Letter to the Editor

Sorry to say, but your opinion on the Vikings stadium issue is the one that makes no sense (Editorial “Vikings stadium plans don’t work,” March 19).

This is not an issue that snuck up on us at all. The team has been very clear over the last 10 plus years about its need for a new stadium, for many legitimate business reasons. Ample time (warning) has been given, yet the state has delayed and deferred to the point that we are in imminent danger of losing the team. Big deal, you say? In a struggling economy, can we afford the loss of these jobs and the tax revenue they generate? Any other business closing, moving, or announcing layoffs is greeted with portents of doom, yet you are more than happy to let thousands of jobs, and many millionaires, leave the state without a fight? No sense at all.

Let’s take a brief historical tour of similar situations in the recent past: we allowed the North Stars to leave over some simple renovations to the Met Center, yet paid who knows how many times as much money to build a new arena and bring in a new team only a few short years later. Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis, and many other cities have made the same mistake you advocate in letting professional sports franchises leave over stadium issues, only to pay 10 times more within a few years to build new facilities for new teams.

Should we follow these examples of short-sighted foolishness? It is ridiculous that this issue has drug on this long in the first place, but oh-so typical Minnesota.

Mike Bjorgo,

Austin