Ramsey County Discussing Sales Tax Increase For Vikings Stadium

EDIT: In my pro-stadium zeal, I misinterpreted the article cited from Field of Schemes here about revenue that would be raised by this potential sales tax. My apologies to the folks from Field of Schemes for the error. I have corrected the original article to (hopefully) more accurately reflect what the article was attempting to get across.

It's not officially on the table yet, but apparently Ramsey County officials have floated the idea of a half-cent sales tax increase for the proposed Vikings' stadium in Arden Hills.

As I said, there's nothing official yet, but the fact that something like this is even being discussed shows that the folks that run Ramsey County are serious about getting a Vikings' stadium into their area. Many of the proposals that have been discussed have included the team contributing approximately one-third of the total cost of a new Vikings stadium, with a local government and the state providing the rest.

The Star-Tribune article says that the proposal would raise approximately $300 million for a new Vikings' stadium. However, an article from an stadium analysis website called Field of Schemes says that such a tax would depress the economy by $16.5 million dollars per year.

However, if one considers the fact that the loss of a Vikings game cost the Twin Cities' economy approximately $9 million, one would think that the "economic depression" caused by that half-cent sales tax increase would be more than canceled out by having a Vikings' stadium in Ramsey County, not to mention the extra jobs that a stadium would bring, as well as the jobs from the area that would be developed around the stadium.

But, if their figures are correct, $16.5 million dollars a year for 30 years (which is the typical period of time that a stadium lease runs for, to my understanding) would actually equate to closer to $495 million dollars. Depending on the size of the Vikings' contribution. . .and one would think that Zygi Wilf could be compelled to increase it a little bit if Ramsey County could find their way to darn near $500 million. . .the Vikings might not need any help at the state level at all, which would be music to a lot of people's ears.

If Ramsey County has 500,000 residents, a tax that would be worth $16.5 million a year to the Vikings' stadium efforts would cost the average Ramsey Country resident approximately $33 a year, unless my math is off. Now, as I'm not even a resident of Minnesota, let alone of Ramsey County, it wouldn't affect me directly or anything. . .but you know, if this deal gets through and there are people that are that angry at the thought of losing $33 a year, I would have no problem with finding a Ramsey County resident to PayPal $33 to. And if there are any other ways that out of state fans can contribute to the construction of a new stadium, I'll be at the front of the line for that, too.