ST. PAUL, Minn. (NFL/Newsfeed) — The Minnesota Vikings took a giant step Monday night toward a new taxpayer-subsidized football stadium when the state Home approved legislation, but lawmakers upped the share the team would have to spend.
On a 73-58 vote, the $ 975 million stadium program remained alive. The state Senate was to vote Tuesday on a competing program, moving the Vikings closer than ever to a replacement for the Metrodome.
Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton hailed the vote by thanking fans who have flooded lawmaker phone lines, e-mail inboxes and the Capitol itself to push for passage.
“The voices of the people of Minnesota were heard tonight,” Dayton mentioned.
Vikings vice president Lester Bagley, who has spent about a decade trying to get the team to this stage, said franchise owners will find it challenging to stomach an amendment that would put the team on the hook for $ 105 million far more.
“There’s time to operate on it and get it fixed,” Bagley said. “I don’t want to take away from the moment. It was a great day.”
Early in a nine-hour debate, the House overhauled the proposal to enhance the team’s share from the $ 427 million owners have committed to uncover from private sources, which includes the NFL.
Rep. Larry Hosch told of getting born for the duration of a Vikings game, with his dad possessing to break away from an overtime game to ferry his mom to the hospital. Hosch said he can’t fathom not having Sunday games to share with his personal kids.
“It may well not make sense in dollars and cents,” Hosch said, adding, “I can’t picture a state with out the Vikings.”
Others urged their colleagues not to let nostalgia cloud their choices on a huge public subsidy.
“It’s like buying a home and hoping you can make the payments,” stated Republican Rep. Mary Franson. “We are developing a stadium and we are hoping we can make the payments.”
The Vikings will play the upcoming season at the Metrodome but are free of charge to leave right after that. The team hasn’t threatened to move, but fans fear they could relocate to Los Angeles or another city in search of its own football team.
Supporters weren’t ready to predict passage. The legislation appeared all but dead till NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell visited in April, raising pressure on lawmakers to act. Following that, the bill limped via numerous committees.
(About:) This write-up was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For a lot more NFL news see: Minnesota Vikings stadium bill passes Home, goes to Senate.
Who cares, he will make millions.
Awesome. The NFL needs football outside in Minnesota. Even if it’s only for a few years it’s a good thing.
Who is going to pay for the upgrade on the U of Minnesota field? Didn’t they say in 2010 that their isn’t any type of heating system under the turf?
I stopped reading after I saw Charlie Walters.
They should play outdoors, the ultimate home field advantage. many chilhood memories of the old Vikes in Metropolitan Stadium. Of course that’s easy for me to say, I watched from the warmth of my family home! But man I loved those teams..Fran the Man, Chuck Foreman, Mick Tinglehoff, Paul Krause.
The owners should be paying for their own stadiums and the states should be giving them taxbreaks, so they will stay in town.
Irsay took the Colts out of Baltimore in the middle of the night because of a fight over a stadium, well the state of Maryland spent more money trying to get an NFL team back to Baltimore than it would have cost to build the stadium.
They need an open air stadium anyways
this organization is a dump. how could you be a vikings fan? hell, im a Lions fan and even I feel sorry for you clowns!
Zygi, I think your “five stages of grief” have already come and gone.
In no particular order: Brett Farve, Donovan McNabb, Brad Childress, Chris Cook, Everson Griffen, … actually I guess we could go on for several more stages :/
Zygi should be happy the average taxpayer will have to pay for his stadium at any location. If he doesn’t like it, then he should pay for it himself and he could build it wherever he wants.
Maybe they could play a couple seasons at the L.A. Coliseum while they’re building something new in Minneapolis…
Gophers should demand a ton for renting their stadium to the Vikings. Supply and demand, so where else would the Vikings play if the Gophers declined allowing them to use their stadium?
Perhaps returning students tuitions to the U of M the next few years will be picked up by the Wilfs?
No open air stadium. I’m not gonna freeze my butt off outside over football jeez. I can watch on the big screen at home and eat and go to the bathroom when i please. Make it comfortable(metrodome seats suck-no leg room) and play welcome to the jungle, etc and people will enjoy themselves more. Plenty of security so families don’t hear our fans abusing their own players. That was nuts. Your own team? yes, ziggy makes 100-200 million in team equity.
Joe Kapp says “the weather outside is delightful”
just in…have prince fielder pay 1/4 of it! 9yrs=214 MILLION bucks! problem solved. Plus his investment will pay him back up to 300 million? ha
So Ziggy Wilf doesn’t get to profit off the real estate he bought around the alternate site? I’m so sorry to hear that!
Dear Zygi,
As a season ticket holder for 14 seasons and a tax paying Minnesotan, take what we give you (Metrodome Site) or finance your “preferred” site, Arden Hills, on your own like Robert Kraft did with the Patriots. There is plenty of opportunity for you to revamp the south end of downtown and turn it into the game day experience you have envisioned.
