Are sports becoming too important? The Stadium Debate

I fear that I may come off as sort of douchey with this post, especially from someone that writes on a sports blog every day, and have for the past 5 years. I have noticed a trend this football season especially, in which in various aspects of life, sports are becoming simply too important in our lives, and often cloud the judgment of typically right thinking individuals. I have three examples, again pertaining to football, because it is the biggest sport in the land today. I will post the next two topics some time over the next couple of weeks.
The first is in the stadium debate here in the Twin Cities. In my opinion, the cost/benefit for the city of Minneapolis having a stadium is reduced the more that they end up having to pay. For the Twin Cities, the Metrodome continues to be a serviceable venue for high school sports, conventions and other large gatherings, and there is no impetus for them to replace it, just put a new roof on the building. The Vikings, frankly, don't do much for the Minnesota economy. No doubt they are good for the economy, but it's not worth the debt incurred by the city. With 10 home games bringing 70k to town a day, merchandise sales and the potential for a Super Bowl, no doubt that local economy would receive a bump, but that cash wouldn't be recouped by the city itself. The stadium across town, Target Field, had 3 million people show up to games this year, or 5 times the maximum attendance for Vikings games. The Twins haven't drawn less than 700K in a season in almost 30 years. It seems almost common sense that the Vikings stadium shouldn't be a priority to anyone but the hospitality industry in Minneapolis, Blaine, or wherever the stadium is built. We could use the money for schools or roads or public safety.
But it isn't. I have recently been involved in a couple of debates on the merits of a stadium, and the value of the Vikings in Minnesota. I've had people say that it would leave the Twin Cities as a ghost town and in economic shambles. Typically intelligent and right thinking people actually hold this opinion. Again, the Vikings with a new stadium might in one perfect year bring a billion dollars of revenue to the city in a year, if they get the Super Bowl. That's a lot of money. Locally headquartered Fortune 500 company Target that employs tens of thousands of people in the cities does 65 billion dollars annually. General Mills does 14.7 billion. Cargill does 108 billion. Best Buy does almost 50 billion. 3M does 23 billion. Hell, Dairy Queen does 2.5 billion. What am I saying? I'm saying that the Twin Cities will be economically viable without the Vikings. Still, the idea of an empty sports bar without the Vikings in town for 16 days a year leaves some people in a panic over the state of the potential economy in Minnesota. Emotionally, Minnesotans will be shattered, but the pocketbooks for everyone will be just fine.
I am a huge sports fan, and even though I make jokes about it, I don't want the Vikings to leave. In my mind, however, their impact on the state simply isn't as important as some people say.

How much would you pay for ten games?

My apologies for not posting last week. I was having too much fun coughing and hanging out at the doctor’s office last Thursday to write up a post.

This past Monday, MinnPost posted an article on a new Vikings Stadium. Of course, it’s perfectly obvious why they want a new stadium: the Wild (and Swarm) are playing in the Xcel Energy Center which opened in 2000. The Twins will be moving to a new stadium in 2010. The Timberwolves (and Lynx) are playing at the Target Center, which opened in 1990. The Gophers Football team is playing at TCF Stadium, which opened in 2009. The Gophers Men’s Hockey team plays in Mariucci Arena, which opened in 1993. Ridder Arena, where the Gophers Women’s hockey team plays was opened in 2002. Obviously, Twin Cities based sports cannot exist in a stadium that opened in 1982!

According to the article, the Vikings are suggesting it costs $900 million to build a football stadium—with a roof. On the bus, as we girls were talking about it, we realized that’s an insane amount of money for a stadium that will be used for 10 games/year. (Well, let’s make it 15, because of pre-season and playoffs.) This includes a retractable roof, because clearly football can’t be played in adverse weather, while it’s no problem for baseball. Wait. What?

Target Field, where the Twins will play, does not include a roof. Total construction costs are around $390 million. Target Field will be used, on average, for 82 games per year (there are 81 regular season games most years, and we’ll give them the extra game for the years they do make the playoffs; it’s completely overestimating, but take what you can get). And there’s no retractable roof, making poor weather a detriment to the game.

