White Earth Ojibwa Offer Interesting Solution To Vikings' Stadium Crisis

But I am not sure that Zygi Wilf will. as far as I understand it the whole point, from Wilf’s point of view, of the Arden Hills location is so that he can build up all the surrounding land and turn it into his own hotel, mall and parking lot wonderland. I am not sure he would want such a large influence on that from a third party.

Get it done.

Is to not link the NFL and gambling? I like this plan and the opportunity it gives the Vikings, but I see the NFL having an issue with this…

Wilf may think he’s giving up too much control of the team and not agree.

Minneapolis just agreed to contribute 300 million for the stadium.

Honestly, at this point, I could care less where it gets built. Just build the damn thing. All this political intruigue between cities has gotten old fast.

If you don’t want to pay for a portion of the Vikings new stadium, don’t gamble.

If you don’t want to pay for a portion of the Vikings stadium, but gamble anyway, well, that is your problem.

Even if it just kicks Minneapolis into gear to actually work at something.

Don’t want to pony up public funds but expect public control? Go fly a kite. We’ve got this.

Get this thing done!! Forget the politics, lets gamble! Makes my indian blood(cherokee) pump some purple kind of proud!!!

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d824d0430/comments/vikings-exec-says-us-city-other-than-la-has-contacted-team

Leverage tactic perhaps?

my main concern is no public money, but a private casino to pay it off…until the details become clear, I have no problem.

There are a variety of political objections to getting a stadium done, and this addressed many of them:

1. No public money for stadiums – Potentially addressed. The John Marty’s of the world (I’m assuming here, so maybe this isn’t fair) might still say that a casino that generates money for the state is still public money, but there political case is a lot harder. Nonetheless, there will still be some elected officials who take this line to say no, but this likely reduces the group’s size.

2. No expanded gambling (i.e., Chris’s "think of the children) – It’s hard to tell what’s behind the anti-gambling crowd’s objections. Some of it is related to the influence of the gaming lobby (addressed below), but some of it is actual moral objection to more gambling, often coupled with convenient beliefs about the dangers of relying on inconsistent gaming revenues or about the fungibility of fixed entertainment spending. Regardless, this group is not appeased here. I just don’t know how large it is, when they are separated from the Indian gaming exclusivity.

3. Indian gaming exclusivity — Anyone objecting on this ground should be fully appeased, assuming that the tribes who operate competing facilities are appeased. I don’t understand it enough to know for sure, but at least this proposal addresses the concern.

4. Local interest in Arden Hills/St. Paul – Addressed. Ramsey County and Arden Hills get the development they want, and some extra with a casino. Assuming they want a casino.

5. No new taxes – Potentially addressed. Those who have made tax pledges can say with a straight face that they didn’t raise taxes to build a stadium. They will still have to face charges that the casino revenue is a form of tax, of among the most regressive kind, but I suspect that message isn’t going to have too much effect on their constituents.

6. Local interest in Minneapolis — Not addressed.

But it sure seems to me like it could be tweaked to bring this one in. (Hold on folks, you aren’t going to like this). Arden Hills wants new development and tax base. So does Ramsey County. To do that, they want a stadium to anchor the development. Zyggi wants the same thing, to use the stadium as an anchor to build developments around. But doesn’t a casino do the same thing? It’s fewer people at a time, but it way more consistent traffic. Why aren’t the local interest in Ramsey County adequately served by just putting in the casino? And Zyggi could still make money developing the surrounding land.

Meanwhile, there is no reason a stadium and casino have to be adjacent (heck, the NFL might even prefer is they weren’t). So why not build the stadium downtown? Doing it that way gives everyone a big part of what they want, although not exactly what anyone wants. And heck, with the Strib land and the Armory, Zyggi can add some downtown development to profit from too.

Anyway, this Ojibwa proposal as is pays attention a broader basket of political concerns than anything that’s been proposed so far. That’s encouraging.

This is a great option, but if the state government has to approve any new gambling facilities, then the fact that the Minneapolis Mafia has their claws deep up the you-know-whats of the state goverment is still going to be problematic.

This proposal puts forth an estimated $300 million in earnings per year. White Earth said they would give 50% of the profits to the MN government. First for paying off the stadium, then the state will CONTINUE to get money from the casino to use as they see fit.

This has WIN-WIN written all over it. So of course it will be completely ignored or all the tribes close to the Metro will oppose it.

I’ve said all along that we should talk with the Mystic Lake Casino and work with them to build a stadium back down in the southern suburbs where the Vikings started. Anywhere around the casino would do Bloomington, Eden Prairie. Shakopee, Savage, Burnsville or Eagan are all areas with roadways already that are better for traffic in and out of games especially compared to downtown Mpls. All kinds of restaurants motels and the Mall Of America (which the stadium is now named after). People coming to the game, in state or from out of state, would more likely STAY OVER NIGHT and spend more money for the FULL football and MINNESOTA experience. This is why Zygi has been pushing the suburbs for years, ex: Blaine, so he can build a shopping center/ motel complex to be the next Mall of America. Thats where his family will make their money.