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November 23, 2010

Star Tribune drums up phony Vikings deadline

Minnesota maybe-governor-elect Mark Dayton said yesterday that he's discussed a new Vikings stadium with legislative leaders, though he said, "We talked about the stadium bill in general. We didn't get to any specific agreements or deals."

This was enough, though, to make for headlines in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, not to mention one whopper of a paragraph:

Dayton's comments were some of his strongest on a new Vikings stadium, an issue that is likely to again face legislators starting in January. The team, which has played at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis since the early 1980s, has said it will not renew its lease there when it expires at the end of next season.

I'm sure team officials did say that, but be serious: Even if a new stadium were approved tomorrow, there's no way it would be ready for 2012. So the Vikings are going to need to play somewhere then, and it's likely to be at the Metrodome — it's sure not going to be L.A.

There comes a point where responsible journalists need to call bullshit on obviously misleading statements. Or at least to point out that the lease standoff is really over how much rent the Vikings will pay, not a hard-and-fast deadline.

COMMENTS

A billion in public money for a a stadium is as good as spent. all politicians have always been ready to cave when the timing is right. They appear independent now because of overwhelming public opposition to it.

There has never been any chance whatsoever that the Vikings would be denied a taxpayer-funded stadium. They learned from the Twins. The Twins invented their own "opposition" campaign as a stadium strategy. The two county commissioners involved switched to support at exactly the right time to ram it through with no time for real opposition to react.

Posted by ken on November 25, 2010 02:35 PM

Ken, three things got the Target Field funding through. One, the Metrodome is not a good place for baseball. For example, sitting in row one of any Metrodome seat around the diamond would be like sitting in the last row of the Target Field "Field Level" seats.

Second, the funding got through because of Joe Mauer. In that regard, the math was simple, No ballpark, no Joe Mauer beyond the 2010 season. How would you have felt if the headline in the Tuesday November 30, 2010 Star Tribune announced Joe Mauer's signing with the New York Yankees?

Finally, the Vikings controlled the revenue sources with the Dome and the Twins didn't get enough money that way.

As for the Vikings, they do have three options.

1. Resign a lease for the Metrodome, and make it year to year automatic renewal until the new stadium is ready.

2. Sign a long term lease with the University of Minnesota to play at TCI Bank Stadium with possible renovations to add more suites.

3. Sign a year to year lease with AEG to use the LA Coliseum starting with the 2012 season and use that stadium or the Rose Bowl until the new Vikings stadium is ready. Teams have moved into temporary digs before with the two most famous examples being the Baltimore Ravens playing a few seasons at Memorial Stadium before their new stadium opened, and the Dodgers played at the Coliseum before Dodger Stadium opened. Finally, let's not forget that the Mets played their first two seasons at the Polo Grounds.

Posted by Jessy S. on November 27, 2010 05:52 PM

Jessy, I'll give you the Vikings revenue issue, but as someone who's been following the Twins stadium situation for 15 years, I don't see any evidence that either the Metrodome's suitability for baseball or Joe Mauer had anything to do with Target Field getting approved. The Metrodome was the same in 1995, after all, and the Twins were making the same claims about not being able to afford to re-sign players (even if the players then were Brad Radke and, of all people, Marty Cordova), and the stadium bill got nowhere.

What changed was that the Twins eventually convinced four people (out of seven) on the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners to support a sales tax increase. If one of those four guys had changed his mind, the Twins would still be in the Metrodome today. It was a matter of persistence, not better arguments, that won the day.

Posted by Neil deMause on November 27, 2010 06:02 PM

One thing that the Star Tribune almost always fails to mention is the financial conflict of interest a new stadium creates for them. The Star Trib owns a lot of land around the current Metrodome that would be sold for a HUGE profit if the Metrodome Next project (the defacto plan) gets approved. Every article they write about a Vikings stadium should contain this disclaimer, but it never does.

There is one other plan that may get traction (I hope): HF2911, which I think you've written about before. It's to sell the Metrodome to the Vikings for $1. I keep pushing that plan every chance I get, and will be a frequent attendee at the Capitol to make sure it gets heard again and again.

Posted by Geoff on November 29, 2010 02:59 PM

Neil

I get what you are saying. Yes, the Twins Stadium issue did come down to four people voting one way and three people the other way. However, the Twins had some trouble trying to acquire the land that Target Field sits on today. Besides that, the Dome didn't become an issue until the Twins were candidates for contraction. By issue, I mean political because the dome was a bad place for baseball since it opened in 1982 (despite the home field advantage whenever the Twins got what was close to a sellout).

As for Joe Mauer, he is a local son and the city and county knew that they would likely lose their jobs if they were to have let Joe Mauer walk. The result would have likely been that the state approves a new stadium in 2011, but it is 2014 before it opens, and it would have likely been in an outer suburb than the current location.

Posted by Jessy S. on December 1, 2010 02:19 AM

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