Twin Cities Wants 2018 Super Bowl

((HT: KSTP-TV))

In the light of this outdoor Roman Numeral Classic in the metroplex, the Twin Cities are chasing the idea of having the 52nd renewal in their new building...

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton was surrounded by the normal amount of muckety-mucks who said that they wanted the game in the city...

There's a three-person campaign team and a five-person steering committee
Whatever those are...

Here's the presser and the initial amount of publicity the state is chasing...


The last time a game of that type was in Minneapolis-St. Paul was 1992...

Vikes Break Ground On New Stadium

((HT: KSTP-TV))

The Wilf brothers, Twin Cities mayor RT Rybak, and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton were among a bunch of folks who broke ground on the new Vikings stadium this morning...

You'll see below just how cute everyone was with their golden shovels and viking helmets...

Here's the movement of the shovels...


It's supposed to take 2-and-a-half years to build the new barn on the grounds of the Metrodome...

“What a day,” Zygi Wilf said. “It was always our intention to bring a championship and a stadium” to Minnesota, he said. “We are embarking on our way to both.”

“It’s easy to demagogue against a project like this. But demagoguery doesn’t put people to work,” Governor Dayton said.

The 65,000-seat stadium is set to open for the 2016 season, and the Vikings will play on the Minnesota campus at TCF Bank Stadium for the time in between...

$975M Won't Be Enough For Vikes Stadium After All...Maybe...

((HT: Minnesota CBS))

If they want all their bells and whistles that they have planned...

The Wilf family has ponied up an additional $13-million for cost overruns and the city stadium authority has a $60-plus million fund for "contingencies..."

Whatever that means...

The team will know more next month when all the budget line items are in place to see what stays and what goes...
But, for now, it looks like elevators are in and skyways are out...

Here's Nina Moini...

MN Stadium deal almost done

We are writing this story knowing full well that it may be outdated by the end of Thursday, but there is news here.

The on-again, off-again, convoluted, open-for-debate attempt at getting a new stadium built for the Minnesota Vikings is just about complete.

The Minnesota House of Representatives agreed to a new stadium deal, which includes a $50 million increase in funding from the Vikings, at about 3:30am Thursday morning.

The bill heads to the State Senate Thursday afternoon.

Read more from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune RIGHT HERE

The building will be a $1 billion structure that the team will pay over $470 million for. That part is admirable and actually is nearly half the estimated cost. The rest will be paid by the taxpayers of Minnesota.

The very complicated deal has far too many complications for us to get in here. And while we've come out on the record as being opposed to the premise of this, we are also realistic enough to understand that this is going to get done.

It's just humorous to us to read about the legislators who believe that the structure will pay for itself because of increased jobs and revenue around the stadium.To that we say, are there new people that will suddenly get permanently employed because the structure exists? There are already people employed that will be working around it. How is that going to change?

Yes, we get that the team "Might" have moved to L.A without this deal. But they "Might" not have too. Either way, we hope that the state and people of Minnesota can afford this. We hope that budgets won't have to be cut and we hope the things that need to be funded still will be.

And yes, we know, plenty more cities and states with 20-year old stadiums will be facing a similar issue. Very soon.

Your video story from KARE-11 in Minneapolis:

Step Two: Senate Signs Off On Vikes Deal

After another 14 hours of negotiating, altering, and otherwise trying to figure things out... another late night yielded the next step in the process for giving the Minnesota Vikings their new stadium...

The state Senate signed off on it...
Even as the Vikings are on the hook in the House version to pay another $105-million than what they want to at present...

Here's the KSTP-TV version from late last night...


The 38-28 vote also added user fees to part of the deal- and the Vikes are still not interested in paying more...

Here's the fan version from our friends at KARE-TV

MN Gov: State funding for Vikings stadium could be a problem

Proposed Stadium/Courtesy: vikings.com

((ht: pioneerpress.com))

It appears that all is not rosy in the state of Minnesota when it comes to the plan to finance the states part of the Vikings new stadium.

According to a published report this weekend, state house legislators had worked out a compromise bill that would raise the money needed to pay off their part of the deal by using what are called "Tipboards".

We will profess our general lack of knowledge and skill when it comes to the proverbial games of chance. In other words, we really don't know what a "Tipboard" is. Whatever they are, according to Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, they are apparently illegal.

From what we could gather on the internets, tipboards are essentially like buying a numbered square in a checkerboard game. For example if you had the number 3 on the vertical side and 0 on the other and the score after the 1st quarter is 13-10, then you win.

Oh, you have to pay for the square 1st. And apparently, the state believes they can raise a substantial amount of money this way.

Read the PioneerPress.com story which explains it better, RIGHT HERE

Okay.

Proposed Stadium Complex/Courtesy: vikings.com

We respect the fact the state is desperately trying to come up with a way to pony up money for a new stadium. But we'll be honest here (and a bit political--sorry), in the current climate, states, counties, cities and the feds all are claiming they need to either cut back or stop spending. But yet they will spend countless millions on something like this. And no, nobody is going to want a tax increase to fund it. And what will end up happening is city or state services will have to cut services further to pay for it. Which is great if you want such a thing, but not everybody does.

Okay, sorry for the political rant. We are just really cynical of governments that on one hand claim they have no money for anything, but on the other hand can find a way to fund a $300+ million stadium that only a small percentage of the populace will get to use. And yes, we understand if they won't build it,someone else will, that doesn't change the problem...it just relocates it.

Here's Jeff Goldberg with more from an indoor location...
((HT: MyFoxTwinCities))

Vikings Stadium New Images Released: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Here's John Croman at the capital...
((HT: KARE-TV))