Saint Pauls Saints downtown St Paul stadium moving closer to realization. (Minneapolis: home, to buy)

[Ghengis]

At last it appears that downtown St Paul is starting to get a bigger slice of the development pie as the rankings for the Minnesota DEED $47.5 Million is released and shows that the downtown ball park ranks 1st (77 out of 100 points) of the projects being considered. St Paul officials are seeking $27 Million of the DEED funds to add to the $27 Million in funding already in place for the Lowertown facility that would sit at the Eastern terminus of the light rail corridor being built.

Meanwhile the Metropolitan Council's proposal to obtain $14 Million to help with the fesibility study to help build the SW Light Rail corridor came in last place (24 out of 100 points) of the dozen metro projects. No word on whether that project will now be further delayed.

A Minneapolis request of $25 Million to "Redesign Nicollet Mall" did not make the final list of 12 Metro and 25 outstate projects all of which can be found here...

St. Paul: Saints ballpark project ranks high as state funding priority - TwinCities.com

don't you just love stadiums?

[Big George]

^ I'm not against this new stadium, per se. Truth is, their current stadium is kind of a dump. More like a run-down high school ball field.

But holy cow, where are our priorities?

The State of Minnesota doesn't have the money to give our college professors raises for the last 6 years, but we can find over $1 billion to spend on the new Vikings stadium? We can find tens of millions to spend on a new Saints stadium? What the h3ll is wrong with us?!?!

It's almost as though we're in ancient Rome, watching the Coliseum being built, while the empire is crumbling around us.


Okay... hyperbole laced rant over.

[Beenhere4ever]

The only flaw I see in Midway stadium is lack of parking spaces. The Saints aren't exactly a bigtime team. For what reason should some big project be countenanced for this? Taxes too low in St Paul? Lowertown on the skids? There must be some solution. I hope it isn't some urge to be as idiotic as Minneapolis city government.

[Govie]

I'm not sure about the project. Lowertown could use a little life and the Gillette building is just an eyesore that has needed to be gone for a decade now. Property taxes in St. Paul are high enough though as it is and I do believe Midway was a good site as there is quite a bit of traffic over there with all the colleges down the road and heading north on Snelling is a nice area. I'm hoping at the very least I can catch some outdoor concerts and other activities at this new ballpark because it's only going to be serviceable half of the year as an open-air facility.

Hopefully there can be some outdoor stuff there during Dec-Mar for stuff like hockey and other stuff. Maybe some Winter Carnival stuff there as well that would usually be on Harriet Isle.

[HiFi]

While we're at it lets replace the toilet paper rolls in government building rest rooms with softened tax dollars.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by HiFi

While we're at it lets replace the toilet paper rolls in government building rest rooms with softened tax dollars.

that's stupid, tax dollars aren't real

[Globe199]

Originally Posted by HiFi

While we're at it lets replace the toilet paper rolls in government building rest rooms with softened tax dollars.

I'd rather replace the toilet paper with tax dollars in taxpayer-funded stadiums. At least that would actually drive home the point you're trying to make.

[Govie]

Am I'm missing something here (fascists need not apply)?

[wherespankakehouse?]

Good for St. Paul. Xcel did great things for downtown. The Saints in Lowertown with a nice manageable crowd of 7,000 for 50 dates during the summer should serve as a nice complement.

I get the stadium fatigue. But I don't think this was the project to draw the line.

So what's next on the list? Gophers bb practice facility? Wild practice rink? We're running out of sports stuff to build!

[GBCommenter]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

The only flaw I see in Midway stadium is lack of parking spaces. The Saints aren't exactly a bigtime team. For what reason should some big project be countenanced for this? Taxes too low in St Paul? Lowertown on the skids? There must be some solution. I hope it isn't some urge to be as idiotic as Minneapolis city government.

Originally Posted by Govie

I'm not sure about the project. Lowertown could use a little life and the Gillette building is just an eyesore that has needed to be gone for a decade now. Property taxes in St. Paul are high enough though as it is and I do believe Midway was a good site as there is quite a bit of traffic over there with all the colleges down the road and heading north on Snelling is a nice area. I'm hoping at the very least I can catch some outdoor concerts and other activities at this new ballpark because it's only going to be serviceable half of the year as an open-air facility.

Hopefully there can be some outdoor stuff there during Dec-Mar for stuff like hockey and other stuff. Maybe some Winter Carnival stuff there as well that would usually be on Harriet Isle.

We seem to generally agree taxes are high in St. Paul, among other cities and the state (at least I don't see many complaining how they wish they could pay more taxes). However, we need to make the connection of WHY taxes are high - we keep raiding the taxpayer for all the goodies we don't want to pay for ourselves. It is really questionable how truly beneficial the never-ending special projects are when we look at ROI, especially when a City Council can just pluck some more money from the kitty and not have to be accountable for how it's spent.

I don't have quite the negative opinion of Midway Stadium - I suppose it doesn't have every last high-tech to up-to-the-minute amenity like, say, Target Field. That is part of its appeal. I love Target Field with all of those amenities and creature comforts but I go to Midway for the experience it provides - much more approachable and harkens back to what baseball has traditionally been for spectators. Target Field is fun, but it is as much an orchestrated production as just a ballgame. That all said, I'm not sure if a shiny new stadium that will be just Target Field Jr. is what I'd want to go to...

Originally Posted by wherespankakehouse?

...I get the stadium fatigue. But I don't think this was the project to draw the line.

So what's next on the list? Gophers bb practice facility? Wild practice rink? We're running out of sports stuff to build!

Exactly...we are running out of money/market for never-ending sports attractions (I say as one who has enjoyed most of these venues). In Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal the point was driven home - Minneapolis/St. Paul is completely overextended as a market for pro sports. I get the Saints aren't pro ball; they're not even connected to MLB (at least not formally). Point is this: we are spending too much money, and other people's money, on sports. Get government and crony capitalism out of the picture and you'll watch taxes go down (because government will do what it's supposed to instead of pick winners and losers in the market at the expense of you and me). You'll also see various aspects of society and our communities flourish exactly because the people fronting the cash will be investors with their own money vs. government that doesn't have to care about budgets because they'll just run to their money tree a.k.a. taxpayer for another handout to buy campaign contributions and votes. Costs suddenly go down when its your own cash being put forward and you're suddenly a lot more driven to get results when its your own cash in the game. Let the free market truly be the free market - not the bastardized version we live in today.

In closing, I remind that Paul will never complain about Peter being robbed...but we need to realize we are Peter, in this aspect among many many others.