Well, after Thursday gave us all sorts of news in the Minnesota Vikings' quest for a new stadium in Minnesota. . .none of which could have been classified as "good". . .Friday gave us something more upbeat to talk about.
The Minnesota Senate revived the stadium legislation on Friday with an 8-6 vote in the Local Government and Elections Committee. And all it took was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell flying in from New York, along with Pittsburgh Steelers' owner Art Rooney, to talk to Minnesota leadership about the possible consequences of letting this session expire without a plan in place. Oh, and Zygi Wilf's private plane being parked on the tarmac of an airport in southern California.
If one didn't know any better, one might think that this whole thing was starting to get serious.
At this point, I'm pretty much exhausted by the whole stadium issue, and rest assured I want it to be over as much as you all do. We'll see where this development takes us.
The thing that I wonder about is the fact that it's being said that there is only about a week or so left in the 2012 legislative session for the state of Minnesota to get this thing pushed through. Now, it's entirely possible that I'm wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure that the April 30 date for the proposed adjournment of the legislative session is simply a proposed date, and not something that's set in stone. Heck, they were trying to adjourn before Easter at one point.
It seems to me that the legislature can stay in session longer if they want to get this thing pushed through. . .but, as I said, it's entirely possible that I'm wrong on that. If they can, however, you would think that they would at this point, given the overtures from Roger Goodell and the rest of the group.
But, after getting into one of the valleys of this process, it looks like we're at least climbing back up the hillside. Hopefully the end result will be significantly more positive than this.