According to the Minneapolis/St Paul Business Journal, the Minnesota Twins and the Ballpark Authority are committing an extra 2.5 million dollars to construction of the new ballpark in order to gain certification as a "green" building from the U.S. Green Building Council.
This makes sense not only in practical and public relations terms, but also because of where the new ball park is situated. Compared to most stadiums built in wide-open suburban lots surrounded by vast parking lots, the twins stadium site in downtown Minneapolis looks like it's being wedged right into the existing city structure, and in many ways, that's true. Most of the infrastructure, including parking ramps, already exists, and the new stadium will connect up with light-rail transit, the propose northwest corridor commuter train, and will add the final piece towards connecting the bike paths that run into and through downtown Minneapolis. With an energy-saving design, the potential is that the new stadium will be fairly inexpensive to maintain, and for fans to get to.
Now, if we can only get the Pohlad family to open up the coffers a bit and spend some of that money on actual players, everyone will be happy.
Keywords: green certification, Minnesota Twins, Pohlad, stadium
