Legislature needs to approve stadium concept
Posted Online 4/27/01
The decisions on preserving Major League baseball are well into the final innings.
While the majority of Minnesotans want to keep major league baseball in Minnesota, there is the real possibility it could leave, much like the National Hockey League North Star Hockey team did.
If that were to happen, history would repeat itself and money, yes even from taxes, would be used to build a new stadium to get another major league club. That won’t be as easy as it was to regain a major league hockey organization, because while hockey needed Minnesota, baseball doesn’t need this smaller-market state.
The Minnesota Twins organization has said it cannot earn the revenues in the Metrodome to be competitive and pay the minimum it takes to attract quality players and put good teams on the field. The Metrodome is a football stadium lacking the number of tiered higher-cost seats between first and third base. Twins President Jerry Bell said that even if the team were to attract 3 million fans in the Metrodome and had a $65 million payroll, the organization would lose $20 million.
Since a new stadium is needed, the Twins, organized a blue ribbon advisory committee whose advise it is following, mainly that baseball has to be reformed, a new stadium needs to be built, the owner should provide a substantial amount of money and no taxes should be raised to pay for it.
That kind of bill is hanging precariously in the halls of the Legislature. The bill in the House would require the Twins to pay 96.4 percent of the cost of the $300 million stadium. The Senate would require 87 per cent.
State aid for the Twins still awaits action in the Senate Taxes Committee, but appears dead in the House where a committee tabled discussion of the bill last week.
Included would be a $100,000 interest-free loan from the workmen’s compensation insurance fund surplus. The Twins contend that just the income tax from the players salaries over 10 years of $191 million would more than pay the interest.
Public sentiment in favor of the stadium appears to be gaining, but legislators, some who ran for office on the anti-stadium platform, are afraid to vote for it. It’s come down to the political considerations on a bill that many fear would pass once the public understands it.There is more support in the Senate where Roger Moe is co-sponsoring the bill than there is in the House where the caucus leadership is lukewarm to it.
Governor Jesse Ventura has not said he would veto a good bill, but he will not champion it either.
Critics will say what’s the rush? The area is tiring of stadium talk and some believe the Twins will never leave.
President Bell says if the baseball owners do not see any movement toward a new stadium, this session, they may not be willing to wait much longer, and in fact could decide to buy the franchise and shelve it, figuring that would be cheaper than subsidizing a losing ball club.
Everyone who wants to see baseball stay in Minnesota, should call or write their legislators immediately. Legislators are not convinced that people at the grassroots want a stadium, even one with no taxpayer money involved. They also are afraid of what a vote for a new stadium will do to their political lives.
Legislators should at least approve a concept that proclaims the message Minnesota wants to keep the Twins, even if it takes a new stadium to do it.
Editor’s note: This editorial was a product of the ECM Editorial Board.
