Vikings football stadium in Shakopee - sounds good to me!

Go-getter Mayor Brad Tabke of Shakopee -- after just a week or so on the job -- today heads to the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul to make a pitch to legislators for a Minnesota Vikings football stadium in the southwest Twin Cities suburb of Shakopee. To me it fits well with Tabke's assertion in a newspaper column last week that Shakopee should embrace and expand upon its title of an entertainment capitol of sorts. For many years the city has hung its hat on seasonal venues such as Valleyfair, Canterbury Park and the Renaissance Festival as well as nearby Mystic Lake Casino but, as I hear a morning radio personality say today, a Vikings stadium in Shakopee makes the southwest suburb a weekend-long entertainment destination.

I like the idea of it but for plenty it's going to be a hard to pill to swallow. The area would need little in the way of infrastructure improvements and it might even serve to hasten improvements such as an elevated Minnesota River crossing at Highway 101. It could also serve to speed up the construction of a new Highway 41 in/around nearby Chaska. Extending the third southbound lane on U.S. Highway 169 for a few miles has to be a cheaper traffic solution than fixing the mess in and around Arden Hills. The best part of a Shakopee VIkings stadium is that it supposedly requires no taxpayer funding. All of the necessary funding (outside of the Wilfs contributions) would come from gaming revenue which is a logical fit with Canterbury Park virtually next door.

To this guy, 4 PM today can't come soon enough because Shakopee's Mayor Tabke is definitely a visionary and securing a Vikings stadium and building out the infrastructure improvements properly would keep Shakopee as a destination on a year-round basis. The city is well-situated from a location standpoint as a majority of Viking season ticketholders reside in the southwest metro making the drive to games far shorter than even to a downtown Minneapolis stadium. Throw in the city's rather progressive stance (for an outer ring suburb) on transit with the BlueXpress line and two sizeable transit stations and the pieces start to come together. Let's face it, a statium overlooking the Minnesota River along Highway 101 in Shakopee would be much nicer than the lack of scenery on the barren Army munitions plant grounds in Arden Hills.

So yeah, I'm all for a Vikings stadium in Shakopee.

The pathetic state of pro/collegiate sports in Minnesota

Just how bad is the sports landscape in Minnesota right now? Our baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, just wrapped up a season in which more than a few people were rooting for the Twins to lose 100 games. Hey, I was rooting for that too because if you're going to have a wretched season, go big!
Then there's the Minnesota Vikings. They are an embarrassment to football teams. The 0-4 Vikings, though, think their shit doesn't stink and are still lobbying for a brand new nearly $1 billion stadium built in north bumfuck nowhere (Arden Hills). Clearly, owner Zygi Wilf needs to pony up the majority of the cash needed for his playground for millionaires because if this stadium would be put to a vote, my thinking is that it would fail. If the Vikings want to make something out of this year, either pull dreadful quarterback Donovan McNabb and replace him with Christian Ponder or shoot for a winless, 0-16 season. Once again, go big.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, probably the worst NBA team in the league, won't be missed when the NBA season, in its entirety, is canceled in a few weeks because the greedy players can't concede a few million dollars to the greedy owners. If time machines worked, I'd get in one and go back to 1992 or 1994 or whenever it was and applaud the team's impending sale to an owner in New Orleans. At least then the team would be Louisiana's problem.

The Minnesota Wild are, at best, a mediocre hockey team. They had that amazing playoff run in 2002 or 2003 but that was a fluke. Every other team simply fell apart at the perfect moment for the Wild and the team came together and won when they needed to. That doesn't happen any more. The Wild are perpetual cellar dwellers in the NHL's northwest division and no longer draw sellout crowds. They better improve or they could very well go the way of the Minnesota Northstars.

