Vikes plan vs Lucas Oil Stadium: Best public deal?

Posted at 11:00 AM on March 1, 2012 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Sport

Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority

Backers of the newest Vikings stadium deal today said Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is the model for what they want to build in downtown Minneapolis.

Whether you like the Vikings plan or not, there's no doubt what's been laid out here is a sweeter public financing deal than what Indiana agreed to with the Indianapolis Colts when it built Lucas Oil Stadium, which opened in 2008.

Indiana officials put the cost of Lucas Oil at $720 million. According to the stadium authority:

It was financed with funds raised jointly by the State of Indiana and the City of Indianapolis, with the Indianapolis Colts providing $100 million.

Marion County raised taxes for food and beverage sales, auto rental taxes, innkeeper's taxes and admission taxes for its share of the costs. Meanwhile, a small increase in food and beverage taxes in six surrounding counties and the sale of Colts license plates completes the total.

So the team came up with about 14 percent of the building costs.

Under the new Vikings plan, a stadium will cost $975 million up front to build, with the Vikings committed to $427 million, or about 44 percent of the cost.

New Mpls #Vikings stadium has fixed roof, but flexibility to make it retractable if cost-effective.

— Patrick Kessler (@PatKessler) March 1, 2012