November 30, 2011

Vikings: We don't really care where, just give us a damn stadium

As promised, the Minnesota state legislature held the first of two "informational hearings" on a Vikings stadium last night, this one slated to focus on where to build this stadium that nobody's figured out how to pay for yet. The highlights, according to the recap in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

• Vikings officials would still prefer an Arden Hills site, but will consider a Minneapolis site if that's what the legislature prefers.
• State officials want Minneapolis to narrow down its three proposed sites to one, state senator Geoff Michel telling Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak: "If you've got three, you've really got none."
• Senate Taxes Committee chair Julianne Ortman said that a Minneapolis plan to use existing hotel taxes to pay for a stadium puts it "back in the game."
• Ramsey County isn't going to put any money into an Arden Hills site, commissioner Tony Bennett declaring, "The cookie jar is empty."

All in all, it sounds like a mild momentum swing back toward Minneapolis, though still nobody has a clue where a stadium would go or how much it would cost, and the hotel-tax plan would require the state legislature to overturn a 1998 referendum that blocked Minneapolis from spending money on a stadium without a public vote. (Sound familiar?) As far as straws for the Vikings owners to grasp at following the collapse of their last plan, though, at least it gives the legislature something to talk about — and from the perspective of a team owner, it's always better to keep lawmakers talking about where to build a stadium than about whether to build one.