AFL-CIO endorses Block E Casino site, lawmakers condemn it

• If you want to be a major metropolitan area you need to have sports stadiums.    Have you ever considered that having a prestige item like that creates wealth and has an effect that can't be quantified?    I agree that we need to spend more on education and healthcare but its not like we can't do both.   A great society spends money on things like stadiums, art, and attractions. Having an NFL franchise puts Minneapolis in the national news weekly.  It increases our fame as a city.  If the stadium is in a great location it could spark massive development.   The Twin Cities would at minimum get a Super Bowl which would bring in millions in tourism.    Having the football team is why people know where the Twin Cities is.  Being willing to spend money on big projects is what separates the Twin Cities from Sioux Falls.  I don't like giving money to a billionaire like Ziggy either but I do think the benefits outweigh the costs.   No one complains about the Twin's stadium anymore, they just take civic pride in that beautiful stadium. 

• A casino in downtown Minneapolis is an unbelievably awful idea.  Just say no.

• We shouldn't be spending money on a stadium period. That they are a terrible team with little hope for the future isn't the point. The real issue is that we have no money.  It's crazy to me that people would consider a new stadium a priority. Especially when the team already has a place to play.

• You know what isn't tacky at all?  That giant nearly empty Block E, you know the one with the giant closed Gameworks on the corner.  I am filled with pride everytime I get a chance to marvel at it's beauty.

• Healthcare, education need to be first...period. Football is a game for sheep to live through proxy...

• As a Minneapolis resident, I'd rather pay an additional sales tax than put up with a casino. I at least need convincing, because right now, I think of casinos as crime magnets. If we have to put up with a casino, then we better get the new stadium too. I'm not putting up with wrecking the west end of downtown to pay for turning the east end into a hole.

• Teams lose, and they win. Arguing against a stadium or against keeping a team because they're losing at the moment makes no sense. Besides, over the existence of the franchise, despite this year, the Vikings have been one of the most successful franchises on the field. The next team, if we get one, probably won't be as good --- not to mention that if the Vikings go, we'll have to cover the cost of the next stadium entirely at public expense. After enough time without a team, we'll break down and build a new stadium. Even LA has given up on being so desirable a market that a team would move in.

• I get that RT is pretty much obliged to take the point of "if they're staying, they should also stay in Minneapolis", but aren't we already paying enough additional sales taxes? I live in the city and work downtown, so I'm already paying for a Twins stadium (and I don't have much of a choice). Don't do this to me again, RT. And this casino idea...eugh. It's as if developers got together and had a contest to see what they could slap up on that block that's even more repulsive than Block E in its current incarnation. You win, guys! (Runners-up included a suburban-style evangelical megachurch, and a Wal-Mart--competition was tight.)

• Do something with the Metrodome or let LA have 'em, I say. Does anyone actually have projected numbers in terms of lost revenue in Minnesota if the Vikings leave that justify spending this kind of money on a stadium to keep them? Either way, I say take a revamped Metrodome or GTFO. We don't have a lack of stadiums in the Cities; we just have a lack of shiny new stadiums that make the Vikings feel as special as the Twins and the Gophers, and I have no interest in further tackying up the place by adding casinos and crap downtown just to give the Vikings warm-fuzzies. Know where a good, workable, not-obnoxious-to-the-neighbors site for a stadium to be used by the Vikings would be? That site where there's already a stadium, that's being used mainly (if not solely) by the Vikings.

• Am I the only one who doesn't understand why this is even a topic of conversation? It seems like we have better things to spend our tax money on than a new stadium for a losing team. A casino is a fine idea for revenue and jobs, but use the money for something that actually matters.

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