February 19, 2006
Vikings owner paints pretty pictures
Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf came out with his long-awaited stadium plan on Friday, and it's an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink special: A complex of offices, retail space, restaurants, a hotel, housing, a medical facility, and, oh yes, a stadium, running a total of $1.5 billion. The stadium itself would cost, depending on whose report you believe, either:
- $675 million, with $280 million from Wilf, $280 million from a 0.75% Anoka County sales tax hike, and about $115 million from the state (Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal), or
- $790 million, "split between the team, the state and Anoka County" (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
[UPDATE: A Business Journal reporter wrote in to say the Pioneer Press numbers include $115 million in road improvements, explaining the discrepancy.]
The rest, for all the other construction that Wilf promised would "bring in millions of visitors each year, add thousands of jobs to the economy and build the area's infrastructure," would come from the ever-popular "private investors." As for what the investors would want to join in the deal, or whether the Vikings would share some of the boodle with taxpayers by means of shared revenues or rent payments, Zygi wasn't sayin', and the reporters weren't askin'. Oooh, shiny.
