Field of Schemes new post Vikings fight was missing anti-stadium protestors, except for all the anti-stadium protestors

The Minnesota Star Tribune ran an article yesterday noting that what was missing from the recently concluded Vikings stadium fight was "a crowd of citizens angry about the city spending hundreds of millions on a stadium without holding a referendum." Possible theories include that citizens are burned out from having been overruled in past stadium battles, that construction union influence kept the largest progressive group on the sidelines, or that key activists of the past have moved out of state.

In any event, though, it's clear that — wait, what's that you say, Twin Cities Daily Planet?

Angry protestors met in front of Minneapolis City Hall Thursday to protest the city buying in to the Vikings stadium financing plan as the issue was considered by a committee of the entire council. The financing passed seven to six, and the decision was confirmed in a final action on May 25.

Protestors objected to the mayor and council's refusal to put the issue to a city-wide vote, and to the council's priorities given the lasting tornado damage on the Northside and other civic needs.

In the video above, Minneapolis City Council President Barbara Johnson, a strong supporter of the City of Minneapolis Vikings stadium financing, tries to enter an elevator filled with anti-stadium protestors on their way to the council chambers and the mayor’s office. She is recognized and greeted with shouts of, "Shame on Johnson." She then abandons the elevator and takes the stairway down.

Admittedly, the Star Trib did report briefly on Thursday's protests, though they left out the elevator incident. And the opposition did turn out in smaller numbers than the pro side (not to mention being less loud and purple-painted.

I'll leave it to actual Minnesotans to explain why, if the public was generally opposed to funding a Vikings stadium as most polls showed, this didn't translate into presence at the capitol. But it's worth noting that traditionally the best way to preempt organizing against your stadium project is to move quickly enough that opposition doesn't have time to come together — and the Vikings deal, which rose from the dead just two and a half weeks before its final approval, and which was a moving target of varied public subsidies (and even varied sites) for months before that, certainly qualifies. I doubt it was intentional, but the Vikings stumbled upon what may have been the best campaign strategy of all: Keep the ball moving until it's too late to see where it's going.

from Field of Schemes http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2012/05/4964_vikings_fight_w.html