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Last Tuesday in front of 54,000 screaming fans inside the Metrodome, the Minnesota Twins clinched the American League’s Central Division Championship in a 12-inning thriller. It was a one-game play-off, after the Detroit Tigers and Twins had tied with the exact same record following the 162-game regular season.
The 54,000 fans represented the largest regular-season crowd to attend a baseball game at the Dome. While the weather outside was cold and rainy with temperatures hovering around 50 degrees, inside the Dome it was the normal 70 degrees and dry – and very loud. It was a great win for the Twins, and a very comfortable place for the fans to watch a baseball game.
Yet for the previous 10 years, the late Carl Pohlad and his expensive team of lobbyists had descended on the Capitol to plead for a new baseball stadium. Their claims were that the stadium didn’t produce enough revenue and lacked fan amenities. In 2006, Pohlad’s quest came true when the Legislature approved more than $300 million in local sales tax revenue to finance a $525 million Twins ballpark.
Next season, rain or shine, sleet or snow, if you want to watch a Minnesota Twins game in person, you will have to deal with the weather.
It may seem like a good idea now, but what would have happened last Tuesday if the Twins had played outside? Also, consider that after their win against the Tigers, several Twins players in post-game interviews, as well as a couple of the local sports announcers, talked about how “Dome Magic” was a factor in their victory.
And we certainly can’t forget that the Metrodome is the sports facility where the Twins have already won not one, but two World Series and several other Central Division Championships – performing significantly better inside than when they played outdoors.
Yes, the Dome may not be a great place to watch a baseball game, but it’s a pretty darn good place to play a game. With the Minnesota Gophers gone and the Twins packing their bags for their new digs, only one team remains in the Dome Sweet Dome … the Vikings.
They, too, had a great victory last week at the Dome. The fabled border battle between the Vikes and their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, resulted in yet another Viking victory under the Teflon roof.
Once again, it was a cold and damp night, but the players, coaches and fans were all warm and dry in the confines of the inflatable-roofed facility. Not a bad place to watch a football game on a rainy night in October, let alone a bone-chilling day in December.
But the Vikings also want to ditch the Dome. They, too, have been knocking at the taxpayers’ door, claiming they need a new stadium estimated to cost those taxpayers’ more than $700 million.
The Vikings’ most recent proposal is a near-billion-dollar facility to be built on the current Metrodome site. Before state legislators hand over the dough to Ziggy Wilf, let’s remember that twenty-eight years ago the Metrodome was built for $68 million. It’s had many improvements over the years and is structurally sound. WithMinnesotarunning multi-billion dollar budget deficits, should legislators spend a billion dollars for a new football stadium?
Taxpayers have already forked over hundreds of millions for the new Twins and Gopher stadiums. To consider replacing the Metrodome at this time is sheer folly. The Metrodome is a good place to watch a football game – it was designed as a football stadium.
My guess is that come next April, when some spring showers are still snow showers, Twins fans may wish they were back in the Dome Sweet Dome. State legislators shouldn’t deflate the Dome just to inflate Ziggy’s net worth.
This column originally appeared in the St. Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report.
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