Art Rolnick and Mike Meyers knocked down a number of "feeble arguments" that pro sports teams use to extort public resources for new stadiums ("Would-be stadium spenders build their house upon sand," Feb. 18).

"Perhaps the greatest sophistry of all," they wrote of the Minnesota Vikings, "is the implausible argument that they've got anywhere else to go."

I wish that thinking had carried the day in the early 1990s, when Rolnick worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The Fed threatened to take 1,000 jobs to the suburbs unless the city of Minneapolis gave up prime downtown riverfront property in two national historic districts.

Down came the Berman Buckskin building, the Great Northern Warehouse and three other survivors from Old Minneapolis. Up went a high-security, Klieg-lit, quasi-public complex with nice boardroom views.

The Minneapolis Fed stayed in its namesake city, just like -- surprise -- the other 11 Federal Reserve banks.

CHRIS STELLER, MINNEAPOLIS