The situation as described in Milwaukee is absolutely true! In fairness however, new stadiums in Detroit, Baltimore, Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, Phoenix, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Houston have proven to be immensely successful for their teams and communities.
Although I am a stadium proponent (using combination of money from team and statewide funding or dedicated revenue source) I have reservations about Mr. Pohlad as the owner of the Twins in a new facility paid for but some percentage of public investment. The ownership in Milwaukee decided to maximize their own profit using the heightened fan attendance that invariably accompanies a new ballpark while leaving the team uncompetitive on the field. Milwaukee baseball fans quickly saw through this charade and stopped going to games once they realized that the Selig family had no intention of making the team better by using revenues from the new stadium but was interested only in lining their own pockets. To avoid a similar scenario in Minnesota, public investment should be contingent on team ownership agreeing to operate using a minimum payroll equal to that of the average of the six teams immediately ABOVE the major league average. That way, the Pohlad family (or whoever owns the team) would have incentive to put a very competitive team on the field (to keep fans in the ballpark) while not having to meet unreasonable expectations (can't be expected to keep up with the Yankees) but requiring them to invest in the team, not just fill their own pocketbooks. Jim Bernstein Fulton -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leurquin, Ronald Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 8:10 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Mpls stadium Building near the incinerator is nothing more than a ploy to get rid of the incinerator. People have tried in the past to get rid of it, and have failed. Now if we taxpayers) build a stadium there the "poor Carl" would complain that the smell is keeping the spectators away and he cant make "enough" money so we taxpayers) need to tear it down to get rid of the smell. What smells is that my elected officials think this is a good idea. For any of you that are not aware, Milwaukee built a wonderful new stadium not long ago. Team profits are apparently even lower now, and its for sale. Fire type sale from what I have been told. Can we not learn from the example of our neighbors to the east. A new stadium will not line Carl's coffers "enough" to pacify Carl, or Red for that matter. We are blatantly being held hostage and our elected officials are helping the gun holder rather than coming in with the SWAT team to rescue us. Thanks a lot. Ron Leurquin Nokomis East REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
