Vikings Stadium Proposal Suffers Major Blow

It’s getting late here at TVA, but we did want to pass something along before the night comes to an end. Tonight before meeting with The House Government Operations Committee in Minnesota the Vikings tried to push their latest plan to construct a new $975 million stadium on the Metrodome site with the state, the team and the city of Minneapolis all contributing a share of the total cost. A number of lawmakers questioned and criticized the proposal, which was expected. The biggest of which however was when Rep. Joyce Peppin put forth an amendment requiring a public referendum in Minneapolis allowing the city to assist funding their share of the stadium. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what a “Public Referendum” is (don’t we all just want to read another Mock Draft?) its a vote where the public decides yes or no on if the stadium is a go knowing that taxpayer dollars are needed for construction. And as most stadium wonks know, the Twins newly constructed stadium Target Field was built without a public referendum. In the event that one would have been required for Target Field, it is a near certainty that it would have not passed. We realize this is a sports blog and most of our readers are diehard sports fans that want to see state of the art stadiums, yet for reality’s sake the overwhelming majority of voters will oppose any project that would require additional tax dollars. Not good news for those that want the Vikings to stay in Minnesota.

As always, if you’d like to figure out what you can do to help the Vikings stay in Minnesota please contact our friends over at SaveTheVikes.org.

UPDATE: Jeremy Hanson Willis, who serves as Chief of Staff for Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, just tweeted that the amended Vikings stadium bill does not trigger referendum. There’s certainly a significant amount of political gaming going on right now, however if this continues without a definitive answer on if a new stadium is to be built the Vikings won’t be playing in Minnesota for much longer.

Jon Merckle may be followed on Twitter @thevikingpig