January 03, 2012

Vikings lease expires, changing nothing

The Minnesota Vikings wrapped up their season on Sunday, leading to various variations on headlines reading "Vikings' Metrodome lease expires." Except for Minneapolis Minnesota Public Radio, which went with the more nuanced: "As season ends, Vikings insist dome lease is over."

That "insist" is a reference to the clause in the Vikes' lease that extends their lease by a year if they're unable to play a complete season in the dome; given that the team wasn't able to complete the 2010 season at the Metrodome because its roof collapsed, some have argued that the team could be bound to the dome for another year, if their state landlords really wanted to enforce it.

In any case, the issue of when the lease expires is pretty much moot, given that 1) the Vikings are welcome to keep playing at the dome, and are in fact expected to for a few years, even if they get a new stadium deal, 1) they don't really have any immediate options to move to, and 2) they could have moved last year if they'd wanted, just by agreeing to pay the last year's rent on the Metrodome. Still, it's not going to stop the Vikings, or the local media, from trying to make the end of the lease into a reason for urgency in the Vikings' stadium push.

Speaking of which, there's been a flurry of news items on the team's progress in that regard — the big news, such as it is, looks to be that they're considering yet another Minneapolis stadium site — but mostly things stand about where they did before the holidays: In the understated words of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Major questions need to be answered, not the least of which is who would pay for it and where it would go." Which is exactly what could be said about my purchase of this.