It’s been a big issue in Minnesota for the entire off-season, but I haven’t been following too closely (not living in the state, I don’t know anything about the issue other than what the StarTribune and the Pioneer Press have been reporting, leavened with some angst and bile from the various Viking fan blogs).
In a nutshell, the Vikings have been playing at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis for 30 years. Their lease on the building expired at the end of the 2011 season and they’ve been trying to get political support for a new stadium for the last ten years. The stadium debate has gone over the same ground repeatedly, but even when the site is agreed upon and the team and the city appear to be happy with the compromise, it still required the state to provide additional funding … lots of additional funding.
That’s where what appeared to be a done deal went off the rails earlier this week. The state legislature voted down the state’s share of the funding for the stadium, which appears to have been a rude surprise to both Minneapolis and the team.
The NFL is now warning Minnesota that the Vikings could move out of state (Los Angeles has been hoping for a team for years now, although given California’s dire financial straits, it’s hard to imagine them putting up any more money than Minnesota might be willing to offer).
As I wrote back in November,
The Vikings are hoping to get a new stadium built, and the state legislature has been doing what they can to kick the issue down the road every time it’s come up. I don’t have a say in the matter, as I’m not located in Minnesota and I’d probably still cheer for the team even if it moved elsewhere (though it would be a sad thing to see it move after half a century in Minnesota).
In general, I don’t think governments should build stadiums for professional sports teams, as it’s using tax money to subsidize private profits. If a new stadium is going to generate a profit, the team’s ownership should bear the costs themselves. The fact that they generally don’t — mostly because politicians don’t want to deal with angry sports fans after the team leaves town — doesn’t make it right.
It is quite noteworthy that the question has never actually been asked of the voters — the folks whose taxes will have to subsidize the team’s new stadium — if they are willing to pay. I have to assume that this is because they have indicated in other ways that they are not willing. If that’s the case (and I can’t blame them in the slightest if that’s true), then the Vikings should either pony up enough money to build a stadium without taxpayer assistance, or go looking for a city or a state foolish enough to pour more money into the pockets of the team’s ownership. Here once again are Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch on why public funding for professional sports facilities are a bad idea:
Meanwhile to the East of Minneapolis, a few months ago the Packers were issuing stock. Non-voting shares – you just pay a few hundred bucks for a fancy certificate to hang on the wall.
Raised half the money needed for stadium expansion.
“The fifth stock sale in team history closed at midnight Wednesday with the Packers raising almost half of the money needed for the Lambeau Field expansion that’s already underway.
Final sale numbers are not yet available, but more than 268,000 shares were sold at $250 apiece during the 12-week sale, contributing roughly $67 million in revenue toward the $143 million Lambeau project.”
http://www.packers.com/news-and-events/article_spofford/article-1/Stock-sale-closes-shares-top-268000/19d9b0a8-f4ce-497b-b5ae-73f6c72fd973
Comment by Brian Dunbar — April 20, 2012 @ 10:59
The Packers are in a unique position, as NFL rules haven’t allowed that form of ownership in decades. They were “grandfathered in” because they’d been community owned long before the NFL cared about details like that. There may be other ways that teams can include wider ownership options, but in general terms the NFL prefers each team to be owned by one person or a small group of people with one majority owner.
Comment by Nicholas — April 20, 2012 @ 11:04
in general terms the NFL prefers
The NFL clearly knows the business of football but doesn’t know much about the business of building a team people can love.
I came from Dallas. People there like football, and the Cowboys well enough. America’s Team, right?
My first week here, I was in our regional airport on a Sunday, in the fall. Every television was tuned to The Game. CNNAirportTV? The Game. Packers scored and every-single-body in the terminal cheered and had nice things to say.
I don’t think you’d see that anywhere else.
Comment by Brian Dunbar — April 20, 2012 @ 14:52