We would really like for someone to give us a good, logical reason why a private businessman who is worth 2.8 billion dollars needs our financial help. Why should Carl Pohlad be allowed to stick his hand in our pockets, without our permission, in order to make improvements to his privately-held entertainment business?
In our opinion, he can well afford to pay his own way, and he should be expected to step up to the plate and do just that.
There has been nothing sportsmanlike about the decade-long battle the Minnesota Twins have waged against the Taxpayers of Minnesota, and there has been nothing democratic about the process of forcing the Taxpayers of Hennepin County to become the new, and unwilling, "local partners" of the Minnesota Twins.
According to the FBI, there are literally hundreds of criminal gangs operating in the metro area. We have white gangs, black gangs, Asian gangs, Hmong gangs, Mexican gangs, South American gangs, Somali gangs.
In this town, the Crips and the Bloods are probably the most well known.
We would like to add one more name to the list. This is, after all, Twins Territory. Just one look around the eastern edge of downtown Minneapolis makes that perfectly clear. Their turf is quite clearly tagged and marked.
Like most of the other gangs in this town, the Twins operation is very well funded and highly organized, and like most other gangs, they want to take from us something we do not want to give them. They have been conspiring for close to a decade to get as much public taxpayer money as possible with which to fund their private enterprise. The citizens have repeatedly said no, but they have not been willing to respect our wishes.
And this year, the Twins managed to get elected officials from every corner of the State of Minnesota to willingly thumb their noses at the law and go against the will of the people and force citizens they did not politically represent to give the Twins that money. This is not what representative government is supposed to be about.
And also as is the way of other gangs, the Minnesota Twins have succeeded in creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation within the community.
They have repeatedly led the public to believe that if they do not get what they want, then they will leave, and this town will be left without professional sports. We will shrivel up and become a cold Omaha. And all the old people in the nursing homes will never be able to watch baseball on TV again.
No, we must come up with the money to buy them a new stadium. They are after all only thinking of the next generation of fans. The children are being deprived. The next generation should be allowed to watch baseball as it was meant to be played – outdoors.
But just exactly what else is the next generation learning from all of this?
Are they learning that it is okay to do whatever needs to be done to get your way when you have repeatedly been told No?
Are they learning that it is okay to go around the law, behind closed doors, and try to bend the democratic process for your own selfish purposes?
Well, that’s what we're learning.
We are so tired of the Twins. And we know that we are not alone in that thought. We are so tired of their threats and manipulations. We are so tired of our town being held hostage by pro sports. Personally, we believe they are lying when they say they will leave. But, if it is true that they will make good on their threats, then we say: Go Twins! And take the damn Vikings with you when you leave.
There are 46 cities in Hennepin County, and there are one million people living in those cities. Statistically, we are probably speaking for tens of thousands, if not at least a hundred thousand, of those citizens.
We know those citizens are not at all pleased with what the four men of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners just did. These four men just imposed a 30-year tax upon one million people. They thumbed their noses at the law, and they have forced us to give our tax money to a private entertainment business. They just forced us to fund someone else’s leisure-time activities.