The Vikings' Palace of Arden Hills?

Image via WikipediaWith not much time left until the Minnesota Legislature closes out its 2011 session, the Minnesota Vikings have decided where they want to play football after their lease at the Metrodome in Minneapolis expires.  They chose Arden Hills, a suburb north of the Twin Cities.

In a deal with Ramsey County, the new Vikings stadium would be built on the site of an old Army munitions plant.  It would be a billion-dollar project with the NFL team paying 44 percent of the cost, with the rest coming from the county and state.  The stadium would have a retractable roof, seat 65,000, and have a practice facility nearby.

A few bugs need to be worked out.  Such as what to do about access to the stadium, who would pay for the environmental cleanup and how the heck Ramsey County would be paying for its share.

Until now, Minneapolis had been the front-runner to keep the Vikings with two different stadium proposals.  In the one that was touted by the city, the Metrodome site would have been used and would have been a cheaper alternative to the Arden Hills site.  The Vikings balked because (A) they would have been paying into it more than they wanted, and (B) they didn't want to play for a couple of seasons at the smaller TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota.  Which also meant they couldn't sell booze.

The other Minneapolis possibility would have been where the Farmers Market is now, on the western side of downtown next to Target Center and Target Field.  But Hennepin County backed out, and folks still have a place to buy fresh vegetables.

Now all the Vikings and Ramsey County have to do is to convince a skeptical Legislature to kick in the other 28 percent.  Considering the fact that they have yet to come up with a budget that would get the state out of its billions of dollars in the hole, and that opinion polls continue to show the public is still opposed to state financing for stadiums, it's a tall order indeed.

Sid Hartman, in his May 8 Star Tribune column, suggested that 2012 might be a better year to pass a stadium bill.  A couple of problems with that:  The Metrodome lease expires after this coming season, whether the NFL lockout gets settled or not, and the Vikings will not sign another one unless they get their new stadium.  And 2012 is an election year.  It could be too late.

Governor Mark Dayton has said he will sign any stadium bill that crosses his desk, and is not pushing for any one site.  If the Vikings want their football palace in Arden Hills, they'd better hope all the king's horses and all the king's men (and women) will come up with the answer they want.