We still think we're pretty special up here: a well-educated, progressive, super passive-aggressive population, with a populist streak that goes beyond even our own customized Democratic Party — the Democratic Farmers and Laborers, or DFL — actually two left-wing parties unified by Hubert Humphrey himself in 1944. We're talking real Garrison Keillor/Lake Wobegon/ELCA white Scandihoovian mafia shit. We romanticize our working-class roots and traditionally embrace you betcha social values like education and social welfare and not partying, and even more important, we kind of hate rich people. Even our rich people kind of hate rich people: We were a solid blue state for years, and now as our Republicans gain steady success at the polls and we start to bleed a new shade of purple, from a stadium perspective at least, Minnesota Republicans are just as populist, just as against tax money for a billionaire, as our Democrats. And with the tea party? Probably more populist than ever.The stadium building cycle is pretty much over, although the A's are still threatening to move out of Oakland if they don't get a new stadium. Maybe by the time the cities get done paying off the bonds, they'll be ready to call the owners' bluffs and quit providing massive amounts of welfare for people who have no business asking for it. But I doubt it.
And you know who we hate even more than rich people? Rich people from out of town.
Which is basically why Minnesota Golden Gopher football, a perennial laughingstock — at least since our long lost glory days in the '50s — was able to move out of the Metrodome in 2009 and into their own $300 million football stadium back on campus, while the Vikings, a usually successful franchise in the most wildly successful sports league in the world, were stuck in a place with a Teflon roof that collapsed during a blizzard last season.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sports Team Owner Welfare In Minnesota
Steve Marsh covers the legislative wrangling and politics of the Vikings owner blackmailing the public for a new stadium. I enjoyed this description of politics in Minnesota:
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". . .massive amounts of welfare for people who have no business asking for it?" Like farmers and their subsidies? I bet the average business owner would like to sign up for that deal. Who wouldn't? Very little downside. Things go great I make a profit. Crops go to shit, the government steps in; I make a profit. Life is good.
ReplyDeleteI live in Minnesota. Have for most of my life. I HATE the sports scene in this neck of the woods. The Gophers are terrible at everything and have been for over half a century. The only exception was when they accidentally hired Herb Brooks (USA's Tarisov) to coach hockey—a mistake the school refuses to ever make again. The Pro teams suck so bad, they could replace gravity.
ReplyDeleteBut I reserve special contempt for the Vikings. This is because not only is the team an exercise in utter futility—they have the freaking nerve to name it after MY tribe. I am such a pureblood Viking (7/8 Swede, 1/8 Norwegian) that 1/4 of my ancestors come from Gotland! When we wanted to be, we could be REALLY mean. Most of Europe had some version of the prayer "From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us O Lord." At the height of the Viking age, we controlled a trading area that stretched from Canada to Constantinople. In the process of saving Northern Europe for the Protestants, we Swedes fucked up Germany so bad, it required over 150 years to recover. We horny bastards collected all the seriously beautiful women in Europe and brought them home for about 500 years—a move that makes it almost impossible to walk the streets of Stockholm to this day without seeing a 9.5 on every corner. And when we settled down, we built countries that lead the world in every possibly important social indicator from infant care and childhood education to old age care. Our societies have 98+% literacy rates and we actually use that skill to read books!
How the hell does a collection of bad memories playing a game think they can name themselves after US? It's not flattering, it's embarrassing and trust me on this, real Vikings HATE to be embarrassed! When they started blackmailing the state (with SEVERE money problems) into building a $billion edifice to their bumbling, I wanted to demonstrate some of that old "fury of the Northmen." Mostly, I just want that team to leave town. Go the LA only unlike the Lakers, you do NOT take your name along. For if you do, I will solicit money from every person with a Scandinavian surname in the 5-state area and use it to hire the most tenacious legal assholes we can find to tie your franchise in legal knots. We will also hire a good PR team to shame you bastards in ways the Native Americans only wish they could do to the Washington Redskins.
Because WE are Vikings and you are NOT!
Hey anonymous, do you realize you just described Bush's bailout of the financial sector. Also, business owners take very real advantage of job creation tax credits, property tax abatements, government contracts and other programs which put money in their pockets.
ReplyDeleteYes, if some politician is going to hand me money because I had a bad crop, I'm not hardheaded enough to turn him down. Same deal with the sports team owners and businessmen. I do, however, think it is time for people to rethink such handouts, especially for the people making dozens of millions of dollars a year.