Saturday, October 3, 2009

Minnesota Sports-o-rama But No Obama

The Presidents' Olympic bid didn't turn out like he wanted. Chicagoans are long faced but Brazialians are ecstatic. Brazil is enjoying a thriving economy while the USA is putting everything on the charge card. I don't feel bad about letting them have the games. Haven't host cities spent billions to get ready for the Olympics? Who has that in their budget in this country.

Local TV sportscasters are drooling about this weekend in local sports. They don't seem to be sad because of the lost Olympics. Supposedly if Chicago had gotten the nod, the soccer games would have been played here. Bit of a stretch, isn't it? Chicago is 450 miles away.

Here is what is going on in the metro in sports this weekend:
The U of MN Golden Gophers are playing the Wisconsin Badgers in our new "Bank" stadium.
We are still celebrating the new on campus TCF gorgeous stadium. Football returned to the Big Ten U campus after 28 years. Wisconsin is our arch rival.
The MN Wild hockey team begin the season. We have avid hockey fans and a great downtown arena in St. Paul.
The Twins are playing their last game. They won yesterday and the #1 Detroit Tigers lost leaving the Twins one game out from division championship. They could do this. This is the last year they are playing at the Metrodome and it would be a grand way to leave. They have won two World Series in that stadium and a third would be a great closer. It could happen.

Playing a World Series might make up for the new corporate name. Since the Vikings are the last tennants in the dome, they were allowed to sell naming rights for several million dollars. It is now called "Mall of America Field @ Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome". It is miles from the Mall of America which incidentally is built on the site of our old baseball stadium. Locally the Mall of America goes by the acronym MOA so we can call it the MOA @ HHH.

We won't have to call it MOA @ HHH for long. The Vikings Corp. announced they aren't renewing their contract and threaten to leave town if they don't get their new stadium. They feel left out. The Gophers and Twins each got new venues and the Vikes didn't. They have wanted a bigger, better stadium than this old '81 model for years. The team usually self-destructs at the end of the season and there is no mood in Minnesota to give it to them. We are in deep doodoo financially in this state and don't have an extra $800,000,000.00.
This year management must feel frisky with Brett Favre at the helm. While everyone else is rooting for him to continue to do well, I have mixed feelings. I think I will cheer him on Monday night when the Vikings play Green Bay. That old rivalry will be heightened now that we have their boy wonder in purple. After that I don't care if the Vikings lose the last few games. That Gopher football team gives us a nice alternative.

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