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March 20, 2012
Vikings bill dies, could be resuscitated, but don't hold your breath
Apologies for being out of pocket yesterday for anyone who's been waiting for an update on how last Friday's Minnesota Vikings stadium deadline went. Fortunately, we have SBNation to sum things up for us in one pithy headline:
Vikings Stadium Update: No Optimism Anywhere, Basically
What's happened, in brief: House speaker Kurt Zellers neither held a vote on the stadium bill Friday, nor granted it an extension, making the legislation technically dead for this legislative session. However, Zellers could still grant it a retroactive exemption — but he's given no indication he will do so. In fact, the speaker has given very little indication at all of what he'll do, beyond wry comments about how it's "way too early" to say the stadium bill is dead.
There are basically two possible scenarios here: Either Zellers is holding out for somebody to offer him some concessions — who knows what? — in exchange for backing the bill, or he's letting the stadium plan expire slowly and watching the political winds to see if anyone gets mad at him, in which case he can always step in and take action. Either way, given the number of important groups that hate hate hate this bill — including, let's not forget, the Minneapolis city council, which can block the plan and which Gov. Mark Dayton resorted to personally lobbying two members of yesterday, with uncertain results — the odds are very, very long against anything happening this year.
Which, of course, would mean we get to do it all over again in 2013. Whee!
kurt zellers is an a$$
Posted by b on March 20, 2012 12:31 PM
If Robert Kraft can finance his own stadium, so can zyggy the subhuman pig Wilff!!!!!
Posted by Fred Flintstone on March 20, 2012 05:47 PM
Can we quit with the name-calling, please, and stick to actual arguments? Thanks.
Posted by Neil deMause on March 20, 2012 05:51 PM
Actually "Fred Flintstone" is right on target.
Anyway, there can be only two outcomes in Kurt Zellers political life based on what happened yesterday.
1. The Vikings stay put long enough for Zellers to run for Governor and win. In 2015, he will make sure that the Vikings will get a new stadium which will also host the 2024 Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as Track and Field, and he then becomes Paul Ryan's Vice President when he wins the Presidency in 2016.
2. The Vikings play their last season, for now, in 2012, and Zigfmont sells the team to Donald Trump who moves the team to Yankee Stadium while a new stadium is being built on New York's west side. As a result, the state of Minnesota blames the loss on Zellers as well as on Mark Dayton. This leads to a political revival for Michelle Bachman who ends up becoming President after the death of President Mitt Rommey.
Posted by Jessy S. on March 21, 2012 04:24 PM