I’m not a huge fan of spending public money on rich people, but I recognize that professional sports not only bring money into the city (although I doubt enough to pay for the stadiums), but also improve the quality of life for those living in the area. I’ll grudgingly accept that today’s society has pushed the stadium cost to the people. But the question comes how much we owe. There’s some finance cost-effectiveness that has to be weighed in. Is it work spending $900 million for a stadium that will be used 15 days each year? Or can something else be done?

I agree with most people: it was a huge failure when the Gophers and Vikings refused to work things out to build a joint stadium. They play on different days of the week, and it would up the cost-effectiveness of both stadiums by having more games played in them each year. The original concept of the Metrodome was onto something when it had three different teams playing there—the only problem was that the two sports were completely different and had completely different field requirements, making it poor viewing for the fans of one team compared to the experience for the fans of the other two teams. But, alas, it’s too late for that now. (Although I think it would be fantastic if the Vikings and U of MN work together to get something done, I just don’t see either of them willing enough to compromise to do so.)

With that, I also think the expense of a new stadium is a bit ridiculous for the use it will get, based on the number of games. However, I am not opposed to upgrading the Metrodome. I recognize based on technology, it’s getting old and out-of-date. It’s not the most comfortable, or the prettiest, place to watch football. I don’t hate football. I don’t think they should have to suffer with something old and out-of-date (although they can’t claim that it’s hurting their fan base, as they still have the largest fan base in the state, according to my unscientific observation). I just don’t think it’s worthwhile to spend $900 million when there’s a perfectly adequate place for them to play. It’s like buying a new luxury car because the ashtrays on the Taurus are full. Clean it up, replace the tires, get seat covers, get a new stereo system—it won’t be as good as new, but it will be perfectly comfortable. You don’t have to buy a new car just because all your neighbors have. But don’t let yours fall apart.

Miss Manners

In my life, I’ve been a guest in other team’s ballparks, and I’ve been a host to fans of other team’s in my ballpark. These aren’t official titles. I’ve never walked into the Metrodome with a Ranger’s fan, as a true host, but as someone who is at “home” in my team’s ballpark, ‘host’ seems the best word for it. Thus, I’d like to take this moment to remind people how to act. It’s written in the perspective of baseball, but could easily be translated to any other sport--and any other level of any sport, from little league to major leagues.

You wouldn’t walk into a house for the first time and say, “That’s one ugly choice of color for the walls!” Even if the host has chosen puke green and complimented it with bright pink, etiquette reminds you to just keep your mouth shut. You don’t mention how ugly or untalented or obnoxious the kids are. Sure, if it’s your best friend, you’d probably say something, but if it’s someone you’ve just met…well, Miss Manners reminds you to be polite. Just tolerate it, and don’t come back if you don’t like it.

It all comes down to respect. Respect the other team, respect yourself, and have a good time.

Therefore, there’s no reason to walk into a different team’s ballpark and say how ugly it is, or how bad the home team is. Appreciate the differences from your own preferred ballpark, and appreciate the fact that the other team is a professional team on the same level as your own. When another team shows up in your ballpark, bringing along their fans, appreciate the effort and passion those fans have for their team that brings them from afar. They love their team as much as you love yours.

It doesn’t matter if your team is much better than the opponent. In fact, that’s all the more reason to be respectful. In Kansas City last weekend, some drunk Twins fans were insulting the Kansas City Royals players for no reason. “Alex Gordon? No one’s ever heard of him!” Now, from a Yankees fan, that would at least be justified, because usually everyone has heard of every member of their team (although, to be fair, this week in Minneapolis there were a few names in the line-up I had never heard of before). But, seriously, how many people outside of Twins Territory have heard of Kevin Slowey, who was the pitcher for the Twins that night? It’s not a fair argument to tell the Royals that no one has ever heard of their player when your own line-up isn’t filled with marquee players. Respect that they are professional ballplayers. (By the way, I would’ve been in favor of some Royals fans taunted back, jovially, that no one had heard of Kevin Slowey. As long as it’s kept in the spirit of good fun, it’s all good.)

This doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. In the four years I’ve been going to Kansas City, every time I’ve run into Royals’ fans who are polite and knowledgeable. This year’s favorite “taunt” to Twins fans was: “When are you guys going to start spending a lot of money on your team so we have an excuse?” It led to intelligent conversations about things like history, scouting, and luck. We’ve made friendly bets with Royals fans (Wee Sister won a hot dog once, because Pat Neshek’s first pitch at Kauffman was a strike). When we went to check into our hotel, we told the guy we had reservations. He looked at our Twins shirts, laughed, and teased, “Not in those shirts, you don’t!”