You have one of the most loyal fan bases in the NFL. Please don’t disrespect us Vikings fans by pulling the we might move the team elsewhere card. We deserve more than that and I’m quite confident a man with your business aptitude will find a way to make money hand over fist no matter where they build the stadium. We have welcomed you as an outsider with open arms, please return the favor by doing the right thing.
Yours,
Vikings Fan
The Vikings stadium process has been about as painful as watching the state of the union.
They built that damn thing back up just to blow it up again?
Pick some new ground! You’re obviously pissing some supernatural force off.
People don’t just take knee’s like that or have too many men in the huddle with the season in the balance.
Poltergeist 4: The Metrodome. Rated X
Starring…. Chris Rock as Leslie Frazier.
I was rooting for Arden hills but would be happy as long as they stay
Just move to LA. Be done with this city that doesnt want you
I know that the team doesn’t want to have to use TCF Stadium for various reasons (small capacity, needed improvements to meet NFL standards, ect..). But if this happens, I will buy season tickets in a heart beat to get to watch the Vikings be an outdoor team again even if it is only for a couple of seasons!
maybe they can use Target Field.The Twins don’t play past September anyways.
Shooter is about as reliable as Sid Hartman. I think I’m more plugged in than those idiots are.
@pacificamjr says:
Jan 24, 2012 9:49 PM
this organization is a dump. how could you be a vikings fan? hell, im a Lions fan and even I feel sorry for you clowns!
Don’t feel sorry for Us Viking fans. We’ll be just fine.
Why does it have to be a dome?
Piss off, Zygmunt. You’ll accept whatever the f#x%h* MN offers you, and if you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!
@War27 The Gophers stadium does have heating coils, but because the stadium hadn’t been used in awhile so the field was frozen and wasn’t able to warm up in time for the game.
that guy has a mustache for porn
When you’re getting taxpayer money that will allow you to make millions of dollars you don’t complain about location you say thank you and shut your damn mouth.
@ frownifdown…
It does NOT have heating coils under the field. How ludicrous is it to say that it was too frozen to heat……dear God! When they played that one game there they were using huge flame heaters to warm the field. They had tarps over the top to try and retain the heat until game time, then it refroze when they removed the tarps. The Vikings will have to pay 50 million dollars ( heating coils included in that price) to get the college stadium up to NFL standards. Don’t comment on things that you know nothing about.
If this does end up being the case, the Vikes should petition the league to let them wear their old school throwbacks for all of their home games while they play outside. But please, get it done already!
How is this state/team relevant? Maybe if they played outdoors they would have the intestinal fortitude of the original team. Remember? The one good enough to get to the Super Bowl. Other northern teams play outdoors and do quite well (you know, perennial winners like Packers, Patriots). Maybe some game in Gopherdom for a couple of years would help.
yevrag3535 says:
Jan 24, 2012 9:37 PM
Who cares, he will make millions.
========================
You’re right. If he stays there he’ll make millions.
If he goes to LA he’ll make billions.
Wilf and his ownerhip group can’t afford to build their own stadum. The vikings are hundreds of millions of dollars in debt now. They are reduced to just begging for another cheapo stadium.
Wilf and his ownership group do not have the votes of the owners to move the franchise to Los Angeles.
They ought to be looking at other markets where they can at least sell 50,000 season tickets unlike Minnesota. In Minnesota they don’t want a stadium larger than 27th in the league as then they would be facing blackouts that can’t be handled though corporate sponsors buying the minimum tickets the way they keep doing now.
Moving to Mexico City or Guadelajara and becoming Mexico’s team is the thing to do.
They can sell 50,000 season tickets there easily and the stadiums are already built.
It makes economic sense. Go where the audience and money are (not Minnesota). Flights to Mexico are shorter than from one US coast to the other.
The first international team, the Guadalajara vikings!!
Well at least the Cowboys problems are only on the field, and not a debacle off of it,,,good luck minny,,you’ll need it!!
Ok, I’m a Jacksonville fan and I would like to see the Vikings stay in Minneapolis. The Vikings have more then 50 years of history in that region with Loyal & passionate fan-base. It would be a great shame to see that torn apart because of greed. But maybe a stupid question but why can’t TCF Bank Stadium be modified and used ?
Go outside that’s the way it was in the 60-s and 70-s when they won the most game.
Charley Walters also said less than 2 weeks ago that Zygi Wilf “had the gall to send out season ticket renewals to season ticket owners with no playoffs on the horizon”.
Yes, Charley, that is how sports works, welcome to America. Spoiler alert, i also put down my Twins season ticket deposit before they even lost their 99th game of 2011. Every team in every league in the country sends out renewals.
