Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been in favor of and advocated for sports stadia; both for the Minnesota Twins (and, gawd…look at that beautiful Target Field!!) and for the Minnesota Vikings. It’s also no secret that my rooting interest in getting a new stadium for our pro sports teams is my very own love of sports.
I’d be happy to argue all day with you the merits of pro sports for our state and our community but in the end it comes down to this: Building a stadium now will be less expensive. It is not a matter of if we will build a new football stadium, it’s a matter of when. We’ve seen this movie before in Cleveland; if we let the Vikings leave, we’ll see its sequel here in Minnesota. This state will inevitably build a new stadium to attract a pro football franchise back to Minnesota and the only difference will be a few years of an NFLless state and a significantly higher cost for the stadium.
We should pass this bill this year. The Strib compiled footage from the press conference: