Didn’t see this coming: the cost for the Twins ballpark might rise, and taxpayers might be “on the hook,” a phrase usually reserved for dead meat in a warehouse locker. It’s not just the $320-per-hour legal fees that makes the story so delightful; it’s the wrangle over the value of the site. You’d think they’d get these things out of the way first.
Remember, Hennepin County residents, you have to pay for the ballpark. It’s against the law not to pay for the ballpark. The only question is whether we’ll go through this again with the Vikings. The Twins site is supposed to be an urban village, with housing, hotels, retail, all served by light rail. The Vikings site is supposed to be an urban village on the other side of town, with housing, hotels, and retail, all served by light rail, and I’ll bet good money today we’ll end up paying for that one, too. It’s like they’re setting up competing small camps for the forthcoming Mad-Max-like post-nuclear apocalypse. Where you from, lad? Ye have the look of a Twinser about ye, and this be the land of the Viqueans.
It’s possible that the Twins site will flourish – it’s already in a part of town with plenty of condo-and-loft development, so it has a leg up on the deadlands of the Vikings site. We were promised lots of development around the Dome, too, and what did we get? One bar. One. If the planners of the site came back and saw what their work had produced, they would’ve been convinced prohibition had been reintroduced, because there’s no possible other explanation for building a gigantic sports arena that produces exactly ONE bar before the development sputters out and the area sits dead for 20 years.
But a new stadium, at taxpayer expense – sure, that’ll do the trick. A billion-dollar Viking stadium seems absolutely inevitable, and we’ll be on the hook for that one as well. If you’re a sports fan who’s untroubled by this sort of subsidy, you’re happy. If you’re not a sports fan, and you’re untroubled by this sort of subsidy, you might be thinking: okay, where’s my playpen? Let’s imagine that the Legislature decided to mollify some opponents, and offered the non-sports-fans a billion-dollar whatever. They don’t care what it is. Just come up with a brand-new billion-dollar whatever, figure out what it looks like, and the statue will have it built.
What would you suggest?
billion-dollar whatever
Public baths / swimming pool complex w/library adjunct.