Then there's the Minnesota Gophers football team. They are the joke of the Big Ten conference. If the Big Ten had their way, maybe they would trade the U of M for North Dakota State University because the Fighting Sioux have shown that they are capable of beating the Golden Gophers. If I were a betting man I'd say that the Gophers football team wins a mere one more game - either beating Northwestern or Illinois - but coach Jerry Kill gets to keep his job because he's a legitimate coach and simply inherited a total mess of a team.

But the one bright spot in Minnesota sports are the Minnesota Lynx. They play tonight in the second game of the WNBA finals against Atlanta. The Lynx are for real and I have faith that they will provide the only national championship this year and definitely the only winning season in Minnesota sports this year. Go Lynx!

Donovan McNabb to bring Campbell's Chunky to Minnesota

For whatever reason, there is plenty of talk centering around whether or not Washington Redskins quarterback and Campbell's Chunky soup spokesman Donovan McNabb will land the starting QB spot with the floundering Minnesota Vikings football team.

While it would be great for the Minnesota Vikings to land a journeyman player of Donovan McNabb's caliber, it is typical. Think about the recent history regarding the Minnesota Vikings quarterback position: Brett Favre, Warren Moon, Rich Gannon, Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham...

These are all names who were in the final throes of their NFL careers. Sure, Brett Favre thinks he can return to the National Football League but that concussion on the cement-like turf at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium last December was probably the final on-filed action that Mr. Penis Photo Texter will see.

Donovan McNabb might have two or three years left in him but the big problem with bringing in a veteran quarterback is that the up-and-comer (in this case Christian Ponder and to a lesser extent Joe Webb) isn't going to see much in the way of playing time. The entire purpose of the NFL season is to win games and if Donovan McNabb puts the Minnesota Vikings within reach of a win during any game he will stay in the game because he's a proven player and a proven player always wins out over an unproven prospect.

That the way of the Minnesota Vikings. They are 100% unable to groom a rookie quarterback because they are always chasing some old-timer graybush quarterback in hopes of making yet another failed Superbowl run.

To make this arrangement work, Christian Ponder needs to play approximately 75% of the time during the pre-season and play at least 15 minutes of each regular season game. Let's face it, the Minnesota Vikings are not a Superbowl caliber football team and have absolutely nothing to lose.

Oh, and everybody can shut the fuck up about the Minnesota Vikings stadium debate because someway, somehow, yet another stadium will get built. It will fuck over taxpayers somewhere and the state legislature will be dumb enough to fuck over their constituents yet again but it will happen because the drunken mouthbreathers among us think that football is the be-all, end-all and supporting millionaires and billionaires is totally acceptable.

So bring on the Campbell's Chunky soup and get ready for the Minnesota Vikings to run up a 9-7 record and miss the playoffs again this year.

Let's get rid of the casino monopoly

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and when it comes to the topic of gambling and whether casinos in Minnesota should be a tribal-only affair or if private or state ownership should be allowed it seems that everyone does have an opinion on the matter.

When I saw that a "Staff Council" (spokesperson) from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community had written a response to a story appearing in some southwest metro newspapers, I kind of knew what to expect. I figured that the stance would be "Where's the SMSC side of the argument?" "That story was very anti-tribal." "We don't have a monopoly in the casino business." Blah, blah, blah.

Of course the SMSC spokesperson is going to be against any additional casinos in the state. They are, by a long shot, the richest tribe in the country. Chalk it up to proximity to the 16th largest metro area in the country and you can see why. With a population base of nearly 3 million within a hour's drive, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has built a damn empire on Scott County Highway 83. With their original convenience store, another purchased from Kwik Trip, their organic foods market (Mazopiya) a health clinic for their tribal residents, a fire department that serves their community as well as surrounding areas their high-rise hotel and two casinos (Mystic Lake & Little Six); their reservation -- to me at least -- qualifies as an empire, at least when compared to the businesses and wealth held by other Native American tribes around the country. But it seems that the SMSC is still not happy with the Native American monopoly on casino gambling in Minnesota and remains staunchly opposed to any expansions by other businesses.

