Stadium debate March 30...but not at the Capitol

Posted at 10:45 AM on March 14, 2011 by Tim Nelson (4 Comments)
Filed under: Vikings stadium

The University of Minnesota debate team has scheduled a showdown at the end of the month over a new Vikings stadium.

Headliners will include former Minneapolis Federal Reserve research director Art Rolnick and Minnesota Vikings assistant director of public affairs Jeff Anderson. Corey Merrifield, from savethevikes.org will also be on hand.

The debate will take place on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 7:00pm in Willey Hall room 125/175 on the University's West Bank. The event is scheduled to run about 90 minutes, and organizers say they expect nearly 1,000 people to attend the debate.

Comments (4)

Hello, I would like to officially object to Chris David's exclusion from this debate. As someone who has appeared on local news and as an expert on this issue, it does the public a disservice to keep him out of this discussion.

Posted by Susan Woehrle | March 26, 2011 4:13 PM

Susan,

I am a student at the U and I am helping to organize the debate.

We respect and appreciate Mr. David's advocacy for this topic. However, we did not receive any interest from himself, or a related party to participate in this debate until March 25. (Yesterday). Seeing as we had already created promotional material, evened the number supporters and opponents, began communication with other participants as early as one month ago we did not feel it would be appropriate to add a 5th panelist with only two business days before the event.

I strongly encourage Mr. David's participation in this event as a member of the community. There will be a large amount of time for audience members to ask questions of the panelists.

I personally appreciate his work, and hope that we can all work together towards creating a positive experience for the community. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns: taylorcwilliams@gmail.com

Posted by Taylor Williams | March 26, 2011 9:33 PM

According to Chris's Facebook post, he had been invited to participate as of March 24th. Let me reiterate my disappointment that he is not on this panel. It was a tremendous oversight, and should have been remedied in some way. It will not be a legitimate debate without his presence on the panel.

Posted by Susan Woehrle | March 28, 2011 4:49 PM

A first round of contact about the debate event was sent out about a month ago, and planning for the event goes back even further. I would just like to reiterate the fact that it is not in the best interest of the event to add an additional panelist less than a week before the event takes place. Hours of planning and strategizing have gone into making this debate legitimate and successful for the community and audience members. In fact, many individuals who would greatly contribute to this public debate on either side contacted the debate team after initial speakers had been chosen, but we were only able to accommodate the speakers who coordinated with us early on in the planning process. Giving one side even a simple number advantage with an extra debater would offset the professional and academic atmosphere of the event.

While many qualified individuals could speak on either side of the issue, the debate team simply had to choose the best candidates who showed legitimate interest early on in the planning process.

I too strongly encourage Mr. David's participation in this event as a member of the community. There will be a large amount of time for audience members to ask questions of the panelists.

I am confident that the panelists chosen for the event will be of the highest quality, and they are well-prepared to support both sides of the issue.

Posted by Brittany R | March 28, 2011 6:11 PM

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