When Vikings wear tutus

(c) 2011 Avidor

Then it may be time to consider whether the Minnesota Vikings football team is a cultural treasure. Well, probably not. As Wy Spano said on Almanac on Friday night, if the Vikings are a Minnesota cultural legacy, then the Cleveland Indians are a Native American cultural legacy. Perfect.

As blogger sidekick Aaron relates, there is nothing in the legislative history of the Legacy Amendment as proposed, or as considered by the citizens who voted for it, that a stadium for a for-profit enterprise like the Vikings was a prospect:

The Minnesota Legislature required the development of a report on the "25-Year Vision, Framework, Guiding Principles and Ten-Year Goals for the Minnesota Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund" which was delivered to the Legislature in 2010. This report was developed through six statewide listening sessions where citizens contributed their ideas about what the program should do, what it should prioritize, and what effects it should have. The finished report mentions nothing about a stadium, but does note that "ACHF funding is intended for non-profit organizations for work that is open to the public and conducted for the benefit of Minnesotans. It is not intended to fund for-profit enterprises."

The notes from the six statewide listening sessions make it clear that participants specifically opposed using Legacy funds to fund a stadium. For example, participants said they want to see that "Arts are valued and supported as highly as sports," and thought that "Sports/athletic facilities/activities" were activities that should not be funded.

The really extra-annoying thing is the kind of projects these Philistines would cheerfully replace: the history of Chinese-Americans in Minnesota,
Alexander Ramsey House revitalization, Ojibwe language revitalization, a Duluth Art Institute grant, and that's from just the first few pages of grants on the website.

(c) 2011 Avidor

You will look in vain for anything close to Vikings in tutus. And it's not like the Wilfarians are looking for just a little to put them over the top, either. Ed Kohler tells us that the Vikings are trying to shake us down for 2/3 of the cost of a billion dollar stadium, the most sought in history by an NFL team.

Which would make us the biggest chumps in the history of the NFL.

Note: Avidor did these cartoons for us, but they are his copyright. Used with permission.