St. Paul mayor stakes claim for city

In a plan billed as a "statewide solution," St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has done a nice job sticking up for the home team while raising important questions about Minnesota's stadium priorities.

Coleman proposes to tax booze drinkers across the state to get St. Paul out from under its $32.5 million loan obligation to the state, build a $47 million ballpark for the St. Paul Saints in Lowertown with $27 million in public money and -- here's the nonstarter kicker -- move the Timberwolves and Lynx from Target Center to Xcel Energy Center. Minneapolis would be left with a mostly empty arena downtown, but its taxpayer-draining debt would be paid off.

And, smartly, Coleman proposes keeping the Vikings in Minneapolis in a new stadium, rejecting the Zygi Wilf-backed plan to build on the more expensive Arden Hills location in Ramsey County.

Coleman touts his plan as the best state and regional remedy for Minnesota's stadium distress, but clearly St. Paul would be the big winner.

The mayor had been noticeably quiet since Ramsey County officials announced their "deal" with the Vikings in Arden Hills on May 10. The assumption was that he was trying to come up with a strategy that would derail the county's stadium initiative -- which would produce a heavy sales tax cost but no benefit for his St. Paul constituents -- without appearing to abandon the east metro.

Coleman and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak are friendly rivals, but their cities are separated by more than a river. With some justification, east metro residents feel they too often play runner-up to Minneapolis.

That's why former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman championed Xcel Energy Center and brought the National Hockey League to the city in the first place.

As the mayor pointed out to an editorial writer on Wednesday, a business on St. Paul's Grand Avenue wouldn't benefit from an Arden Hills stadium any more than would a business in Blaine, but its owner would suffer the impact of a county sales tax increase.

And we're still waiting to hear how the Vikings and the county intend to finance the $131 million in additional highway construction costs they seem to want to ignore in Arden Hills. (Disclosure: The value of Star Tribune property near the Metrodome will likely be affected by the stadium decision.)

Coleman's politically unfeasible bid to shut down Target Center -- and relieve downtown Minneapolis of about 200 revenue-producing events a year -- is rooted in common sense.

If we could rewrite history, the Twin Cities would have one arena for the NBA and NHL. Coleman's idea is another endorsement of Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Chairman Ted Mondale's intelligent suggestion that centralized management of competing facilities could create a better business model for taxpayers.

That concept deserves more attention in the months ahead, and any regional solution should include debt relief for Xcel so that St. Paul's needs aren't ignored.

As a nod to greater Minnesota, some of the $48 million a year Coleman would raise with his 2-cent-per-drink tax would fund recreation statewide.

If nothing else, Coleman's late-in-the-game contribution to the stadium debate should be a wake-up call for legislators who might be inclined to rush through the ill-conceived Ramsey County proposal at the end of a special session.

When a county plan can't generate even tacit support from the mayor of its largest city, it should be shelved.