Bruce Lambrecht and his 100 stockholders who own the land near Target Center that the Legislature specified as the site for the new Twins baseball park hired Hines, a company based in Houston, to handle negotiations for the site with the Hennepin County. Those talks have hit a wall, threatening to stall construction.

Lambrecht, who was jumping up and down for joy when his land was specified for the ballpark and now is looking for blood, is hiding behind the skirts of Hines and is trying to present himself as Mr. Nice Guy -- which he isn't.

You would think that Hines, the largest private property owner in downtown Minneapolis, would see the advantage of having a ballpark in its own neighborhood to spark development, but apparently not. The company is close to forcing Hennepin County to look for another site.

No doubt Hines is gambling that the Pohlads, who own the Twins, are so eager to get that ballpark built that they will pay what the owners are demanding -- reportedly in excess of $50 million -- and not the $13.5 million at which it has been appraised.

I'm told that this will not happen. The Pohlads have agreed to contribute $100 million to the entire project. That is the limit.

Had the new Guthrie Theater been built where it should have been, adjacent to the Shubert Theater on Hennepin Avenue, the choice site on the river for the ballpark would have been available.

So the stadium problem that looked like it was two-thirds settled when the Legislature voted to back projects for the Gophers and Twins last year remains unsolved.

The Gophers are making progress. But they haven't dug a hole yet. And when former Vikings owner Red McCombs withdrew as a partner with the university, one of his reasons was that the site on the campus was so polluted that it would cost millions more to build there.

Meanwhile, the promise of Gov. Tim Pawlenty that a Vikings stadium would be discussed and voted on in the 2007 session is not happening.

I have a feeling that Vikings owner Zygi Wilf and his family, who guaranteed they would never move the team, are having second thoughts now that the great governor has gone back on his promises. Don't forget that the lease on the Metrodome runs out in 2011.

Vikings got the right guy

NFL sources at the Super Bowl reported that Steve Spagnuolo, who was a member of the Eagles coaching staff with Vikings coach Brad Childress, preferred to join the Vikings as defensive coordinator rather than take the same job with the Giants.

But it is apparent that Childress had Leslie Frazier in mind for the job from the time Mike Tomlin was named head coach for the Steelers.

"What Les gives us is, he understands that scheme of defenses, the Tampa-2 philosophy, and so there's a great segue there," Childress said. "He'll be able to communicate in the same language with the defensive staff that's in place. In addition, he gives you all of [Eagles defensive coordinator] Jim Johnson's stuff from Philadelphia -- the pressure stuff, and I think that that's a good change-up. And so to be able to incorporate both ends up being huge for us."

Describing Johnson, Childress said: "Oh shoot, Jim Johnson starts blitzing you coming off the bus."

Childress watched Frazier do a great job of communicating when both were with the Eagles.

"I thought that he was a great teacher. And I thought he was a great technician, and that's important in this business," Childress said. "A lot of people have schemes, but they don't teach you the technical aspects that go with it.

"And so I always thought that he was always very good, and he does a great job of communicating with his guys, whether it was Brian Dawkins or Troy Vincent -- all Pro Bowl guys -- or grooming a guy like a Lito Sheppard and a Sheldon Brown, who we drafted in the same draft."