No Vikings stadium bill now, but next year, maybe?

05/19/2007

By Paul Levy,
Star Tribune
May 19, 2007


Roy Terwilliger stood in the State Capitol on Friday, looked at his watch and saw the seconds ticking away on the 2007 legislative session.

"The urgency is critical," said the chairman of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission as he prepared to make a final pitch this session to win a new home for the Minnesota Vikings, a $954 million multipurpose stadium with a retractable roof on the site of the Metrodome.

But Terwilliger knew there was no chance of the Legislature approving a stadium this year. He was fretting about the urgency of the 2008 session, not this one.

"This is bigger than just a stadium for the Vikings," he said. "It's a multipurpose stadium for the general public, the only facility the state will have capable of hosting a NCAA Final Four [basketball tournament], or Billy Graham or the state high school football tournament, regardless of weather.

"We need to plan now. The cost of a delay could be staggering."

But the proposed stadium's primary tenant is the Vikings.

The Vikings' Metrodome lease doesn't expire until 2011. So, why the urgency?

The Vikings, who nearly rode the Twins' coattails during last year's legislative session to a stadium deal in Anoka County, hardly got a cleat in the Capitol door this year. The team, which received a $280 million pledge from Anoka County for a stadium in Blaine last year, has no financial partner or promise of funding from Hennepin County or the state as it pursues a new home in downtown Minneapolis.

Last year the Vikings held realistic stadium hopes until the final days of the session. On Friday, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, orchestrating plans for a stadium in which the Vikings would be the primary tenant, waited for hours to make a twice-postponed presentation before the House Taxes Committee. It was only the second official legislative hearing the commission or Vikings were offered this session.

But comparing last year, which ended in divorce between the Vikings and Anoka County, and this year's stadium attempt would be like comparing baseballs and footballs, or Blaine and Minneapolis.

The Vikings, seemingly back to square one, remain optimistic and have a game plan -- one the commission says must be put into play immediately for fear that it could unravel by 2009.

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