The story is full of the same misleading messages used for many years now by the Canterbury shill machine. First, the addition of slot machines at Canterbury is a qualitative expansion of gambling. It would dramatically alter the make-up of who provides what types of games. Simply ask the question: how would Canterbury feel if the SMSC commenced operations of numerous poker rooms and pari-mutuel horse racing at Mystic Lake Casino?

I'm guessing that Canterbury Park would find a way to co-exist. They have managed to carve out their own niche even just two miles away from the state's largest casino. Yes, they added their card room to become a true year-around destination and while I'm sure they wouldn't be overly joyous if Mystic Lake Casino opened a card room of their own, they probably wouldn't cry foul like SMSC spokespersons who feel that their gambling monopoly is justified.

Second, the tribal governments do not have a “monopoly” on gaming in Minnesota. The gaming market is already divided in a way that brings revenue to the various operators. Canterbury has horse racing and a multitude of card games. The state government operates a diverse array of lottery games. The charities and bars sell pull tabs and can offer poker. Bingo halls are easy to locate throughout the state. And the tribal governments operate video slots and blackjack pursuant to the tribal-state compacts. There are plenty of gambling options in Minnesota today. No one has a monopoly on gaming.

Correct. To a point. Nobody has a monopoly on "gaming" in Minnesota. Gaming is a rather broad term. However, Native American tribes do have a monopoly on Casino-style gambling in Minnesota. None of the state's dozen or so casinos are owned by any other group than Native American tribes. While casino ownership lifted many tribes out of deep poverty and they have repaid their neighbors by funding infrastructure improvements, donated funds to worthy causes and improved their own fortunes (no pun intended) they have also done so due to their monopoly on Casino-style gambling. Nowhere else, outside of tribal-owned casinos will you find slot machines, keno, roulette or high stakes bingo. WHen something isn't available elsewhere, that comes off as a monopoly to me.

The tribal spokesperson also goes on to tout job loss at the casino that keeps him employed.

For every job created at a racino, there will be at least four or five jobs killed at a tribal facility.

That tells me that, unlike privately run businesses, tribal casinos are vastly overstaffed. I understand why, too. Mystic Lake Casino is practically overflowing with cash. To not be overstaffed would put the profits they make front and center. It all boils down to competition. Would Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake close its doors if Canterbury Park in Shakopee installed a few dozen slot machines? No. Would they have to try harder to pull potential customers a couple miles further down the road? Maybe. But Mystic Lake Casino has them beat hands down with the fact that they have a plush concert hall, bingo halls, huge prizes and giveaways, an attached hotel, three or four restaurants of different styles and a world-class golf course as well. If SMSC is so overly concerned about their future, why don't they do a show of good will and get in on the stadium game because even though William J. Hardacker mentions how little gambling revenues will do to balance the state's vast budget deficit, the big push for additional casinos in the state boils down to getting a Vikings stadium built.

Just think what kind of good will that the SMSC could display if they partially funded a Vikings stadium? Think how well they'd make out if they built, owned and operated a stadium? If they want to protect their slot machine (really, that's what their argument boils down to) monopoly then they need to play ball with the needs of the Twin Cities and Minnesota in general.

How screwed are the Vikings?

It's inescapable. Everywhere you turn around Minnesota the topic of conversation is about the Minnesota Vikings. Whether it's been the blunder of now-former coach Brad Childress acquiring wide receiver Randy Moss and then essentially cutting him from the team mere weeks later and wasting what could be a valuable draft pick in the process or sending three players to the depth of Mississippi to talk quarterback Brett Favre into returning for a second season with the team, it was a bumpy start to the teams 50th season.

Then the coach was fired due to what can only be described as a piss-poor record. Then Brett Favre got injured. That led to perpetual backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson being thrust into the starting position. Needless to say there's a damn good reason he's been riding the bench for the past five years. He's greener than the fieldturf inside the Metrodome.

