You're so funny Ryan.

What's your take on this whole stadium issue? It's kinda interesting to watch an issue be debated not totally divided by party line. I mean there are as many Dems in favor of the stadium as their are Republicans against it and vice-versa. Kinda strange.

The libertarian leaning conservatives don't want yet another tax increase (not surprising) even though you'd think they'd be down with helping their alleged billionaire friends.

The radical leftys just hate fun and think having a baseball stadium means less money for education next session (yeah right) and poor people die or something.

i can't find a single point to debate there. it's sort of pissing me off. sounds like the opponents might not have enough votes which mean yippee

the twins fan in me really, really wants the thing

the city planner in me knows that spending public money will have almost no effect on the city economy and amounts to a massive give away to someone who is already super freaking rich which pisses me off.

I hate that small market team owners have their cities so wrapped around their fingers. I mean, the red sox and the yankees manage to put forward new stadium plans with out a cent of public money. The red sox and the yankees! And then there is the fact that an threats to move the team are pretty much hollow at this point. the marlins have been trying to move for years now and no one will take them.

I really want a new stadium in minnesota. i just wish someone else was paying for it.

the difference between the redsox and yankees against the twins is that the red sox and yankees are profitable. the twins are break even, at best. sure pohlad is rich, but the twins are not, and he doesn't care enough about the twins (nor is he young enough) to put 500 million dollars into something that may or may not pay him back in 30 years.

pohlad hasn't threatened to move the twins, what he has done is threaten to sell the team to another investor without caring if the new guy moves the team. the reason the market still forces the county to pay for most of it is that hennepin county knows there's a ton of tax revenue in 30,000 people going to a game and staying downtown on a warm sunny saturday (nice saturdays usually have 9,000 people, all those other people go to the park where they don't spend any money - people only go to twins games when the yankees or redsox play, it's 85°+, or raining). the reason hennepin is so pushy about getting it is that they don't want to see that revenue go to dakota or ramsey counties.

check out some of the points at this site. this guy has been totally against the stadium for a long time, he went to the hearings this week, and he's changed his mind on it. somebody who's involved knows what he's doing. it doesn't look like they're just plopping a stadium down and hoping it fixes the city.
http://tcsidewalks.blogspot.com/2006/04/mpls-twins-stadium-about-face.html

the guy makes good points, but like i said, I'm not against the stadium, I just don't really think it's the best idea for city money. There are just too many other that money could be spent on that would probably be better for the city. $360 million could be two 10 mile lightrail lines. How about we raise taxes 1/15 of a percent for that.

county money, not city money. i don't disagree. i'd love to see the hennepin sales tax raised instead of to 6.515% to something more typical of a city that doesn't blow goat balls, 7% or even 8%.

the thing is, our sales tax is so low, 3 cents on the $20 isn't going to stand in the way of anything else. it's not like a state or city general fund, where the money is there and needs a destination; it's a tax increase, so if it doesn't pass, the residents of hennepin county get to keep their $60 per year and invest it in, oh i don't know, gasoline for their light trucks.