Flawed thinking

Published 11:20 am Thursday, March 31, 2011

Daily Herald editorial

It is said that most decisions are made emotionally and then justified logically. That certainly seems to be the case with ongoing discussions about building a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. If the process were reversed, and logic were put first, stadium plans would never get out of the starting blocks.

This week, Gov. Mark Dayton implied that a new stadium would be an answer to the state construction industry’s slump. It’s true that building a new stadium would provide temporary employment for many Twin Cities construction workers, but less obvious that any lasting benefits would result — or benefits of any kind to people who don’t work in the metro area.

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Meanwhile, the senator who is supposed to be crafting a stadium plan would seem to be defying all normalcy in doing so: Her Republican Party is supposedly all about tax cuts and free market economics, while a Vikings stadium would require some sort of taxpayer support (perhaps disguised as “fees”) and would be a massive subsidy for a private enterprise.

Finally, if a stadium plan makes its way to the Legislature, it will in part be because without a new stadium the Vikings might just pack up and leave. In other words, the state will be reacting to a threat of loss, something that almost never is a good idea.

That forced public support for another metro area stadium is still a possibility defies logic. And even if it defies the norm, logic should be the basis of public policy.