This new plan pairs casino and stadiums

07/04/2005

Mike Kaszuba and Pat Doyle,
Star Tribune
July 4, 2005

It’s touted as the ultimate jackpot for governments looking for money: a casino in Eagan that would trim the state’s budget deficit, help pay for new Twins, Vikings and Gophers stadiums and extend the light rail transit line.

The only trouble: There’s no financing, the key principals are not yet on board and the land is not assembled.

And its chief proponent is a part-time radio show host in northern Wisconsin with a past of run-ins with the law in Minnesota and California for false and misleading advertising.

Yet at the State Capitol, Kevin Von Feldt’s shoot-for-the-moon gambling proposal has not been completely discarded. “It’s so large people have a hard time understanding it,” said Von Feldt, a former theatrical promoter who continues to push the idea at the Legislature, including during the special session.

The $5.7 billion plan calls for five large hotels with a casino and an entertainment complex that has drawn interest from New Line Cinema over licensing a theme park ride based on the movie “The Lord of the Rings.”

“Right now, it’s just a man with an idea,” said Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna.

Still, Day, a longtime proponent of putting a casino at Canterbury Park to help fund state government, isn’t willing to dismiss Von Feldt. “The more people that talk about gambling, the better I like it.” he said.

The fact that the elaborate plan gets an audience—however skeptical—underscores the appeal that gambling has among some lawmakers looking for money to fund government or build sports stadiums

Sen. Michael Jungbauer, R-East Bethel, is trying to round up support for the proposal, which could help fund a Vikings stadium that he has sought for his Anoka County district. “All options should be on the table,” said Jungbauer.

Skeptics

Still, the list of hurdles and skeptics is real. For starters, Twins president David St. Peter said he is unfamiliar with the plan.

Rep. Tim Wilkin, R-Eagan, the assistant majority leader, said he had “advised my other colleagues they should probably steer clear” of the project.

As envisioned by Von Feldt and in draft legislation distributed by Jungbauer, the casino would be part of a complex near Cedar Ave. and Hwy. 13 in Eagan that would include a theme park and would pay the state $10 billion in casino revenue over 20 years. A new Vikings stadium in Anoka County would get $450 million in casino money, $200 million would go toward a new University of Minnesota football stadium and $450 million would be spent on a new Minnesota Twins ballpark, possibly located in Eagan.

Von Feldt sees enough money to extend the Hiawatha light rail line from the Mall of America to the casino and to cut Canterbury Park and three northern Minnesota Chippewa tribes shares of casino profits.

Von Feldt’s casino and stadium plan is not altogether new. A year ago, consultants to Gov. Tim Pawlenty who were reviewing proposals for stadiums listed a similar Von Feldt plan among 13 ideas that merited further analysis. Among other features, the plan called for a nightclub that would have a holographic “seventeen-piece orchestra consisting of deceased celebrities,” including “Abe Lincoln and John Belushi side by side in the sax section.”

“To our knowledge, there’s no financing,” said Tom Hedges, Eagan’s city administrator, who added that the land needed for the project has not been acquired.

But the proposal has some major, out-of-state interest.

Jungbauer produced a May 6 letter Von Feldt said he had received from New Line Cinema, in which New Line Television president Jim Rosenthal wrote “to reaffirm New Line’s excitement about the Eagan complex project and the prospect of licensing ‘The Lord of the Rings’ for attractions in the theme park.”

But Von Feldt also has, as Wilkin describes it, a “colorful background.”

A man with a past

In 1987, Los Angeles City Attorney James Hahn—now the city’s former mayor—was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as calling Von Feldt a “career con artist.” That year, Von Feldt pleaded no contest to violating California laws prohibiting false and misleading advertising, and served eight months in prison. He has also been fined several times since 1976 by Minnesota courts for false and misleading advertising.

Von Feldt blamed the California charges on a misunderstanding over government regulations.

These days, in addition to pushing his proposal, he works part-time for a small radio station in northern Wisconsin. “He’s got some talent,” said Dane Jensen, the vice president for sales at WJMC-AM-FM in Rice Lake, Wis.