In fall semester of 2007, I started paying the University a compulsory fee so they could build a stadium I would never use. In fall of 2009, I started waking up on Saturday mornings (my infrequent and well-earned opportunities to sleep in) to the sound of the new stadium all the way on the other campus. Of course, it's a comfort to know that the obnoxious noise and the rise in traffic is coming from the stadium that boasts the third-largest scoreboard in Big Ten football... and since I know it doesn't come across clearly in writing, that last bit was sarcasm.
On March 27, Target Field hosted its inaugural game. While I didn't have to be bothered with hearing it, as a Minnesota taxpayer, I still felt a little bitter at the prospect of paying for something that has very little benefit to me. Not nearly as bitter as I did about the U of M stadium, which has had a more direct impact on my life and finances without ANY personal benefit. I am a fan of the great American past-time, and since Target Field will usually be home to the major-league Minnesota Twins who, I'm sure, contributed a chunk out of their operating budget for the venue, it's something of an easier pill to swallow.But apparently TCF Stadium and Target Field have given Gopher baseball big dreams of their own spanking-new ballpark at the tail-end of an economic downturn, or so the MN Daily reported this morning. With recent Daily blurbs about budget cuts cast against the background of our shiny new stadium, its shiny new Bio building neighbors, and the especially shiny new science building across from the Weisman, the prospect of being charged increased tuition and more stadium fees is nothing short of incensing.
In all seriousness, how many ballparks does one city (okay, two cities, I guess) need? Our major league teams occupy four venues - the Metrodome, the Xcel Energy Center, the Target Center, and the new Target Field. Our college teams weigh in at six - TCF Bank Stadium, Mariucci Arena, Williams Arena, Ridder Arena, Elizabeth Robbie Stadium, and Siebert Field (the current home of Gopher baseball). Not to mention the venues that are not associated with professional or collegiate sports - the National Sports Center in Blaine, the Roy Wilkins Auditorium and Minneapolis Convention Center which host the local roller derby teams, and Midway Stadium.
That's a lot of sports arenas, and with a striking lack of crossover considering many sports teams used to share space. Up until last fall, both Gopher football and MN Twins baseball shared the Metrodome with Vikings football. Both teams now have their new fields, and the Vikings themselves are looking to get their own new space... which makes me wonder what will become of the wonderful Roller-Dome program which uses the Metrodome during Vikings downtime to provide a place for rollerbladers and skaters to train and compete during the harsh Minnesota winters.
It seems to me that a little creative planning would have been a better solution for sporting event spaces than a slew of new stadiums. And while the construction cycles undoubtedly added some funds to a struggling economy, they also relied on funds from people who had little or no say in the matter, and ate up a significant portion of local real estate for relatively inefficient use. In fact, the streets around the TCF Bank had to be rerouted for construction and a parking lot mostly removed. I also see bright-eyed young architecture students plastering their building with drawings and models of oh-so-sustainable new building plans, and wonder if maybe they would benefit from some practical application (more practical than Solar Decathlon, at least) of their craft in finding solutions for U of M multi-purpose facilities.
Finally, for every $12.50 the U of M charges me for new sports facilities, I will be reclaiming that amount in purloined office supplies, and chairs otherwise destined for the Re-Use Center. Unless they want to include a space for a U of M women's flat-track roller derby team - then they can have my money, and my participation too (provided I don't make the cut next month for MNRG).
...aaaand, yesterday's Twins/Yankees game was suspended in the 5th inning due to rain. The game will resume tonight, however, the folks who bought tickets for yesterday's game and sat through a few innings of rain before the game was called won't be able to see it unless they have tickets to today's game.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that open-air stadium was a fabulous idea. The squirrel that held up play briefly seemed to think so.
Rain/Squirrel at Target Field