Walters doesnt know jack about sports, he should be looked as as a sports gossip columnist at best.
I hope they move on. I am sick and tired of the elected officials caving in. LA queens
Vikings4life22:
Why should Zygi pay for the whole thing, when the goverment makes more money off of the Vikings ($ 26 mil/year in income tax alone) than he does?
The state is run like a high school United Nations club, a bunch of amateurs. They have approved 29 referendum-free tax hikes since 2003, including $ 300 million for Guthrie theater, $ 350 for Target field, etc. But they are leaving the Vikings out in the cold saying that tax hikes require a referendum, with no explanation. that is absolute bush league.
And if the state want to mistreat the Vikings to the extent that they leave, the state will have a $ 26 million deficit to fill each year for money they were supposed to get from the Vikings. And guess where its coming from…a tax hike.
So in the end, Minnesotans will spend $ 26 million per year in taxes to drive the team away, compared to the $ 11 million they could pay to keep the team and build it a first class facility in Arden Hills.
Nice going Minnesota Legislature. Youre really earning your paychecks.
And the Vikings will be horrible for multiple seasons, so who cares where they play?
Ok, this will come back around to the Vikings.
The 49ers should have built their stadium where Candlestick its, I would say or somewhere in the city but it is kind of cramped in San Francisco. They didn’t, now they’re fans have to drive south to Santa Clara.
Learn a lesson from this Vikings, bitch and try to get one kind of close to where you’re at, or just build one right where the current one sits. I don’t know where the state team the Minnesota Vikings play exactly in relation to their capitol or near most of their local fans, but this don’t make the same mistake the Niners are making.
Stay in the same spot, be men and man up. This is football, it will live longer than you, don’t ‘make’ anyone accept anything new or different because you are one of the few teams whose name should never be coupled with leaving or quitting. Just because you lost this year doesn’t mean you have to give up on yourself and everyone around you.
“Maybe if they played outdoors they would have the intestinal fortitude of the original team. Remember? The one good enough to get to the Super Bowl. Other northern teams play outdoors and do quite well (you know, perennial winners like Packers, Patriots).”
What an asinine thing to post. I guess it’s a mystery how the Saints, Colts and Rams got the “intestinal fortitude” to win the Superbowl. In the case of the Colts, we’re talking about a team who ranks among the top of the league in winning percentage over the last decade. Last time I checked the Bills play outdoors and they haven’t been relevant since Doug Flutie was their quarterback. But boy, they sure have some guts.
Zygi… Baby… The good people of Minnesota hates your team. Move to L.A.
I love Minnesota but I we are not capable of understanding the importance of a new stadium in the suburbs we don’t deserve the team. Mr. Wilf, take your team out. Eventually we will realize our lost and will pay 2 billion to bring a new team.
As long as I can drink at TCF I’m cool.
The warm blooded Minnesotans are ready to party in the streets like it were the Norde Mardi Gras, because they will get their Stadium any second now.
Can’t you feel the energy? When people give like they do, they get back a thousand fold.
Their unrelenting generosity and true openness is traced back to Scandinavia where neighbors hug, and people treat strangers to food and drink. Now we see why you are ready to celebrate. It was just a matter of time.
We are with you Minnesota! Bravo!
From everything i just read rgledz is 100% correct.
The field doesn’t have a heating system because the latest games are played there is early/mid november.
@bobnelsonjr
The Gudalajara Vikings? Yeah that’s a great idea for Mexico and its long historic connection to Scandinavia and the Vikings.
I don’t understand why so many fans from other teams say they want the Vikings to move. I wouldn’t want any team to move from their home state. I might hate the Packers but I would never want them to leave Wisconsin . It would destroy the long standing rivalries of the NFC North and make the NFL poorer for the loss.
Every team should play outdoors !
The Viking should just pack their bags and leave. Minnesota does not respect them, they treat them like a cousin who you just tolerate because mom says you have to.
Who cares as long as it’s here. By the time it’s finished they might actually be getting better. I would I imagine a few years if high draft picks. I don’t care how much they suck as long as they win or lose in mn where they belong!!
No “average” taxpayers should pay for the stadium – only exceptional ones.
Just move to Los Angeles already.
@jessiethegreat:
Gophers should demand a ton for renting their stadium to the Vikings. Supply and demand, so where else would the Vikings play if the Gophers declined allowing them to use their stadium?
Perhaps returning students tuitions to the U of M the next few years will be picked up by the Wilfs?
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Really? REALLY???? Sorry, but your new Goofer stadium was also paid for with tax $ , a stadium the U didn’t actually need. In fact, the U gets puh-lenty of tax $ . You wanna talk tuition? How about directing your comments to the U President (who’s in the process of refurbishing his mansion) and the Board of Regents?
People seem to forget that the state had to step in to save Dayton’s family business about 20 years ago.