Nov. 28--Two Republican legislators said Tuesday they will revive a plan to pay for a new ballpark with profits from a proposed state-owned casino at Canterbury Park racetrack. 

Senate Minority Leader Dick Day of Owatonna and Rep. Mark Holsten of Stillwater said they plan to present their proposal Thursday to a state task force studying stadium-funding requests from the Twins, the Minnesota Vikings and the University of Minnesota. 

"It doesn't cost the state a penny," said Day, who sponsored a similar bill that was defeated by two votes in the state Senate in 1997. 

Holsten, who failed in a 1999 effort to pass a casino-at-Canterbury bill, said several polls have shown Minnesotans might support allowing slot machines at the Shakopee racetrack to help pay for a stadium. Other polls, however, have shown Minnesotans oppose any major expansion of gaming. 

Day said he believes allowing the Minnesota Lottery to open a casino at Canterbury would produce up to $150 million a year in profit for the state, money that could be used not only for stadiums, but for roads or schools. 

In 1997, lottery director George Anderson offered a much lower estimate of the earnings potential of a Canterbury casino. 

At that time, Anderson said 2,000 slot machines and 50 blackjack tables at Canterbury would produce $65 million after prizes were paid. After further deductions for operating expenses and the 40 percent share of lottery earnings that would go into the Environmental Trust Fund, the operation would produce $25.6 million a year, he estimated. 

That's enough to pay for a baseball stadium, and perhaps enough -- depending on contributions from the teams -- to build stadiums for both the Twins and the Vikings. 

But the proposal is certain to face strong opposition from the same legislative blocs that have defeated past proposals for state-owned casinos: 

-- Conservative Republicans, especially in the House, who oppose any expansion of gambling, or any new state sanctioning of it, on moral grounds. 

-- Liberal Democrats, especially in the Senate, who oppose any plan to interfere with the monopoly that Minnesota's Indian tribes currently have on casino gaming. 

Day and Holsten said their plan also probably would draw opposition from stadium opponents who would want casino profits to be spent on other causes. Both legislators said they would willingly change their proposal to designate the profits for roads or schools. 

Their stadium-funding plan also could face opposition from supporters of an alternate gaming proposal: A bill sponsored by Sen. Doug Johnson, DFL-Tower, that would join the state in a partnership with Indian tribes -- especially northern tribes that do not already earn big gaming profits from casinos -- to operate a state-owned casino somewhere in the Twin Cities. 

Johnson said Tuesday that it would be difficult for supporters of either casino bill to win passage. "They're all an uphill struggle," he said. "I just think, if it is a partnership between the Native Americans and the state it gains momentum." 

Johnson said he would be open to using some of the revenue from a casino to build one or more stadiums. 

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