Jeremy Brezovan writes: The Twins have made their reluctance to commit to > investing money in their *own business* more than obvious. Major League > Baseball as a whole is no better--see the recent stories about Bud Selig's > stadium pitches in St. Louis and Kansas City. >
As I wrote in The Observer this week, the Twins are never going to pony up $165 million for anything when they can smell the popular mood shifting toward supporting the stadium. And why should they? Say what you will about Carl's inability to address his facilities problem and the small-market inequities of MLB, but he knows that he's got the politicians on the run right now and can pretty much dictate the terms of the deal--especially in St. Paul, where Norm Coleman's corporate welfare reform dominates the political agenda. R.T. is in the same box that Sharon was in--pony up or lose the Twins to St. Paul. But Jeremy makes a very good point when he brings up Selig's renewed stadium pitches to KC and St. Louis, home of two of the best ballparks in baseball. No improvements are ever going to be good enough to insure the Twins' stability in the current MLB economy. None. Ten years from now, our new ballpark will be shown to lack the requisite number of luxury boxes and licensed seats. In 20 years, it will be completely irrelevant, as the average team payroll reaches $100 million. Baseball is broken, and only a salary cap and NFL-style revenue-sharing is going to fix it. And as long as the owners and the players continue to think their self-interest is more important than the game, those changes will never be made. None of this, of course, will stop the politicians from caving in on this. So, congratulations, Randy Kelly and St. Paul taxpayers. You're soon going to have yourself a baseball team. So long, Saints. Craig Cox Hiawatha _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
