Bravo! This really is what saying "no" is all about - forcing the sports franchises to pay their own costs of doing business. Why have we had $100+ million contracts in professional sports? Because the market will bear it. Why will the market bear it? Because the sports teams really have that much money to burn. Why do they have
that much money to burn, which could be used instead paying for their own stadiums? Because the public has let them force it to pay those bills through government subsidies and building projects. Enough is enough. Whether the economy is good or bad, there is absolutely no excuse for cities and states to pay these costs to enrich sports owners. Something that we need also to remember is that once upon a time, stadiums cost a heck of a lot less, relatively, than they do now. There weren't the kind of lavish demands made by teams - giant electronic scoreboards, retractible roofs, special boxes only the rich and famous will see from the inside. The fact that the Vikings and the Twins started crying for a new stadium when the old one - built to THEIR requests, including that "awful" non-retractible dome - hadn't been fully paid for should be a point of outrage to every taxpayer in Minnesota. But governments and taxpayers haven't been cueing in to the fact that the wish lists grow ever more elaborate and expensive, and requests have become strident demands for new toys as a matter of "right" and "civic responsibility." How DARE the public refuse them??? The fight needs to be spelled out - it's not just about saying no to building a stadium in this or that city, it's about all cities saying no and ending for all time the expectation that a city would ever say yes. Whether it's $10 million or $100 million, it is criminal for a government to give that money out as corporate welfare for these few fat-cats when it could be used to - save a few teachers' jobs - pay a few teachers something closer to a living wage - provide housing for the homeless - provide medical care for the needy - improve public transit - clean up a polluted area and much more. Sure, we may lose the Twins or the Vikings if another city foolishly caves in and adopts them. Let them go. We lost the North Stars once. It didn't kill us. We didn't have a basketball team once. We weren't shamed before all the world as a community that didn't have a basketball team. Those who cared about the sports watched other states' teams in their living rooms and in bars, and had a glorious time. (Most still do, rather than pay the tickets, parking, and other costs to come to the stadium, anyway.) We didn't go from podunk to world class city or vice versa because we gained or lost one of these entertainment-industry parasites. Roxana Orrell Central >Terrell wrote: >Unfortunately, if we don't put some money into stadium(s), someone else >likely will and baseball and/or football will leave. What is the loss? > How much is it worth to us to avoid that loss? > >Ron writes: >Is this why the Twins moved last year when Carl threatened us? Or why the team was not eliminated from the league. I believe there is a city in South Carolina that said no to building a stadium at taxpayer expense. Me thinks the days of taxpayer funded stadiums is nearing and end. I would love to se MN lead the way on this front. > >And as for the Vikings, Red would love nothing more than to move them to LA, but LA has no interest in funding a stadium for him. They did get to vote on it. I do not trust my elected officials to not fall prey to big bucks and say no to a stadium. >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
