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November 20, 2009

Metrodome owner votes for lease extension offer, feathers fly everywhere

Headline of the day: "Metrodome landlord infuriates Vikings with offer to extend lease another 2 years." This in reference to the Metropolitan Sports Facility Commission, which indeed voted yesterday to approve its lease extension offer to the Minnesota Vikings, which includes a rent reduction if they agree to renew, and a rent hike if they don't. Vikings stadium guy Lester Bagley fumed that the vote "sends a very bad message to the owners, the state and the league about the ability to solve the problem in Minnesota ... What kind of message does that send? We want to lock you in for two more years in the most dysfunctional stadium in the league." (The Canadian Press story further observes that the Vikings' Metrodome is "outdated" while the new Twins and University of Minnesota football stadiums are "shiny.")

The St. Paul Pioneer Press, meanwhile, polls various sports business experts (including frequent FoS sources Brad Humphreys and David Carter) and finds they think the threat of the Vikings moving to Los Angeles is very real. Though Carter notes that current Vikings owner Zygi Wilf would probably have to give up his majority stake in the team if he wanted to go to L.A.: "[Ed Roski] doesn't just want to build a stadium and be the landlord. He wants to own a majority share in a franchise."

What appears to have happened here is that the sports commission has thrown down a gauntlet by saying that it can't bail the Vikings out — so it's up to the state to do so instead, by building a new stadium to replace the Metrodome. ("Our action today was to empty the cupboards here. There is nothing left," commissioner Paul Thatcher told the Pioneer Press. "The only thing left to do is to get a new stadium.") That will be easier said than done: Wilf has made clear he doesn't expect to put much of his own money into any deal, and the state is broke: "With this deficit, I think it's immoral that we're even talking about it," state representative Mindy Grieling said yesterday. Meanwhile, Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat Anderson declared that she's opposed to spending public money on a Vikings stadium. But then, that's what all the candidates say, until they actually get elected.

COMMENTS

And, once again, I'm guessing here that "most dysfunctional stadium in the league" is code for "stadium least able to generate ancillary revenue from activities that have nothing to do with actually watching the game, which is the purpose the stadium is supposed to facilitate to begin with."

If there is some real, tangible reason why professional football games can no longer be played in the Metrodome, please let me know; I am all ears. Unless I hear otherwise, however, I have to agree with Rep. Grieling that committing hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money to make very rich players and owners even richer is, indeed, immoral, in this or any other economy.

Posted by Tom on November 21, 2009 06:48 AM

Aw, Tom, you figured out the secret code! Spoilers!

Posted by Neil on November 21, 2009 08:16 AM

Tom- your statement "committing hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money to make very rich players and owners even richer is, indeed, immoral, in this or any other economy." applies to the Santa Clara stadium issue.

Posted by SantaClaraTaxpayer on November 21, 2009 05:52 PM

what is the point of a lease when the renters pay not rent? the Viking's owner is a real estate tycoon, does he give his tenants free rent?

Posted by john on November 23, 2009 04:59 PM

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