Vikings stadium plans move forward

by Jessica Mador, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. — The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission will seek proposals next month on plans for a new Vikings stadium. The stadium would be built on the existing Metrodome site in Minneapolis.

The Vikings lease expires at the end of the 2011 season. The team has not threatened to leave without a new stadium, but Bill Lester, executive director of the sports commission, said without one, the state risks losing them.

He said a more modern facility would also help attract high profile sporting events.

"We will have the capacity for club seats and all of the upscale money revenue generators that you see in a modern stadium. It still has to be negotiated with the Vikings of how much of that money would go toward the bricks and mortar and the building and then the cost of operating the facility, that's a proposition to operate it as well but they are so important to a community and this will be our chance for this generation," Lester said.

The Vikings have committed to funding about $250 million dollars of the project, which is estimated to cost nearly a billion dollars.