The Minnesota state legislative panel overseeing the Vikings stadium plan met for the first time on Tuesday, and electronic pulltab revenues are still in the toilet, still nobody can figure out where the money will come from to pay for the stadium, blah blah blah, hey, what’s that now?
[Rep. Jim Davnie] said he believed lawmakers would have to consider delaying the August bond sale if they’re not confident payments could be made without tapping the state’s general fund — even if it delays start of construction on the new stadium, scheduled for this fall.
That’s not exactly “We’re scrapping this whole fugly stadium plan now that the financing plan exploded even more dramatically than Kevin Ware’s shinbone,” but it’s certainly a hint that the e-pulltab mess could, potentially, lead to the Vikings deal being delayed or even reworked. It’s probably too much to hope that the state will tear up the old deal and go back to the drawing board, but given that any Los Angeles move threat pretty much died along with that city’s downtown stadium plan, it sure wouldn’t be a bad time to try.
Falcons won their last vote today, with a lone dissenter
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/new-falcons-stadium-clears-final-political-hurdle/nXCXF/
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2013/04/04/invest-atlanta-gives-ok-to-public-funding-for-stadium#more
More stories like this. I still haven’t given up hope for the L.A. Vikings.
Possibly a voice of reason by Rep. Davnie, but wait until the building materials fabricators flacks flooding the halls of the statehouse pushing pols to damn the torpedoes full speed ahead and stick the taxpayers with the deficit.
BTW – NFL/CBS wants an AFC franchise in LA to balance out the conference TV packages.
Is this some kind of record?
I mean, generally stadia are at least half built before dimwit elected officials admit that the projections they used/asked to be made were wildly inaccurate and that the revenue generated can’t possibly ever pay for the stadium they insisted would bring untold riches to the community…
Wow. Hats off Minnesota. Quickest stadium financing failure in history…
So, will they learn from this? Not likely….