Governor: Vikings Belong in Minnesota

To keep the Vikings in Minnesota, someone has to decide who wants to be the hero. It appears, from my view in Iowa, that Zygi is trying to do everything possible. That is off the field and on, to get the fans talking about the Vikes. Someone with gov’t connections (Republican/Democrat I don’t care) has to get the word out and show with numbers that keeping the team in Minnesota is a huge benefit to the State and the citizens. To expect an owner to dish out this kind of dough is crazy. There are too many tax incentitives and packages that States can create nowadays that can keep a valuable product in Minnesota.

Or no? I’m not even a resident, nor do I know about this stuff….. just curious though.

To whoever posted the rules of engagement on this Forum. I couldn’t have said it better! I have Viking Games I taped that go Way Back to 1988….I venture you could say I am a Viking Fan……………It was with Great pleasure to read the rules on posting! Some of the other sites have turned into Cesspools with all the garbage being thrown back and forth,,Stick to the rules…..I did for over thirty years in the Military..Quite easy when you set your mind to it

Now I see your name at the top, Anthony21…..Sorry..

Why not put out a couple of Vikings lottery tickets with funds going for a new stadium. People are opposed to taxpayer money going to the stadium and this way Vikings fans can donate through the lottery.

My guess, based on nothing concrete, is that at the last minute some deal will be made to keep the Vikings in Minnesota. Said deal will certainly use a lot of public (taxpayer) dollars in some form, probably a sales tax, to build a new stadium.

Until T-Paw made his statement, I was seeing an accelarating game of chicken between the Wilfs from one direction, and the state and municipal governments on the other. The cities and state want to the Vikings to stay, but understandably don’t want the taxpayers to be on the hook for a half-billion dollar stadium. (That figure is a rough guess, not based on anything concrete.)

The Wilfs and NFL want to keep the Vikings in Minnesota, but they want a state-of-the-art publicly-funded playground more. The Wilfs have been dropping more and more warnings about the Metrodome being inadequate, with the un-spoken corollary that the proposed stadium in the City of Industry, CA, looks mighty nice.

I expected this game of chicken—the state and city governments saying “no taxes for a stadium” while the Wilfs let it be known they had U-Haul on speed dial—to go one for another year or so, until one side, most likely the state and city governments, blinked.

Now, Pawlenty seems to be blinking a little earlier than I thought. No politician in Minnesota looks forward to passing a tax-hike of some type, especially in the current economic climate, to pay for a new stadium. But there is not a politician in Minnesota who wants to be remembered as the governor/mayor/ legislator who let the Vikings go to California.

I don’t live in Minnesota anymore, so maybe I just missed it…but was there ever any serious discussion about having the Gophers and Vikings share a football-only stadium when TCF Field was planned, or did that idea make too much sense?

that we are letting our politicians just ignore the issue and hide behind the “we don’t have time in our busy days to talk about it.” Our guys need to come out and say that they want the team out of Minnesota or that they want to do what it takes to keep the team here. We are letting them get away with just saying that they don’t have the time to talk about it.

Inaction is the same as doing everything you can to get the team out of the state. Unfortunately the average voter doesn’t realize this.

RANT WARNING

As I implied in one of my earlier posts, I would much prefer the Wilfs come up with the most of the money for a new stadium on their own. Yes, stadiums contribute to the state economy, in addition to the psychic benefits of having a major-sport franchise to call our own, but the owners and NFL are the biggest financial beneficiaries of new stadiums, so they are the ones who should pay for them.

Unfortunately, IMO, the NFL has time and again convinced taxpayers to build new stadiums for them, and once one city or state goes that route, others will follow. Ideally, the state of Minnesota would tell the Wilfs to stick their public-financing requests where the sun doesn’t shine. However, someone else will build the Wilfs a new stadium on the public dime if Minnesota doesn’t, so if I want the Vikings to stay in my home state, and I do, public financing is unfortunately the only way to go. Sigh.

END RANT

In the last several legislative sessions, the Wilf’s have stood up with SIGNIFICANT amounts of their own money in asking for a new stadium. As a matter of fact during the legislative session that approval of TCF and the new Twins stadium, the Vikings were the one that got the shaft. They were asking for the least amount of public $‘s and were the ONLY ones putting forward any of their own cash, more than any team owner in history has contributed to the development of a stadium. In my mind, Zygi is a model owner in this age of team welfare. It would be a serious blow to MN should we lose the Vikings here. Purple Pride means a lot. TPaw likely has the cover now of this being that he isn’t going to run again. One can only hope. I know that those of us up North do press the pols in MSP to support a stadium, by and large. I would suspect that $1-2 billion dollars in stadium and infrastructure development would have a significant impact on the economy of Minneapolis. It’s time to move this forward. As to the question of the Gophers and TFC, ask the Gophers and the U why they fought to hard to separate. Didn’t make sense to me either and it annoyed me so much that they actually got the stadium. On campus is a relative term, when we could have built a facility that would have served them as well as the Vikings.

As I recall (and I don’t have the information in front of me) the Wilfs offered to pay two to three hundred million of a one billion-plus dollar project. That still left the taxpayers (I own property in SE Minnesota, where there is little support for a public-financed stadium) on the hook for most of the cost.

The Wilfs offering to pay a “significant” part of the funding for a new stadium is a start, but in my opinion they should pay for most of it. Not trying to start a fight, but that is how I feel.

look at all the money wilf put out for the players so we can have a great team put together.we should build a new stadium for them,i rather watch football then watch baseball.football brings more excitement then baseball does.

But why didn’t the Vikings and Gophers go in on a stadium together?

First of all, the Minnesota Vikings are a business. Here’s how a business works – profit maximization. That means Wilf will do whatever makes him the most money. If moving or selling the team is his most profitable option, that’s what he, as a successful businessman will do.

Now, for our politicians – they are not a business and even though good business decisions may make sense it may not be the best political move (good politics is doing what the majority of the electorate desires, not necessarily what is best financially).

Okay, so if the politicians wanted to make the best financial decision, all they have to do is figure out how much taxpayer money they would need to at least meet Wilf’s other options. Then, the state would need to calculate the return on that investment to decide if it is a sound financial decision or not. If the returns are more than the investment, they should cough up the money. If the returns are less than their investment… stop. I don’t want the Vikings to move, but you get the point.

As far as the pleasing the electorate part, politically I would think that most voters would not appreciate their politicians supporting “welfare for millionaires” unless the politicians realized it was a good financial decision and explained their decision to the public.

I haven’t done the math—I don’t have the numbers—but I hope that investing in the Vikings is a profitable venture for the state of Minnesota.

I personally don’t believe that taxpayers should have to pay for a new stadium…too many other important things that the money could be spent on besides entertainment.

I’d like to see the Vikings get a new stadium though. The metrodome sucks. I’d be willing to invest in a new Vikings stadium, provided that once it becomes profitable that investment returns money to me. Are there any stadium plans currently floating around that call for investor support rather than tax payer support?

I have made comments regarding this idea ever since the article was posted. Apparently the moderator doesn’t like my idea. I would be more than happy to buy stock, lottery tickets or whatever Minnesota comes up with to help. I live out of state and don’t get to spend much money in MN so a sales tax would not let me contribute. Believe me I am willing to do my part. I hope to buy season tickets next year and fly in for a couple games. California doesn’t need another football team.