a stadium. He is already 90 years old. If he were to make an investment upward of $530 million for a new Twins ballpark, he would die before he started seeing any return on his investment. AT&T Park, formerly Pac Bell Park in San Francisco, is the only privately financed baseball stadium. The Giants sell out nearly all their games, yet they are unable to turn a profit. In fact, MLB commissioner Bud Selig has deemed private funding as an unacceptable means for building a stadium.

A sports franchise can be sold from person to person and relocated from city to city. Stadiums are not mobile entities. They cannot be sold and moved anywhere else. Unlike most real estate, there is only one practical use for a stadium. There are multiple bidders for office and industrial real estate. A MLB or NFL franchise would be the only bidder for their respective stadiums. A stadium just happens to fall under the same category as museums and orchestra halls. It is the state’s responsibility to build a stadium because regardless of who finances the stadium, it is really belongs to the state.

Metropolitan areas, all over the country, publicly finance stadiums for the sole purpose of attracting a professional sports team. These cities are not financing stadiums for the purpose of allowing their professional sports teams to earn a larger profit. They are financing stadiums to ensure those teams stay. The cities themselves are bidding to keep their professional sports franchises put, because those teams have become a part of the city’s culture and history.

Take a look at the history of the Minnesota North Stars. In 1992, the state of Minnesota opted against building a new hockey arena for the Stars to play in. The Stars skipped town to Dallas. They did so because Dallas was going to build them a state-of-the-art arena. Five years later, the state of Minnesota decided that it needed professional hockey again. They approved a bill for a state-of-the-art hockey arena in Minnesota. Although hockey is back in the state of Minnesota, the cost of this whole fiasco was the history and tradition of a professional sports franchise that was located here for over 25 years.

Building stadiums is not simply about allowing the owners of professional teams to get richer, as the common anti-stadium arguments usually go. Cities around the country are competing against each other to lure professional sports to their town. They do so for cultural reasons; Americans have pride in their sports teams and value the tradition of watching professional athletes.

The Twins and Vikings have been a part of this state’s culture and history for over four decades. The Timberwolves will hit their 20 year anniversary in 2009. It is quite unfortunate that the state of Minnesota cannot say the same about the Minnesota North Stars as they will about their Twins and Vikes.

Of the thirteen metropolitan areas that include all four major professional sports franchises, the Twin Cities is the second smallest. That statistic says a lot about our metro area and its culture. We should be proud to have four professional sports franchises.

The next time you read an article about how taxpayers are making billionaire owners richer by building them stadiums, think about how this will impact our city. Think about watching a baseball game outdoors on a clear and breezy Friday night, with the sunset reflecting off the glass buildings of downtown Minneapolis. Think about the culture and tradition of the professional sports franchises that have been around here for a long time. Finally, think about how the Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis will be unrivalled by any cultural district outside Chicago, within 1,000 miles.