Field of Schemes
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February 27, 2012

Vikings stadium almost ready to be thrown to Minneapolis council wolves

Vikings vice president Lester Bagley says the team is "near the end" of negotiating a stadium deal with Gov. Mark Dayton and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, though of course that doesn't actually mean that the Minneapolis city council or Minnesota state legislature will approve it.

And speaking of the council, seven out of its 13 members are now on record as saying they won't approve a stadium deal without a referendum, and that their constituents overwhelmingly back them up on this. Four members support the mayor's plan; two, Meg Tuthill and Kevin Reich, are undecided, though Reich said on Friday that he's leaning toward requiring a referendum.

At this point, the only real hope for the Minneapolis plan appears to be if either Rybak can twist some seemingly untwistable arms — maybe somebody would like some redevelopment money funneled to their district? — or the state legislature decides to flat-out overrule the council, which it says it doesn't want to do. Still, it doesn't cost Bagley, Rybak, and Dayton anything to announce a deal, and who knows? Maybe some "We have a deal!" headlines will prompt some Minneapolis councilmember to change their mind — or at least to name their price.

COMMENTS

Way off-topic, and you can delete this post if you like:

Have you ever considered migrating to a better blogging tool? I really don't have any suggestions, but this one does seem a little bit 20th-century.

Just a thought.

Posted by MikeM on February 27, 2012 12:44 PM

Migrating to WordPress and updating the design (likely using server-side fonts), not necessarily in that order, are two items on my to-do list. If the Vikings and the Kings would be so kind as to put aside their funding requests for a few weeks, I might even have time to work on it.

Posted by Neil deMause on February 27, 2012 12:53 PM

field of schemes ever HEARD of backroom deals

Posted by b on February 27, 2012 12:55 PM

Follow the links...

Posted by Neil deMause on February 27, 2012 01:23 PM

City Resolution on �Coliseum City� project to be viewed by Oakland City Council Feb 28th at 2:00 pm PST � 2/27/2012
Posted on February 27, 2012 by A's Fan Radio
Sorry for the late word on this, but tomorrow afternoon, the Oakland City Council will be reviewing a city resolution on the �Coliseum City� project tomorrow at 2 pm in the Sgt. Mark Dunakin Room � 1st Floor at Oakland City Hall, located at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, California 94612. Coliseum City is the 5th item on the agenda and docs can view by clicking here.

We are HIGHLY ENCOURAGING all fans of the OAKLAND Athletics, OAKLAND RAIDERS & Golden State Warriors to attend this meeting and make our voices heard that we will not just stand by and let ANY of these teams leave The Town without a fight. This issue is not just Oakland�s problem anymore, but the ENTIRE EAST BAY�S PROBLEM and its time for all to join as one and step our game up.

Posted by CFL on February 27, 2012 05:53 PM

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