Mentioning the Metrodome just makes things worse though. It seems that the Vikings have been trying to secure a new stadium for the past decade with no success. Then last weekend Minnesota -- particularly the metro area -- was blanketed with what I would describe as a fuck-ton of snow -- 17 inches to be exact. That didn't exactly sit well with the paper-thin teflon fabric forming the Metrodone's roof because it tore holes in three of the roof's panels causing the roof to collapse. Then as repair work was being assessed yesterday a fourth panel tore causing still more damage to the humptydome.

This leaves the Vikings in a tough situation. They already played last week's "home" game at Detroit last week as a neutral site. This week, supposedly, will be a bit closer to home as they prepare to play at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium which lacks 14,000 seats, heated concession areas, heated restrooms, a heated playing service and beer which truly shows how bush league this stadium is and how ill-prepared the Twin Cities are as a major metropolitan area.

But amidst all of this chaos -- and I'm certain that Monday night's game versus the Chicago Bears will be a complete and utter mess -- the Vikings ownership is hoping that this all leads to them securing a new stadium. While I can see the logic behind their thinking I hope they don't get a new stadium. Hell, the taxpayers have funded three new stadiums/arenas in the Twin Cities in the past decade (U of M, XCel, Target Field) and the new Vikings stadium promises to be the most expensive by far. It's time for ownership to realize that they either need to pay for serious fucking rent for the facilities they play in or build the facilities themselves. It's ridiculous that a team worth hundreds of millions of dollars refuses to foot more than a third of the bill for the facility it plays in. But this is the state of pro sports.

While the Vikings will probably get their shiny new stadium in downtown Minneapolis they certainly are not deserving of it. The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have almost ancient stadiums and a hugely successful. Newer isn't always better as was proven with the Metrodome. It was built on the cheap and it shows. It's a rat infested dump that is now virtually condemned and it's publicly owned so, Vikings, take that into consideration. Publicly owned isn't always the best route. Be your own key holder and take some pride in ownership instead of being a tenant.

Vikings trade for malcontent Randy Moss

It's official, the Minnesota Vikings traded for former Viking Randy Moss in a deal that sent a third round draft pick to the New England Patriots in exchange for the "I play when I want to" wide receiver.

For the obviously struggling Vikes the trade makes sense. They have been at a loss when it comes to scoring as evidenced by their lackluster 1-2 record. While Moss is a legitimate talent, he's a complete douchebag. He's a spoiled pro athlete along the lines of Isiah Junior J.R. Jeezy Rider, Christian Laettner and every other supposed superstar who has been landed by a professional Minnesota team only to be beyond disappointed by their respective team's unwillingness to beef up the team with supporting players because even these asshole athletes know that winning is not a one-man show.

Sure, Randy Moss had a couple good years with New England but who can forget his antics when he was deemed the cornerstone of the Vikings? Have we forgotten that he ran down a traffic cop in downtown Minneapolis? Have we forgotten that he's a pot smoker who was busted with drugs in his Lexus? Have we forgotten that he has actually walked off the field before the end of the game?

Obviously the Vikings are serious about contending for a Super Bowl championship but is cobbling together a couple of has-beens (Favre and now Moss) and surrounding them with a bunch of talented players who nobody outside of Minnesota could name really the way to move beyond one and done status? Impatience is probably to blame but wouldn't building towards a successful string of winning seasons be more rewarding? Is instant success all that these fairweather Vikings fans care about?

Maybe Moss will turn things around for both himself and the Vikes but I, rightfully, have my doubts about this move.

Where's all that hope now Vikings fans?

Like so many others, I'm what people would describe as a fair weather sports fan. I don't pretend to know the stats of individual players on most of the Twin Cities/Minnesota teams and I don't even know the positions most of them play but I do know when their fortunes are looking either up or down.

