Ted Mondale reacts to being named head of the Authoritah
It's been awhile since we talked about the stadium--and that's not a bad thing, since it got, you know, passed and all. So what's going on with the stadium, and where do we stand?
Oh, is the Wilfare crowd still out there somewhere, beating their drums and wearing their hemp shirts, railing against The Man?
Anyone?
Anyhow, the new Metropolitan Sports Facilities Authority, which replaces the similarly named Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, has a new boss.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Ted Mondale, who ran the MSFC, will now run the authority.
And you will respect his author-i-tah. And the new Authority will have many of the same members that the soon to be extinct Commission has...had...whatever. With the possible exception of MSFC Director Bill Lester, who has been with the MSFC since the Metrodome opened in 1982.
In the above-linked article with Godfather, Mondale lays out a set of milestones that the Authoritah will be dealing with in regards to the new stadium.
For one, they need to buy some land. The Metrdome is only 900,000 square feet, but the new stadium will be 1.5 million. Hopefully, most of that difference will be in concourses, aisles, and bigger seats.
Beacuse all of those suck ass in the Metrodome.
So, they have a number of contracts that need to be negotiated, then an environmental impact study, which will take about a year. Oh, and that reminds me: Remember when we were kids, or remember when you watched futuristic movies that were shot in the early '80's and were set in 2019? Like Blade Runner, for example. 500 and 600 story buildings, flying cars, androids---none of that will ever happen, do you know why?
Environmental impact studies. Just sayin'...
By early fall, they hope to have an architect selected, and they will design the stadium down to the nuts and bolts, and by the Spring of 2013 they should have all the contruction contracts signed.
One of the key things that was buried deep down in the column was this: the Vikes will pay $13 million a year in rent for facilities maintenance and upkeep, which will allow the Authoritah to use the facility for many other events, like high school football. Well, I'll just let Mondale explain it:
"The way this is structured is, the Vikings pay $1.3 for each one of their 10 games in rent, so $13 million a year," Mondale said. "That really, with a multipurpose stadium, the Vikings really, in their rent if you will, are going to be subsidizing youth sports and civic activities all across the state for the next 30, 40, 50 years. I think the way we set the structure up is going to keep the way the Metrodome has been such an asset for our entire state going forward."
Those evil, corporate BASTARDS!
Enjoy your Wednesday, folks.