Minnesota’s Governor Pawlenty signs Twins stadium bill , bringing to an end the incessant pestering/lobbying/threatening by the Minnesota Twins for a new ball field at the public’s expense.

Carl Pohlad, the owner of the Twins, has taken the public sector for a ride before, he was the owner of the money losing Twin City Rapid Transit before he sold it to the public sector (where it continued to lose money, but of course making a profit is not the motive of a mass transit system once people accept that it won’t make money).
Unfortunately, the Hennepin County Commission cut a deal with the team and the Minnesota Legislature endorsed it by denying the voters of Hennepin a chance to vote on the property tax increase that the law had previously required. It is one more example of “Featureitis”, the need for each city to have theh same set of features that every other city does.
We have a fine minor league team here, the Saints, which I would not be surprised to see outdraw the Twins on a good night.
I am sure the stadium will be nicer than the Metrodome, and I am sure the Twins will make more money, and the Twin Cities will remain one of the few metro areas with four major league sports, which is of course the driving force behind the region’s economy.
At least the Twins entertain the locals 81 days a year. Next up, the Vikings, who despite playing the same sport (Football) as The University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers, who are also getting a new stadium (this several blocks east of campus instead of several blocks west of campus) on a different day, only 8 days a year, on days when the Gopher stadium will be vacant, can’t seem to fit into the same stadium.
— dml