Saint Paul wants a ballpark now

We have tried this before, haven't we?

I seem to remember a pitch (forgive the pun) the Twins made a few years ago to build a ballpark in downtown Saint Paul - right across the street from the Xcel Energy Center if memory serves correctly. It didn't go over very well.

According to this morning's Pioneer Press, the Saint Paul Saints will be asking for a mere $25 million in state money to aid the construction of a new ballpark in the Lowertown area of Saint Paul. It seems to be a pretty neat location, as the new Lafayette Bridge will seemingly be visible just beyond the center field wall.

Reasons for needing a new ballpark for the Saints are numerous. Their current home, Midway Stadium is in "bad shape" according to the article - everything from a not-so-well operated concession stand to portable toilets outside the stadium are reasons for the Saints asking for state help.

I've been to a Saints game once. Best seats I've ever had for a baseball game, or any sporting event for that matter. A friend gave me tickets and he was one of the first to buy season tickets all the way back in 1993 when the Saints first started. He gave me four seats, front row, right behind home plate.

I can't say, even all those years ago, that Midway Stadium was impressive. It is a minor-league ballpark, after all. I do remember the long concession lines. Mike Veeck, owner of the Saints said in the article that the main problem at Midway is the concession service. "People get in line, and aren't seen for 3 1/2 innings," he said.

Midway has played host to some concerts, and other than Saints games, amateur baseball games. And, for a small concrete slab with bleachers on Energy Park Drive, isn't incredibly impressive, as I mentioned earlier. As for a possible replacement, Veeck said, "[We're] trying to figure out what would make it fun, sexy and first of it's kind...."

Just what on the blue earth makes a ballpark "sexy"? That's a new one to me. Most teams that build new buildings, whatever level of play, whatever sport, usually use words such as "unique," "first-class" and "modern" to describe their new buildings. "Sexy," not so much.

I saw some renderings of what a new ballpark might look like (I tried to find them online, with no luck). Honestly, they didn't get me excited. It looked a little strange for a ballpark. On the other hand, the Saints and strange antics seem to go hand-in-hand. But, nonetheless, the renderings I saw didn't say to me, "unique" or "first-class" or..."sexy;" whatever that means.

Too many sports teams?

I read the Twin Cities Business Journal on a regular basis, and this morning, I read an article that caught my attention; apparently, the Twin Cities has too many professional sports teams.

The study was conducted by Portfolio.com, and they tested 82 markets to determine the financial capacity of cities in both the United States and Canada to support professional sports. The professional sports they studied are teams in baseball, football, basketball, football and soccer.

Here in the Twin Cities, we have a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, the Twins. We have a team in the National Football League (NFL), the Vikings. A team in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Timberwolves, and finally, a team in the National Hockey League (NHL), the Wild.

This is the second time the Twin Cities has had four teams, in four major leagues. This region had four teams from 1989-1993. The Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves and our old NHL team, the North Stars. Of course, the North Stars moved to Dallas at the end of the 1993 season.

So, we've done this before, and we've done well - in my estimation. The reason the North Stars left had nothing to do with attendance (having been in the Stanley Cup Playoffs a couple years earlier). The move had a little to do with the arena (the Met Center was getting old, and with the Timberwolves' new Target Center having opened a year earlier, made it hard for the Bloomington arena to stay competitive). The move had a great deal to do with Stars' owner Norm Green and personal issues he was dealing with, including his marriage.

I read somewhere that Norm's wife (I believe it was in Jay Weiner's 2000 book Stadium Games) gave Norm an ultimatum: either sell the team, or move to Dallas. And to the disappointment of many Minnesotans, Green chose the latter.

The Twin Cities got an NHL franchise back on June 22, 1997, to begin play in 2000, and we've been a four-team market ever since. The Twins stuck it out and waited 11 years to get a new ballpark to keep them competitive. The Wild sell out every game at the Xcel Energy Center. The Timberwolves are happy, just uncompetitive on the court.

This is just my opinion, but instead of complaining about having too many teams, wouldn't that be considered a good business model? A market this size, supporting four teams? The Twin Cities isn't the size of Los Angeles, and yet, we have an NFL team, Los Angeles doesn't. Saint Louis is a good-sized market, as is Kansas City; and neither has an NBA team. Kansas City had all four teams back in the 70s, but lost their NBA team to Sacramento in 1985; and their three-year-old NHL team to Denver in 1975.

I don't quite understand why soccer was thrown into the mix. Yes, we do have a pro soccer team here, the Minnesota Thunder, but they are in a minor-league type situation. They are not a member franchise of MLS (Major League Soccer), which sometimes uses NFL stadiums for their games; although, many teams are building smaller, soccer-specific stadiums.

With the stadium issue of the Minnesota Vikings once again waiting to rear its head in the 2010 Minnesota State Legislative session, and the NFL deciding to cut its revenue-sharing program for smaller-market teams (i.e. the Vikings), it will be interesting to see how much longer the Twin Cities will remain a market with four (five if you throw in the Thunder) pro teams. But, so far, I think we're doing well.

To read the article from the Twin Cities Business Journal, click here:
http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/12/14/story9.html

Thanks for reading, and have a great Christmas season.

Extra, Extra! Read all about it - somewhere else

It is a tough time for many industries; but the one that seems to be hardest hit is newspapers. Especially in the last month or two, it's really getting tough. First the Rocky Mountain News closes, then the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceases print operations, and becomes online-exclusive.

Other newspapers, such as the San Francisco Chronicle are also in danger of ceasing operation; and the Minneapolis Star Tribune declared bankruptcy last month. Is this a result of the sagging economy, or a shift in the way people get their news? Might I suggest it's a little of both; but probably more of the latter, as opposed to the former.

When the Saint Paul Pioneer Press re-designed its paper last year, I saw so many posts on their website about "[There's] a print edition?" or people saying "I just read it online" messages like that were aplenty after the paper re-designed. People even went so far to say that they would cancel their subscriptions because of the re-design.

I have caught myself wondering whether or not the two Twin Cities papers would actually merge. The Pioneer Press is increasingly combining several sections into one. The front page, Local and Business are combined more often than not. The Star Tribune combines its front page and Local section on Mondays.

Fladung told me in an interview for an article I wrote for the June 2008 issue of PRSA Quarterly, the chapter newslettter of the Minnesota PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), "[The papers] could merge tomorrow...can the Twin Cities be a one-paper market?"
I'm not entirely certain we could be a one-paper market. Fladung also told me about news "agnostics," people who demand that their paper come from one source, and one source only.

The Twin Cities has lots of people like that. There are people who wouldn't be caught dead reading the Pioneer Press; and vice versa with the Star Tribune. And, after over 140 years, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer became an online-exclusive newspaper earlier this month. To some degree, with all the young, tech-savvy people in Seattle, I'm surprised the Post-Intelligencer didn't take that step sooner. Not to be guilty of insider trading, but reports say the Ann Arbor News in Ann Arbor, MI will follow the Post-Intelligencer's route in July, after 174 years of print publication. Even college newspapers are being hit. The Minnesota Daily, a newspaper published by students at the University of Minnesota, ceased the Friday print edition in December, 2008.

Get your print editions of newspapers now, they might not exist in a couple years. At least, we can still get a print copy of The Onion. But for how long?