Hey, remember how the state of Minnesota approved using revenues from electronic pulltab gambling (basically bingo apps on iPads) to help fund $500 million in Vikings stadium expenses back in 2012, and then e-pulltab gambling initially didn’t get off the ground, so state legislators had to raid a fund of tobacco tax money instead? Well, good thing people finally started using e-pulltabs, and the state used the resulting revenue to pay off the stadium early, and now can use that to backfill what it would have spent the tobacco money on otherwi—
The Minnesota Vikings want state lawmakers to put up to $20 million a year in tax revenue from electronic pulltab gambling toward the future upkeep of U.S. Bank Stadium.
The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA), which operates the state-owned stadium, estimates the nine-year-old facility will need nearly $300 million in maintenance over the coming decade.
Yes, Vikings execs say that their nine-year-old stadium is in such dire shape that it needs $300 million in upgrades (no details provided on what), so it needs a steady flow of tax money to pay for it. What else is an NFL franchise worth $5 billion that turns an annual $111 million profit to do?
The Vikings subsidy bill is co-sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Nick Frentz and Republican state Sen. Jeremy Miller, who argued “Do we want to have to come back to the Legislature every time there is a capital need?” (Frentz) and “This is an asset of the state of Minnesota and it is our responsibility to maintain the stadium” (Miller). No one appears to be arguing “If the Vikings owners wanted to get a guaranteed stream of upgrade revenue, they should have put it in their initial stadium agreement, but then they probably figured that never would have passed the legislature at the time and instead they’d wait 13 years and see if they could get the state to throw good money after bad, as one does” — maybe once this enters the legislative debates over how to pass a budget to fill in for federal cuts and keep the state government from shutting down at the end of June, we’ll get more diversity of opinion.
Mendacious is the word that comes to mind.
Lest the Vikings prevarivacate the premises!
Every city that argues that building a domed stadium will bring them Super Bowls, Final Fours, and all the riches that flow from them, should take note. US Bank stadium has hosted both, and yet Minneapolis still needs to keep feeding the stadium’s insatiable appetite for more money. But hey, maybe it will turn out different for Brook Park and Arlington Heights.
They don’t need more money. They’re just asking for it because they might get it.
Teams will continue to demand money from city/state because the city/state are stupid enough to give in and give them what they want over 95% of the time.
There’s nothing sexy about a school system asking for millions…but a sports team and stadium demanding millions?! Sure! How much you want?!
Their owners are convicted racketeers.