Bob Collins
What did we learn from a decades-long shakedown of taxpayers for new football stadiums? That the NFL doesn’t bluff. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Stadiums
Nothing says ‘people’s stadium’ like a fence to keep people out. Read more →
The increase in the team’s value in one year — $600 million — far exceeds the money Minnesota taxpayers put into building the new stadium.
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Generally speaking, Minnesota architecture can be a boring series of right angles. Folks seem to like it. The style feels like a comfortable pair of slippers.
So you might want to think about the design of the new Minnesota United stadium for awhile and not react right away. Read more →
Of the many fine baseball moves that Twins general manager Terry Ryan has made over the years, none may exceed washing the team’s hands of its affiliation with the New Britain Rock Cats minor league team at the end of the 2014 season. Read more →
The secrecy with which Minnesota United has wandered the landscape looking for a soccer friend has been troubling right from the start. Now, the people in charge of the taxpayer-portion of a deal are climbing into bed and pulling the covers, MPR’s Curtis Gilbert reports today. Read more →
There’s no reasonable economic benefit to be gained by subsidizing pro sports stadiums, most every piece of research in the last two decades has shown. But the pro-sports machine has won, anyway. Read more →
It would be fascinating to take a look at the new stadium playbook the Minnesota United is using to get a new stadium for its Major League Soccer franchise.
The Pioneer Press’ Andy Greder, for one, has noticed that the United is approaching asking for public help in a different way than any of the big-three sports franchises in town used to extract taxpayer money for a venue.
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Economists haven’t been able to convince cities that there’s no monetary gain in dishing out millions of dollars to wealthy sports teams owners for sports stadiums.
Maybe it’s time for a comedian to take a crack at it. Read more →
Theoretically, the Twins stadium tax would expire as soon as the stadium was paid for. But the theory ignores the physics of politics: Taxes don’t expire, even though the tax is taking in more money than expected and the stadium will be paid off early. Read more →
If he’s frustrated by it, Bill McGuire, the man behind the effort to bring MLS to downtown Minneapolis, can end the speculation on whether he’ll be seeking public subsidies for a new stadium anytime he wishes. He just has to answer the question. That he is shying away from the answer is understandable; it’s a Read more →
The Minnesota Vikings today acknowledged that they’ve been eliminated from consideration to own a new Major League Soccer franchise in Minneapolis, putting the ownership of the Minnesota United team solidly in the driver’s seat for a franchise here.
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The Vikings stadium was pitched to taxpayers as a venue for a Major League Soccer franchise. Now, one of the wealthiest people in Minnesota wants his own. Read more →
Critics of soon-to-be-presidential-candidate Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin have certainly noticed the message he sent this week about what’s important in his state: professional sports, specifically an NBA franchise. Read more →
There’s an old saying in sports: if a play is working, just keep running it.
The National Football League ran its stadium play again this month in St. Louis and, just as it has in every other city, it’s working perfectly so far Read more →