Every team seems to want a new stadium right now, that is except the Wild who arenít even playing. For too long teams wanted the state to pay for these brand new stadiums, but now the University of Minnesota football team and the Twins have come up with plans that may actually work.

The Gophers want a stadium back on campus to boost fan support and pride in the team. That makes sense, but for a while they wanted the state to foot the bill. They were the first to realize that was not going to happen so they started exploring other options for financing and even a site.

One of the criticisms of past stadium plans for the Gophers, Twins and Vikings has been that there were no sites picked out and no real plan to pay for them other than asking the state for money.

Well, the Gophers went and started raising money on their own and even got TCF Bank to pledge some money for naming rights to a possible new stadium. They still want state money though.

The Twins on the other hand unveiled a plan Monday that in my opinion is the best plan Iíve heard so far. The plan has a site for once, right by the Target Center in the warehouse district, and outlines how the new stadium would be financed.

What I like about this plan is no state money would be used, and no bonding referendum would be needed. Carl Pohlad is actually willing to pay $125 million for a $478 million stadium.

So where does the other $353 million come from?

Well the Twins and Hennepin County think it should come from a sales tax increase of 0.15 percent, the equivalent of 3 cents for every $20.

I am no accountant, but that doesnít seem like a bad deal to me. The brunt of the cost does fall onto Hennepin County, but theyíre not pushing that tax on their residents, but rather shoppers.

This means the out of state fans who come to the games to see the Twins play will be helping pay for a new stadium. It also means that people that are against the stadium donít have to help fund it simply by not shopping in Hennepin County.

On sports talk radio Sunday when the story of the stadium first broke a lot of people were grumbling, saying there are other things we can spend that money on like improving our roads, reducing budget cuts in the school and just about any other social budget concern there has been for the last 50 years.

I may take a lot of heat for this, but stadium or no stadium, weíll still have those looming issues and nothing will happen to them. Everyone says education is so important and we need more money for it, yet when there is a levy on a ballot to give educators more money, most communities vote it down.

At least if we build a new Twins stadium the state economy will benefit as baseball fans travel to the state of Minnesota to enjoy a new open air stadium. There are a lot of baseball fans who take yearly trips simply to see different stadiums for their architectural beauty and enjoy the cities they are set in.

Letís face it, the Dome isnít too appealing to baseball fans. Itís no Coors Field, Kauffman Stadium or Oriole Park. I havenít heard of too many people traveling to Minnesota to see the Dome.

At least a new stadium will help bring more money into the stateís economy.

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