Currently, the only bright spot for Minnesota sports fans is the Minnesota Twins. They are already a lock for the playoffs and, despite losing two of three to Oakland, are still inching closer to winning their division and having the overall best resord in the American League. But even with that comes negatives. They'll likely face the buy-a-championship New York Yankees at some point which means that no matter how well the Minnesota Twins are playing their season will come to a brutal end. It's the way it is and if you're like me you've come to accept the fate of Minnesota sports teams. A couple are usually competitive but when push comes to shove they just don't win championships because this is the midwest. We're "just happy they made it to the playoffs". But that's bullshit.

Why should we be happy, as sports fans or anything else in life, with "being good enough"? When did that become acceptable? Why have we been brainwashed to accept that second-best status? It's like the job market as of late -- I hear plenty of people, after I bitch about paying upwards of $6,000 per year for health insurance that covers nearly nothing only to have the other person in the conversation say "you should just be happy you have a job". Don't get me wrong, I'm damn happy that I have a job but would it hurt the big guy in charge to take a cut in pay so the worker bees can afford some heat for their hive?

And that comes back to sports to a certain extent. If other cities can afford to essentially buy a championship, why doesn't that work here? The Minnesota Vikings, and their owner Zygi Wilf, forked out millions of dollars and put up with hijinks, shenanigans and downright bullshit to land greying and broken quarterback Brett Favre for a second year. Has he produced anything thus far? No. Unless you count two losses in two regular season games producing results then he hasn't lived up to the legend. But by God he's here and that's good enough for the diehard Vikings fans.

But in my opinion it's not enough. Why couldn't the Vikings step up all aspects of their game and win enough games to make it to the playoffs while grooming a young quarterback under the tutelage of Brett Favre. We all know that Favre will eventually explode in to a huge cloud of grey dust and him playing for a 21st year is becoming less and less likely with each passing day and each loss so plan ahead. Do the Minnesotan thing and promote from within and quit accepting "good enough" and second best. I once had hope too but after watching yesterday's brutal and sloppy loss to the Miami Dolphins I'm back to being bitter and jaded.

For the flip side of my personality, check out the refreshingly positive MinnPics -- chock full of killer photos from across Minnesota.

Brett Favre isn't retiring

How's that for taking a stance on a subject? When I first saw the retweet of Judd Zulgad (Star-Tribue sports writer) informing the online universe that Brett Favre was retiring, I called bullcrap. It seemed too abrupt. Favre was quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings for one season. Not to get all preachy and optimistic but Favre has something to prove. Sure, he took the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game last season but that isn't the pinnacle of success in the NFL.

Sure, Brett Favre is slowly becoming the Bionic Man with his shoulder surgery last year and his ankle surgery this year but the man's athleticism is nothing to laugh at. He's 41 years old and has taken more beatings than a slave but he still has something to prove. If he can't do it this year, I'm almost certain that it will be his swan song but mark my words -- Brett Favre will be in a Vikings uniform for the 2010 NFL regular season. He may use his ankle as an excuse to not only miss traning camp but dodge the preseason games this year as well but he'll play in the regular season.

We already know that his wife, Deanna, renewed her Lifetime Fitness gym membership so if rumors like that mean anything, Favre will be riding in to Minneapolis on a white horse to rescue the Minnesota Vikings and save them from being a 3-13 team.

If you want to escape both my madness and sports madness, check out the spectacular photos of Minnesota at MinnPics.

Just say no to the stadium

It's a day that ends in "Y" during a state legislative session in Minnesota so that must mean that it's time once again for the Minnesota Vikings to piss and moan about their hard luck and their financial disadvantages compared to other NFL teams with big, shiny, new billion dollar stadiums. Yep, yet another plan for a new Vikings stadium. And this one has a price tag of only $791 million dollars.

