Commentary
What's behind the push for a new Vikings stadium? Greed.
by Phil KrinkieIt is reported that last year the combined revenues of the 32 NFL teams was $9 billion. That's an average of more than $280 million per team. Despite this whopping revenue, the NFL owners decided to lock out their players rather than negotiate a new contract.
The most popular game in America is bringing in fans by the millions and dollars by the billions; yet in Minnesota, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf wants taxpayers to pay 60 percent of the cost of a new stadium complex.
Why? Greed. Wilf is just another billionaire looking to line his pockets at the taxpayer's expense.
In a recent poll, 62 percent of respondents said the Vikings should continue to play in the Metrodome. Why? Because there is nothing wrong with the Dome for a football game. It was designed as a football facility, and 30 years later it still is a great venue for football.
Are there long lines at the concession stands and bathrooms? Sure, but these are not valid reasons to abandon the place for a new billion-dollar stadium paid for with an additional half-cent sales tax. The only reason Wilf can offer for needing a new stadium is that the Vikings are at the bottom of the league in stadium revenue.
Wilf wants taxpayers to ante up for a new billion-dollar stadium so that he can charge more for tickets and increase the price on beer and hot dogs. If you don't believe this, just go to a baseball game in the new, taxpayer-subsidized Twins ballpark. No longer are professional sports family-friendly -- unless you want to drop a couple of hundred bucks on an outing for a family of four.
The Metrodome is paid for and a month from now will have a brand-new roof, paid for with insurance money. Any homeowner knows that after 30 years it's time to do some updating, not tear the place down and start over. But why, when the mortgage is paid and you have a new roof, would you abandon your home to build a new one? The answer is simple; no one would, if he were in his right mind and using his own money. But since this is the taxpayers' money, Wilf wants a new billion-dollar home for his Vikings.
Remember, the Vikings will have no home after next season. Without a quarterback or a players' contract, they are in no position to demand a new stadium.
Ted Mondale, chair of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which operates the Metrodome, should be negotiating a new long-term lease for the Vikings at the Dome instead of helping Wilf shop for a new stadium. He is paid to operate the current facility, not advocate for his major tenant to move out. It's time for tough negotiations on an extended Vikings lease at the Metrodome, not capitulation to the Vikings' whining about needing a new place to play.
Minnesota taxpayers have already footed the majority of the cost for the Xcel Center, Target Field and TCF Stadium. It's time to say no to the extortion being attempted by the Wilfs and the NFL. Wilf should be reaching into his own pocket to pay for renovations at the Metrodome, instead of trying to put his hand in the taxpayers' pockets in order to build a new stadium.
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Phil Krinkie, who served 16 years in the state Legislature, is president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, which describes its mission as "to represent Minnesotans who believe in limited government, low taxation, local control, free enterprise and the constitutional principles set out by our nation's founders."
Comments (8)
It's a rare day when I agree with you, but today you are spot on Phil!
Now if we could get the public to see that the reason behind the Republican opposition to small tax increases for the wealthiest 2% of Minnesotans is also greed, they might make some progress on the budget.
Amen !
Why, why. WHY do our powers-that-be keep knuckling under to the demands of these criminally spoiled greedy people while blithely turning a blind to the real needs of our society...!!??
Phil Krinkie claims a new stadium represents irresponsible fiscal policy and he characterizes Wilf as "just another billionaire looking to line his pockets at the taxpayer's expense." This is ironic coming from the poster child for fiscal sadism -- fiscal policy at its worst. Krinkie is the one who virtually blackmails all GOP candidates into signing a pledge not to raise taxes, ever, under any circumstance, even when our demographics are such that we have record number of impoverished children and elderly citizens, schools switching to four-day school weeks, and a $5 billion biennial deficit. So, when our governor asks these billionaires of whom Krinkie speaks to pay an extra $30 for every $1,000 that exceeds $250,000 in household income, these billionaires have, yes, Krinkie to thank when our GOP legislature says "hell no." Don't be fooled by Krinkie's rhetoric, folks. He's using the stadium issue as a convenient pretext for fighting taxes for any use. The very richest Minnesotan's pay an effective state/local tax rate of 10.3%, while the rest of us pay 12.3%. We have Krinkie to thank for that regressive tax. Dayton's newest proposal to create a new highest tax rate for taxable income dollars that exceed $250,000 would affect less than 2% of our state's citizens -- the Wilfs! Still, Krinkie is fighting it. So, re-read his commentary again, only this time replace "stadium" with "impoverished kids," "potholes," "nursing homes," "schools," "firefighters," and "police."
TERRIBLE TERRIBLE AND BIASED ARTICLE....get your facts straight before spewing such propaganda
if we don't build the stadiums for the teams we will lose them. the owners can get other cities looking for sports teams to build them billion dollar stadiums. why stay and build on your money when you can move and have someone else build with their money.
I have never seen such a terrible and biased article like jay just said really greed he is being average to nfl owners and come on 60% public money the last few teams paid 68% , 87%, and 62% in public money really come on right a real article next time
Great commentary, but it doesn't go far enough. It's not just Zygi's greed that's behind this push, it's also the greed of those Vikings fans who want the state to subsidize their entertainment by taking other people's money. The difference between Zygi's greed and their greed is just a difference of scale.
I don't really blame Z for having his hand out. If we're stupid enough to give it to him, why shouldn't he take it?
If the people who want to build any kind if a stadium truly believe that we are all in thrall to watching millionaires play children's games, why are they so afraid of a referendum vote? If the people who will pay the tax had a chance to vote in a referendum and they voted to pay it, so be it, the people have spoken. I would disagree with such an outcome, but the people voted and majority rules. I live in Hennepin county. We will be paying for the Pohlad stadium for the rest of our lives. We were denied a referendum in spite of state law requiring one. You won't hear our county commissioners boasting about that session of hide-the-wiener. I think if you keep an eye on them over the next decade or so you'll watch them quietly leave public life and assume well paid, but obscure, positions within the Pohlad empire.
As for the team leaving for some locale wherein they they will find a more cooperative (stupider) populace to build them a stadium: Sounds like solution to a problem to me. Anyone genuinely attached to following this particular pack of rich leg breakers can actually get better TV coverage that way. If someone else is stupid enough to spend upwards of a billion dollars on these childish violence savants, I say let 'em.
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