Aside from Minneapolis, there is no other city that I know as well as Cape Town, South Africa. Now, sophisticated Cape Town is becoming even more cosmopolitan as it prepares to co-host soccer's World Cup this summer.

Following the announcement of the world's most popular sporting event coming to South Africa, Cape Town has seen a boom in development. The once sleepy airport has been transformed into a gem of an international arrival center. Highways and streets are being improved to better accommodate increased traffic. For the past few years, Cape Town's skyline has been marked by a staggering number of construction cranes. No single site has generated more interest, and controversy, than the 60,000 seat stadium that was specifically built for the World Cup games being played in Cape Town.

Situated in the heart of the city, some critics protested the loss of green space with the construction of a stadium large enough to be seen from the top of Table Mountain. Others suggested that any new stadium should have been built in the townships to increase employment for the residents of these impoverished communities. Some vehemently opposed the very idea of the stadium, citing the pressing need for improved health care and education for South Africans.

As someone who has always been against public funds being designated for sports stadiums in Minnesota, I would fall into the latter – highly critical category. Having just returned from Cape Town and seen the iconic stadium that has actually enhanced one of the most beautiful cities in the world; having felt the genuine excitement that many (though not all) Capetonians have to show the world their city; and having sensed the optimism that the stadium might spark long-term economic improvement in Cape Town, I must reconsider the significance of sports stadiums to urban centers. It would be hypocritical of me to see the benefit of stadiums in the developing world, but not to want one – even a new football stadium – in my backyard.

Comparing Cape Town and its single stadium to the Twin Cities, home to multiple stadiums for professional and collegiate football, baseball, basketball and hockey, is not comparing apples to oranges (or comparing mango to passion fruit, a more apt comparison in South Africa). Still, if the construction of a new stadium in Cape Town can increase tourism, create jobs and strengthen civic pride, I should be open to the possibility that a new football stadium could do something similar in this community. That is, as long as the design would more closely resemble the stunning new stadium in Cape Town and not the eyesore that is our current Metrodome.