Nov 2, 2005 11:24 am US/Central
Poll: Most St. Paul Voters Oppose Twins Stadium
St. Paul (AP) ―
The Minnesota Twins haven't shown much interest in seeking a new stadium in St. Paul. Then again, St. Paul voters aren't itching to have the team in their back yard, a poll published Wednesday shows.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently floated the idea that St. Paul could be in the stadium hunt if a Hennepin County proposal stalls.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press survey, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, found that only one-third of city voters polled would support building a downtown stadium in an effort to lure the Twins. Fifty-six percent would oppose the move.
The results confirm that not much has changed since 1999. That year, city voters, by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin, rejected a referendum on a city sales tax plan that would have helped finance a new St. Paul stadium.
"For the public to build the stadium just might be unwarranted when there's so many other demands on our dollar," said resident Ralph Hilgendorf.
Dave Nourse once opposed using tax dollars for a baseball stadium, but he's changed his mind.
"I realized I was being hypocritical. We gave all this money to the Guthrie (Theater). ... How can we not give it to a baseball team?" Nourse said. "To be a big metro area ... we need a theater. We need a baseball team, too."
The survey of 400 random registered voters was conducted Oct. 25 and 26. It has a margin of sampling error of 5 percentage points in either direction.
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