Opportunity Cost

The Minnesota Golden Gophers have a new $250 M. stadium (the article has a nice picture of fiscal-conservative wannabe Tim Pawlenty sporting a Gophers sweatshirt and a little bit of mullet-action going on while he signs the bill - priceless!). Whoopee. The great state of Minnesota paid almost 40% of the bill, which amounts to $10.25 M. per year for the next 25 years. Given that there is a negative net economic impact from public dollars spent on sports stadiums, how stupid was this? Well, at current tuition rates, that could have funded about 586.5 full-ride one-year in-state scholarships (including room and board). Blech. Here are the votes.