Minnesota taxpayers will be asked again to fund sports venues.
Is a nine year old football stadium obsolete? In the case of the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings franchise, that may or may not be true. Vikings ownership claims the stadium needs about $300 million in maintenance over the next 10 years. Where will that money come from? Minnesota legislators are thinking about using tax revenue from e-pulltabs. The stadium is in a bad shape or is it? Vikings ownership has not given an explanation as to why the stadium needs upgrades other than trust us the stadium needs to be improved. In St. Paul, the owners of the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild franchise want upgrades to the city’s 25-year-old arena. The present St. Paul arena replaced a building that operated 25 years.
The Wild’s publicity department put out a statement on May 1st claiming that the team ownership and the city have scaled back the arena plan and just will renovate the arena which will cost around $488 million. The team owners plans to invest in the renovation. Back in Minneapolis, the new owners of the National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Lynx may be looking for a new arena. Minnesota politicians and business leaders in 1954 decided that the Minneapolis area needed to become a major league area despite having the best team in the struggling National Basketball Association’s and the best player, the Minneapolis Lakers and George Mikan, in town. The Minneapolis Lakers franchise owners never did get an arena and left town for Los Angeles in 1960. Minnesota taxpayers have footed the bill for two multiple purpose stadiums, a baseball stadium, a football stadium, a college football stadium, one arena in Bloomington and a bailout of a Minneapolis arena and two St. Paul arenas. It seems that the stadium and arena game never ends in Minnesota.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
St. Paul arena
