Vikings kick off in stadium proposal game

In my meeting with Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley 10 days ago, the team's point man on building a new stadium said he hopes to be having discussions with Legislators in 30 days.

That's a surprising and ambitious timetable, but Bagley said three different owners have been talking stadium for 2001 and expressed some frustration that they are still expected to "wait their turn" and this year might not be a good year. Legislators have committed, he said, to working out some kind of deal.

But Bagley says next year will be a worse year, and though owner Zygi Wilf is not threatening to move the team, Bagley asks somewhat rhetorically, "Why would he want to own the team" with no stadium, loss of revenue.

Vikings have been patient. Gophers and Twins got their stadiums. He notes the situation: The Dome is "most dysfunctional stadium with state's most popular team."

The key sticking point for legislators and maybe the public is: among all the things Minnesotans can't have this year because of budget, schools, health care for the poor etc, why should they fund a stadium?

Bagley's answer: It won't be general fund money. He says Vikings are open to several proposals that include some kind of hospitality tax, maybe even a memorabilia tax, and some lottery money. There also might be some kind of sales tax "TIF" or tax increment financing, where you'd take the extra sales tax brought into the state from the new stadium and use it to pay off bonds sold for the stadium construction.

It's a tactic cities small and big have used for years in Minnesota.

Bagley suggests deals in other cities have coupled new stadiums with funding for public goods. We'd maybe suggest a deal like that possibly including funding for schools or maybe civic centers for towns like the one that hosts the Vikings training camp.

There is a group of Republicans and Democrats, he says, in the Minnesota Legislature, that have a commitment to try to get a deal done "this year." Construction costs are down, interest rates are low and we need the jobs, he notes.

One key supporter would be the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, and so far, Bagley says they have a group discussing the issue.

Pressure is also mounting from the NFL, who, Bagley says, won't agree forever to revenue sharing where small market teams like Green Bay and Kansas City have to pay part of the $15 million to $20 million a year that goes to the Vikings.

Vikings owners would put up 33 percent of the money for a $670 million open air stadium, a figure, Bagley notes, is above the Twins 28 percent contribution to their stadium.

More importantly, because the deal doesn't suggest any general fund spending, Bagley suggests Gov. Tim Pawlenty would be a team player in the deal.

Intriguing stuff. Doing a deal this year seems against conventional wisdom, but then, the Wilf family need only point to last year's near Superbowl appearance and Brett Favre's storybook year to show they can often win against conventional wisdom.