New proposal, same old issues for Minnesota Vikings in their quest to develop a new Stadium - NFL News
It seems that the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota state officials cannot agree on how to progress with plans to develop a new billion dollar state of the art stadium for the franchise.
In a latest proposal, Ramsey County officials have proposed that the Vikings develop on their preferred Arden Hills location, but instead of raising state taxation to fund the move, they want Minnesota to utilise funds generated from game day revenue.
The county officials have proposed that the franchise draw money from stadium user fees, admissions surcharge, stadium sales tax and parking lot, naming rights which will in total generate $618 million over 30 years.
This latest proposal will give the franchise the stadium they really wanted, while satisfying the state’s demand for no extra raise in taxes.
However, this is not acceptable to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings, in a statement through their Vice President of stadium development, Lester Bagley, said that this new proposal needs some significant changes since an older agreement between county officials and the franchise allowed generating funds from parking revenue and naming rights directly to the franchise.
"When you change those things you change the underlying agreement between the team and the county," Bagley said. "We need to refine it because of those reasons."
The tussle between the Vikings and the state over the new stadium has been ongoing with no signs of an agreement.
Minnesota officials also proposed another location next to the Metrodome to rebuild a nearby parking lot into a stadium facility by 2016.
That proposal is also facing bureaucratic hurdles with legislators unwilling to put their full backing into the proposal.
"The Minneapolis proposal has its share of issues as well," Bagley said.
The Minnesota Vikings have been lobbying for a new facility for years with the argument that revenues generated from the Metrodome facility are insufficient to keep the franchise on par with the rest of the league.
The Vikings had a terrible 2011-12 season as they ended the regular season 3-13 to remain bottom of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division.
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton is not satisfied with the pace of progress on the Stadium deal and blasted Minneapolis city council officials for dragging their feet on the issue.
"They all sit on the sidelines and carp about everything," Dayton said. Later, he added: "They don't have ... the proper perspective on what's best for all of Minneapolis."
It remains to be seen how much traction the new proposal will gain among all stakeholders and the story is likely to continue well into the 2012-13 season.
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