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May 18, 2011
Complete chaos breaks out in Vikings stadium fight
I step away from the Minnesota Vikings stadium wars for a couple of days, and already the plotlines have gone all to hell. I mean, sweeps month or no, who could have seen this coming?
- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pledged the league's financial support for a stadium at the Arden Hills ammo plant site in Ramsey County, but wouldn't say how much money the NFL would kick in, saying only he'd provide more details "in the next few days."
- Ramsey County commissioner Tony Bennett said he'd been "told that our people and MnDOT's people" will shortly come up with a plan for trimming the estimated $175 million in currently unfunded road costs for an Arden Hills stadium — at which point Minnesota transportation commissioner Tom Sorel promptly said that he had never been asked to come up with a cheaper plan.
- Primary Vikings stadium bill sponsor state senator Julie Rosen said she might introduce two bills, one for Arden Hills and one for Minneapolis. "I don't know right now," Rosen told the Pioneer Press yesterday. "Do you put two bills in, or do you just put one bill? I don't know. That's what we're trying to figure out."
- Local business leaders have hired Jac Sperling, a sports consultant who had a hand in getting stadium or arena deals passed in several other cities, to help spearhead their own efforts to choose a site to get behind.
- Um, this.
I have no idea what to expect next, but maybe Minnesota state officials can try this if they're running out of ideas.
go vikes
Posted by b on May 18, 2011 03:46 PM
The NFL contribution is rumored to be credited towards Wilf's portion of the bill. So he won't have to pay $400M; it'll be that minus whatever the NFL kicks in.
And has anyone mentioned that the legislature adjourns this week, and zero hearings have been held?
Oh. The Star Tribune (who stands to profit millions of dollars from land sales for a Minneapolis stadium) has run *5* stories today about the stadium. While failing to disclose their financial interest in every single story.
Posted by Geoff on May 18, 2011 04:36 PM
What? The Strib is slanting stories to hide its own interests? The hell you say, sirrah!
Now if only they could spend more focus on the possibility of Brett Favre coming back...
Posted by Sierraspartan on May 19, 2011 04:08 PM
LOL The Star Tribune has been against the stadium in Arden Hills because they WANT it on land they OWN so they can GET MONEY TO BENEFIT THEM!! I'm not buying anything the Strib writes about the stadium, because they have a special interest in the Minneapolis location.
Posted by Strib Biased on May 20, 2011 02:52 PM
The owner of Tunheim Partners is Governor Dayton's jobs czar. Why hasn't she corrected the governor 8000 stadium jobs claim? According to Mortonson Construction in 2009, a retractable-roof stadium involves 4.6 million work hours. It's a three year construction project so each full-time job lasting three year would involve 6000 work hours. Divide 6000 hours into 4.6 million total hours and you come up with 767 full time jobs lasting three years... NOT 8000 jobs. 8000 part-time job would only involve 192 hours of work per year.
any comments
Posted by Tony on June 8, 2011 12:25 PM