September 12, 2005
Obligatory Hank Williams Jr. reference
The NFL season kicked off yesterday, and appropriately enough, so did the NFL stadium-seeking season:
- The Minnesota Vikings are reportedly on the verge of getting from Anoka County what the Twins got from Hennepin County: the promise of a three-quarters-of-a-percent sales tax to help fund a new stadium. Like the Twins, the Vikes would still need for the state legislature to sign off on the deal; unlike the Twins, they'd also need state money - according to Anoka County board chair Margaret Langfeld, somewhere between $100 million and $240 million worth of it, to build a retractable roof. While admitting a flippable lid would be "pricey," Langfeld insisted that "the state is the big beneficiary if there is a roof on this building. Without a roof, you lose the potential for the huge conferences, the Billy Graham crusade, the Final Four." Isn't this where I came in?
- The New York Giants and New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey are facing a September 15 deadline to finalize plans for a $800 million replacement for Giants Stadium (the team would pay for the building, the state would provide the land), and according to the Newark Star-Ledger, talks don't seem to be going well - "I'm wishing and I'm hoping and I'm praying" for a deal, said Codey last week. Of course, nothing's stopping the two sides from negotiating a new deal after the deadline, but with stadium fan Codey leaving office in January, the clock is likely starting to run out.
- So is San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium really a dump, as Chargers COO for Stadium Grubbing Jim Steeg said last week? Fan opinions differ, while stadium managers say they haven't received any complaints, and such items as broken TVs have been recently replaced.
- The Indianapolis Colts and the state of Indiana have finally reached an agreement to begin construction on the team's new retractable-roofed stadium, after the state essentially caved on demands that the Colts help foot the bill with a $3-a-head ticket tax. State officials now say "they should have enough of a cushion to cover expenses" without the ticket tax; maybe this is why the stadium, which is part of a larger development to expand the city's convention center, is now being described as costing $500 million instead of $687 million like it was last December.
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