Don’t be the obnoxious guest, that when you leave the hosts say, “I hope they never come back!” And don’t be the host that the guests leave and say, “I’m never going there again!” It should be a joy to be a guest in another ballpark. Each one is unique and offers its own quirks, amenities, and style. They should all be appreciated and enjoyed and respected. It takes two sides for the respect. Uphold your end of it, no matter what the other side tries.

Trade Deadline Break

I could go overboard and write about MLB’s trade deadline today. Obviously, there have been some spectacular trades--some loved by the fans, and some not. Some even lead to bad grammar, like this poster spotted at Progressive Field in Cleveland:


I find few things harder to tolerate than obviously misplaced quotation marks. It’s not sarcasm (around the word “trade”, I might believe that explanation). Use underline or bold or asterisks for emphasis!

But I’m not going to do that.

I didn’t write last week because the hours I normally should’ve written, I was in Chicago, touring Wrigley Field. Stupidly, I forgot to upload those pictures, and the cameras are at home and I’m not, so instead I’ll share the photos I did download. (Hey, between four girls, we took 808 pictures in six and a half days. Be glad I didn’t upload them all!)

First, I have to send a kudos to the staff at Wrigley with Wee Sister and two of our friends, in our Annual Girls’ Trip. We arrived ten minutes late for our tour, because it shouldn’t have taken over an hour to get from our hotel to Wrigley, but it did. We walked up to get our tickets from Will-Call, and the person had our tickets out, and knew who I was before I even said anything. She said we were late, but pointed out where we could go in. The guy inside the gate unlocked the gate to let us in, and walked us to our tour group, where we were able to slip in unobtrusively. Our tour guide was funny, but very knowledgeable on the history of the Cubs and the stadium, and shared details of the stories that were lore, and explained why either they probably did happen, or why they probably were just stories. (As a bonus, he was cute, too!)

From Chicago, we continued on to Cleveland, to watch three baseball games at Progressive Field (obviously, the Twins were in town, because that’s what the Annual Girls’ Trip is about: watching the Twins play on the road). We watched the game from three different views:

Upper deck, behind home plate.


Lower deck, left field.


Cheap seats.

Things to note when going to Progressive Field:
Parking is found all over the city, and prices could vary greatly. The first day we parked in some old parking ramp that was a little creepy, and paid $20. The next two days, we parked much closer to the stadium in a newer/nicer parking ramp, and only paid $10. We didn’t check out the trains to see if that would work.

The gates open an hour before the game, except for Gate C, which opens earlier for fans who want to watch batting practice (but fans are only allowed in selected areas). We, of course, did not know this and stood around waiting for the gates to open the first night.

In an effort to make sure Indians’ fans get excessive calories, the stadium does not allow you to bring your water bottle, but you may bring juice boxes. While I understand not allowing disposable water bottles, it’s a bit annoying to not bring a polycarbonate water bottle, which is clearly not disposable, and I will be taking home with me. I hate leaving my seat during the game, so the drinking fountain option was highly inconvenient.

You may bring your own food, which is good because the food selection is very limited. The usher at the door recommended to us that we forego buying food at the stadium and bring in our own. However, you may not bring in a whole pizza, but you may bring in single slices.

While they don’t allow noisemakers, they do make a special exception to the annoying guy with the drum. Anyone who’s listened to Indians’ games knows what I’m talking about. We found him annoying.

These benches were very cool. They spelled out “Who’s on first?”


One of their in-game contests, not quite as famous as Milwaukee’s Sausage race, was their condiment race. I believe Onion won twice, and Ketchup once, while we were there:

It was a cute race; something to distract the fans while the players meandered on and off the field between innings.

We were there for hat day, so we had our trip mascot model it for us:


On our trip back to our frightening hotel Saturday night, we stopped at Ghetto K-Mart. We were bewildered that you could buy Twins boxer shorts there (along with Indians boxers, pajama pants and shirts, as well as Red Sox shirts):


Wee Sister and I will hopefully be heading to Kuaffman Stadium next weekend. I’ll try to share pictures then.