Head Slapper of the Week (with a P.S.)

As the stadium debate in Minnesota moves into its final stages, the actions are getting intense here at the Capitol.  I hear stadium all morning long on sports talk radio, in the elevator of my condo building overhearing phone calls the State Senate Majority Leader is taking and throughout the Twitter-sphere.  However, all this debate has a certain lack of intellectual heft to it.  One such instance of this lack of intellectual heft was last night when State Rep. Linda Runbeck presented an amendment to make sure that all games are on free, local television.  While imposing such a regulation on private business is strange enough for a conservative (I used to work for the lady), what was stranger yet was her rationale for her amendment.

"I don't know what their current contract provides," continued Runbeck. "But there are certainly rumors floating around that because of the NFL's insatiable need to have more profits and more revenues, they are talking about a specific premium NFL sports cable network."

Rumor?  Is it just I or hasn’t the NFL had a premium NFL sports cable network for about ten years now?  Can someone help State Rep. Runbeck on simple background research before offering amendments on significant pieces of legislation like the stadium bill?  Three and a Half Head Slaps.

P.S.  I will for the record say that I personally oppose public funding of stadiums in principle since it’s simply bad economics and it’s corporate welfare.  Bad economics since it’s a large expenditure to simply shift the majority of the money from one part of the state to another part of the state, the public doesn’t realize the long term economic benefits that the advertised Economic Impact Analysis repeatedly claim they do have.  The biggest beneficiary to publicly funded stadiums is the team owner due to higher attendance, greater revenues and more attractive team viability by their peers, raising the value of the sports teams.    

However, what makes the current Vikings stadium bill so undesirable is that gambling largely funds the public share.  Studies have shown that gambling destroys families and many a bank account by playing on their aspirations for large-scale success.  It’s also been empirically proven that gambling is simply a regressive tax on the poor.  Don’t take my word for it; take the words of the current President back when he had less grey on him.

However, the specter of another Minneapolis Lakers/Minnesota North Stars type migration haunts many Minnesota sports fans.  So GOPer and Dem alike have joined hands to support this stadium, even calling those who criticize the expansion of gambling due to its de facto regressive taxation effects “buffoons” because the poor chose to gamble.  No class warfare worries there.  What a shame on all of us.