Vikings Stadium: Two Minute Warning

Image via WikipediaFor what seems like forever (but really, it's been at least a decade), the Minnesota Vikings have been lobbying the state of Minnesota for a new football stadium.  Now that the lease on the Mall of America Field at the Metrodome is almost up, the time has finally come for some answers.  Or not.

Governor Mark Dayton is currently entertaining proposals on where the stadium should go, and how it should be paid for.  Then he will decide if any of them are worthy of being put into a bill to go before a special Legislative session, scheduled to take place the week of Thanksgiving.

The Vikings have already made up their minds.  It is the site of the former army munitions plant in Arden Hills, or nothing.  Recent studies have found, though, that the project would take much longer and be much more expensive (over a billion dollars) than when it was first proposed.  But they did catch a break when Ramsey County commissioners rejected a proposal to put a county-wide tax up for a vote.

Minneapolis, the Vikings' current home, has finally weighed in.  According to reports, the city is ready and willing to offer three sites that they believe are much more accessible and less costly than the one in Arden Hills:  the current Metrodome property, the Farmers Market area next to Target Field, and some land next to the Basilica church owned by Xcel Energy.  Oh, and the state might want to throw a little extra money to renovate Target Center, where the NBA Timberwolves play.

As for how to pay for all this, revenues could come from a new casino in the Block E section of downtown Minneapolis.  The Native American tribes who already run casinos in Minnesota might not like it, but what else are you going to do with an area that's become a block of broken dreams?

But the Vikings aren't interested in anything Minneapolis has to offer, not even for the dollar being offered to buy out the Metrodome.  Why is that?  There has to be more going on here than simply preferring Arden Hills to anywhere else.  They also say they don't have a Plan B if their choice is rejected by the Legislature.  Maybe they do have one, but they haven't made it public just yet.  Could it be . . . Los Angeles?

Then there are the same old arguments for and against the stadium, from the same old politicians and activists who have been wrangling over this for years.  Can we do this without adding or raising taxes?  Aren't we just subsidizing a billionaire owner and his millionaire players?  How can you even think of building a stadium at a time when the economy's so bad, and people are out of work?  And so on.

This is another tired question, but it bears repeating.  Do you want the Vikings and the NFL to stay in Minnesota, or not?  Within the next few weeks, we should have an answer that helps determine which direction this state wants to go:  the cultural mecca of the Upper Midwest, or just a cold Omaha?