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Hiram Foster

Crystal, MN
Commenter for
5 years 26 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 03/26/13 at 11:17 am in response to Vikings stadium buyer’s remorse? I’ve got it bad — do you?

I would say this might be the right time to walk away from the deal, except that it is increasingly clear that there was no deal. What we have here is what lawyers call, and illusory bargain, one where there was no real meeting of minds necessary to form a contract.

Posted on 03/26/13 at 03:10 pm in response to Vikings stadium buyer’s remorse? I’ve got it bad — do you?

The whole point of last May's charade wasn't to provide a sound funding mechanism for the stadium. Rather, it was to get to a point in the process where the politicians could tell us that it is too late to turn back. Only after that point of no return is reached and has been passed would we really get down to making the hard and painful choices about how the stadium is actually to be paid for. There is a part of me that thinks that the stadium package is unraveling just a bit prematurely for...

Posted on 03/26/13 at 04:21 pm in response to Vikings stadium buyer’s remorse? I’ve got it bad — do you?

Members of both parties wanted the stadium. One problem was that the process rushed, something that was used as cover by a lot of legislators involved. Time, in the sense of taking hard and careful look at stadium proposals, has never been on the side of stadium supporters. No stadium supporter ever, in the history of stadiums, I think going back to Roman times, as ever won the economic argument about stadiums. It's now becoming clear that the e pulltab financing component could never hold...

Posted on 03/27/13 at 08:11 am in response to Vikings stadium buyer’s remorse? I’ve got it bad — do you?

I see the governor is suggesting that we are all to blame for the stadium mess. Well, no. The people to blame are those who forced the bill through during the last days of the legislative knowing that no one would have sufficient time to evaluate the assumptions on which it was based. The reasons for that are becoming increasingly clear now. The fact is, stadium financing plans are just so much hot air. We have committed ourselves, at least according to the politicians, to the building of a...

Posted on 03/28/13 at 07:00 am in response to Vikings stadium buyer’s remorse? I’ve got it bad — do you?

It's possible to think of the NFL in many different ways. In business terms, I think it's helpful to view it as a de facto partnership. And it should be noted that the business they are in is making money by selling rights to their games and associated properties, not winning football games as such. Viewed this way, the Viking's competition isn't the Packers, it's dinner and a night out on the town, or maybe the movies. In other words, other leisure time activities. To the extent we are...

Posted on 03/29/13 at 04:32 pm in response to Vikings stadium buyer’s remorse? I’ve got it bad — do you?

I have no doubt that there will be an effort to put events into the Vikings Stadium to help justify the decision to build it. But the fact is, we have a surplus of stadium space in this community. The Vikings Stadium itself is the third such project we have built in recent years. Now, the new stadium will compete with the Twins and Gopher Stadiums for events with a negative effect on overall revenues.

Without doubt, the Vikings Stadium has always been at the very least, and implied...

Posted on 03/26/13 at 06:17 am in response to Gov. Dayton 'not aware of particulars' of e-pulltab estimates

With the governor's admission that he didn't look at the particulars of the electronic pulltabs proposal, maybe it's time to ask we really had an agreement to build a stadium or whether it was nothing more than an illusory bargain that needs to to be revisited.

Posted on 03/25/13 at 03:25 pm in response to Minnesota accepted gambling industry's e-pulltab estimates

I thought it was interesting that the Strib story didn't quote any legislators. Were they all in hiding? And the bottom line question remains unasked. Is the stadium deal itself in jeopardy?

Posted on 03/22/13 at 03:42 pm in response to Orchestra lockouts: The longer this goes on without music being made, the more devastating it is

When management says that they are not going to arbitration, they aren't making an argument, they are making a statement. From management's perspective, the risk of arbitration is all on one side. If the players lose arbitration, they can always go to another orchestra, if they are dissatisfied with the award. If management loses, the existence of the the Orchestra itself, in their perhaps disputable view, is threatened. It's not as if the Minnesota Orchestra has the same options a pro...

Posted on 03/23/13 at 08:45 am in response to Orchestra lockouts: The longer this goes on without music being made, the more devastating it is

At least part of the problem here is that Orchestra management extended stadium thinking to the orchestra, with an expensive renovation, taking place at perhaps the worst possible time.