The irony here is that the Vikings franchise is willing to pony up a whopping $200 and some odd million dollars - not quite a third of the cost. Really? Not even a third of the price for a playground they'll use for ten days each autumn? But the rest will come from "user fees". In Governor Tim Pawlenty-speak those are really taxes but because the legislature will need his support they use his terminology and because he's a good Republican he doesn't raise taxes, he just supports new "user fees". Some of those new user fees will come from a tax on sports jerseys. So Twins, Wild and Vikings fans would each potentially pay for a part of the new Vikings stadium. So would people renting cars and hotel rooms because those people are obviously Vikings fans and nobody comes to Minneapolis or anywhere in Hennepin County or the Twin Cities except to see a Vikings game.

But the good news is that some lawmakers with common sense are calling the possibility of financing a new Vikings stadium a "non-starter". Though even bad news like that isn't souring the hopes of rabid (and hateful) Vikings fans. @molliepriesmeyer can attest to that. I watched both Friday and today as Tweets from the Minneapolis-based journalist chronicled the shit-storm which erupted after she voiced her disapproval of a publicly financed stadium. And, yes, I also feel that a stadium financed even with the bullshitology that is "user fees" is publicly financed. I just wish that people could have a civil debate - even those on opposite sides of the debate - and realize that name-calling doesn't solve anything and those slinging the names are only hurting the very cause they champion (yes, feel free to call me a hypocrite).

Nobody, regardless of what they said (especially in a civil tone) deserves to be called a cunt but Priesmeyer had that hurled at her Friday after launching an online petition against a publicly funded stadium. Hey, if this is the face that grassroots stadium supporters want to hitch their wagon to, then may the Vikings fare well in the greater Los Angeles area but I truly hope that the Vikings can find a way to secure a stadium here in Minnesota without sticking fans who will never be able to afford to see a game with the bill.

If you read all the way through that rambling screed then you deserve a break - head to MinnPics and scope out the awesome photos from around Minnesota.

What to do with Brookdale

It's finally and officially closed. The biggest joke of Twin Cities regional shopping malls has shut its doors but now the question has turned to "What do we do with Brookdale?" I may not be the best guy to ponder the multitude of answers because I'm from the opposite end of the Twin Cities but Brooklyn Center isn't exactly an impressive place when Brookdale was the retail center of the community. Beginning right at its logo, the mall seemed to be a bit of a joke - especially in the seven years I've lived here. Every televised promotion I saw for Brookdale seemed rather low rent or even ghetto in nature (the crappy boy band concert-turned-riot didn't help matters). While that may have been an accurate portrayal of what the mall represented it isn't exactly the image you want to portray to attract a wide swath of the population.

And that failure to attract a wide swath of the population at least in part contributed to the mall's downfall. That and the fact that the mall was essentially a hangout for gangs, thugs and lowlifes - that doesn't exactly help to draw families looking to shop.

But the big question now is "What do we do with a huge, vacant building in the middle of a first-ring suburb?" Ideally, this huge space would be developed in to something actually useable for the community as a whole. Realistically, because it's basically a building that will have to be demolished sitting on a huge, paved piece of real estate, the former Brookdale will sit and crumble as it goes through a vicious and endless cycle of defaults and foreclosures. Maybe, after about twenty years of this cycle, it will end up in the hands of the city of Brooklyn Center itself and then it can become a community gathering place (not a mall) where families can congregate. Maybe it could truly be a center for the community but that's a lot of utopian wishful thinking on my part. Hell, do people actually associate with others in public anymore?

There's also a lot of talk about the Brookdale site being perfect for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium. The only problem is that the current owner/developer would demand a price for this shit hole that would make potential buyers wonder if millions of tons of gold sat just beneath the cracked and crumbling asphalt of the parking lot. Sure, it has decent freeway access and is truly a huge piece of property but there's another huge piece of property perfect for a new Vikings stadium - it's called the Metrodome.

If given free reign, though, what would your dream consist of for redeveloping the now shuttered Brookdale site? A park, a transit station, a new urban center/downtown development? Have at it.

When you're done, click on over to MinnPics and see what the latest photographic treasure of Minnesota has been found for your enjoyment!