I am not a football fan, but I appreciate the sport and I am glad that Minnesota fans have the Vikings. It is unfortunate, however, that the state is being squeezed to spend hard earned capital on a stadium, instead of using the capital to stimulate investments in value creating manufacturing or agricultural enterprises. Any investment in entertainment, football or otherwise consumes capital. It does not create new value—it just moves money around.
Minnesota has been losing high-value, capital creating industries for a decade or more. Ideally, it would be smarter to invest public money to entice a global vehicle producer to keep the Ford plant open, or help grow an alternative energy equipment industry and world class manufacturing firms. Imagine the potential return on investment if the hundreds of millions that might be spent on a stadium were instead used to constitute low-interest, revolving capital pools to upgrade our state’s capacity to create value.
Then some years down the road when our investments have paid off and new companies are growing and new products are flowing into world and national markets we could build a fine looking, world class stadium. When completed we could gather round, pop open a beer and toast to a job well done. But instead we will probably buy a stadium and become poorer.
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