Capitol View: April 20, 2012 Archive

NFL says time is now for stadium

Posted at 12:47 PM on April 20, 2012 by Tim Nelson (1 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature, Vikings stadium

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney emerged from a meeting with state leaders this morning without a breakthrough in the battle over a Vikings stadium.

"After many, many years, the time has come to pass the legislation and move forward," Goodell said. "We expect and hope that after today's meeting, there is a general commitment to be able to do that in this session, and that will assure the Vikings will be here for a very long time, which is our objective."

Goodell said there were no ultimatums. "There were no implied threats or any threats at all. What we talked about was the importance of creating a solution here," said Goodell. "I think the legislative leaders and the governor understand the time is now."

It's unclear if any of the leaders in the meeting hadn't heard or didn't believe that message from the Vikings and the NFL before.

The real question is what's going to happen in the Minnesota House, where the stadium bill failed to clear a committee on Monday. GOP House Speaker Kurt Zellers declined to commit to bringing the issue to a vote on the floor, which is what the team and League have been demanding.

"I think we'll have that answer for you in the next couple of days, I think. Right now, I think it's a little too early. Essentially, the bill is dead. It died in Gov Ops. But there's creative ways around here to make sure things do move," said Zellers. "So, it's alive in the Senate, and that may be the best first step."

Gov. Mark Dayton had what might be the single nugget of news from the meeting. He said the NFL says it has started working its way down its relocation checklist.

"They said again that they'd like to have a team in Los Angeles," Dayton said. "They'd like to have it be not the Vikings. There are other franchises, that are likely, possible to go. There are other places beyond Los Angeles, he didn't elaborate, that are interested in a team. So whether the Vikings are going to get sold, or somebody's going to move them, or they're going to get moved, they didn't address that."

There were reports yesterday that the League might tell Minnesota that it was waiving its Feb. 15 relocation deadline. That could potentially put the debate into sudden-death overtime by letting the Vikings announce a move after this year's deadline. But Goodell denied that the League had suggested any changes to the relocation policy in today's meeting.

The Senate is scheduled to take up its three Vikings stadium bills 30 minutes after its session today, which will be the first test of whether the NFL visit may have moved the ball at all at the Capitol.

NFL Franchise Relocation Policy

Senate committee green-lights stadium

Posted at 8:35 PM on April 20, 2012 by Tim Nelson (8 Comments)
Filed under: Vikings stadium

The Minnesota Senate's Local Government committee passed the plan to build a new $975 million Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis tonight. (See vote below)

The vote came after a more than a month of controversy: the same committee tabled the stadium bill in March.

"It's been an up and down week. Touch and go," said Vikings vice president Lester Bagley. "We'll get busy and go after the bill in the Jobs committee in the Senate and at the same time try to shake it loose in the House. I would rather not get into guessing what happens next, but we're encouraged."

He did have one caveat -- a 10 percent suite tax put on in an amendment offered by Ken Kelash, DFL-Minneapolis.

"We're not supportive of that," Bagley said.

But Kelash won over the committee with a populist argument: "The poor sucker from some part out state, doing pull tabs that will never be able to afford a seat in this stadium, he's subsidizing the guy sitting in the box. And those guys are not only not paying any taxes to help pay for the bonding on this stadium, but they're also able to write off the receipts as part of their corporate expenses."

The committee also stripped out a provision in the existing agreement with Minneapolis, the state and the Vikings that would allow the city of Minneapolis to use sales tax money to rehab Target Center.

Sen. John Harrington, DFL-St. Paul, had proposed deleting the Target Center part of the deal. He said it gave Minneapolis an unfair advantage over St. Paul.

Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak said it won't work that way. "The only way we can pass this [at the City Council] is the package that we brought forward."

The Minneapolis city council has scheduled a hearing on the deal next Tuesday, and Target Center is the carrot that the state has offered to win over doubters on the council.

"This is a very critical part to Minneapolis' deal," bill author Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, told the committee.

A majority of Republicans in the committee actually voted against the measure. They were led by Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, who said the state was giving too good a deal to the Vikings.

He offered a competing bill that would give the Vikings only a loan for the stadium.

"They have the financial wherewithal," Chamberlain said of the Vikings. "They're smart enough. We can come up with a deal that is more equitable for this market. We're not asking them to pay for everything. We're asking them to include the business community, which has $430 billion in gross revenue. And we're asking for the fans to pay a little bit. So we want a deal done. We just want something other than the first offer."

Rosen said the bill will go to the Rules committee on Monday, and the Jobs committee Monday night. It's likely to have to pass the Taxes and Finance committees as well before it can make it to the Senate floor.

The roll call:

YES

GOP
Carla Nelson
John Pederson
Claire Robling

DFL
Katie Sieben
Chris Eaton
Ken Kelash
John Harrington
Roger Reinert

NO

GOP
Ray Vandeveer
Pam Wolf
Benjamin Kruse
Warren Limmer
Roger Chambelain

DFL
Mary Jo McGuire