Speed Gibson

I remember when then Mayor of St. Paul Norm Coleman managed to bring NHL Hockey back to town with an admittedly spiffy new arena, the Xcel Center. He did it by continually chasing it until the opposition, not especially well-organized to begin with, more or less conceded just to shut him up. I remember him saying in various ways, "I'm sure we're all disappointed that it didn't pass and bring professional hockey back to Minnesota, but we have to get beyond that." Coleman used the same line on the Twins stadium, always that "we have to get beyond this or that to keep the Twins..." He was unsuccessful that time, but he's no doubt happy that we're getting beyond - what, economics, taxation without representation, checks and balances, common sense? - to make Mike Opat's givaway to Carl Pohlad a realty, largely for the same reason.

Sid Hartman's latest column does a good job of "summarizing" what we're up against.

What the Twins fans should know is that if the stadium bill passes the Legislature there will be a bigger budget for the team. That means there will be a much better chance of picking up the $12 million option on Torii Hunter's contract next year and signing other big-money players who could make the Twins a winner.

Twins owner Carl Pohlad has made it clear that once he knows a ballpark is guaranteed he will be more than willing to spend money to put a winning team on the field.

Why? A new ballpark will make it possible for the Twins to increase their revenue substantially.

In fact, you could see Pohlad spending some money to improve the team this year once a ballpark becomes a reality. And Pohlad will not own the stadium.

Why should Pohlad own the stadium? He practically will already. As for the preceding points, add a "Uh, we don't know that" after every sentence. But he's entitled to his opinion.

He is not entitled to mis-reporting:

Minnesotans who love baseball should know how two people went out of their way to try to kill the Twins stadium bill -- even though that action might have led the Twins to leave the Twin Cities.

Yes, Phil Krinkie, the chairman of the House Tax Committee, and Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, were vocal in their effort to add a referendum to the Hennepin County baseball bill and came up with one amendment after another at the hearings Thursday and continued their opposition on Friday at the State Capitol.

Yes, Phil and Ann are trying to kill the bill, but not by "adding" a referendum requirement. The bill's only real purpose is to remove the referendum required by current State law.

"My district is 72 percent against the Hennepin County bill," Lenczewski said Thursday night.

Well, it all depends on how questions are asked in these polls. If people were asked if they would support a stadium if it was necessary to keep major league baseball here, I believe the answer would have been a lot different instead of asking people whether they opposed any additional sales tax.

This unresponsive analysis of Lenczewski's statement shows Hartman's problem, which was Coleman's problem, which has been every supporter's problem: the people, when asked, continually and emphatically say no. We can't dwell on that, we have to get beyond this to protect rule by the more enlightened minority.

But the die seems cast, with rural House members all too willing to vote to raise someone else's taxes for fear the Twins will announce they're leaving shortly before Election Day.