MINNEAPOLIS - New Vikings Stadium (65,115)

[Jericho-79]

So this proposed stadium will be built on the current Metrodome site or in Arden Hills?

The article mentions Arden Hills.

[nomarandlee]

Arden Hills.

Amazing looking stadium. To bad its now in downtown Minneapolis or St.Paul but 10 miles isn't that far out. Plus having a stadium on the outskirts for foortball has its advantages as well.

Surely this stadium will get a Super Bowl or two.

[dfwabel]

As of now, Arden Hills is the site, but there are three parties who have to agree and currently only the Vikings are officially on board. The State of Minnesota has told the Vikings and Wilfs that the state's share will be no more than $300M, but until the money is approved by the end of thier legislative session (Midnight on May 22) I still do not believe it. The state still has a $5B budget deficit to address in the next 12 days too.

In addition, Ramsey County needs to approve a half cent sales tax increase as well.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/...m_8459512.html

[Avian001]

Originally Posted by Jericho-79

So this proposed stadium will be built on the current Metrodome site or in Arden Hills?

The article mentions Arden Hills.

This image is of the competing proposal by the City of Minneapolis on the Metrodome site. There is no design yet for the Arden Hills site.

[brewerfan386]

Vikings, Ramsey County announce agreement to build new stadium in Arden Hills
By Dave Orrick
dorrick@pioneerpress.com

Proclaiming "It's football season in Arden Hills," Ramsey County Commissioner Tony Bennett stood arm in arm with Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf on Tuesday to announce that the team and the county had reached a deal to build a $1 billion stadium complex in the northern suburb.

The vision that would give the team its new home for decades to come - and permanently transform the bedroom community - faces hurdles as backers now must persuade Gov. Mark Dayton and a majority of lawmakers to pay at least $300 million and sign off on a plan that raises a number of taxes to pay for it, as well as for improvements to nearby roads and highways.

Their lobbying efforts will come as the Legislature's attention is focused on closing a projected $5 billion hole in the state's two-year budget cycle, a dilemma that's forcing fierce debates on tax policy and cuts to human service programs, not pro sports.

Several of Ramsey County's own lawmakers, all Democrats, came out strongly against the plan Tuesday, while others said they supported it. Influential outstate Republican lawmakers, whose party holds the majority of the votes in the Legislature, also offered mixed reviews, ranging from outright opposition to open-mindedness.

The announcement of the Arden Hills deal also comes a day after Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak rolled out a $1 billion plan to build a mostly new stadium on the site of the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. The dueling plans are bound to prompt
countless debates over the advantages of a snug urban stadium with access to mass transit versus a sprawling suburban complex with acres of tailgating-friendly asphalt.

"I like 'em both," Dayton, a Democrat, said Tuesday after Wilf briefed him in a phone call. "They're both in Minnesota."

Wilf said keeping the team in Minnesota was always a priority for him. Wilf's announcement Tuesday made it clear: He likes the Arden Hills plan over the Minneapolis one.

The selection of Arden Hills as a site is the culmination of talks that began more than a year ago to convert the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant - the largest undeveloped parcel in the county and the largest polluted Superfund site in the state - into a football mecca.

Wilf said as talks progressed, he gradually came to believe the place was "the ideal site" for his vision. "This is what our fans want," he said.

The news conference was staged with a theme of Vikings pride, with costume-clad fans arriving by bus and applauding as speakers like former coach Bud Grant, who took the microphone and boomed "Bring on Green Bay!"

Wilf recalled his own childhood memories of pro football outings and asked Vikings fans to remember the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

"We're going to go back to the old traditions of tailgating and an all-day NFL experience," he said.

Under his vision, the retractable-roof stadium would be located near U.S. 10 and Highway 96 on a high point of land - perhaps the highest in the county - that affords a view of the skylines of both Minneapolis and St. Paul. A team "hall of fame" and bars and restaurants would likely be sprinkled nearby, he said, but from the sky, the most visible aspect would clearly be its 21,000 parking spaces.

The retractable roof, Wilf said, was "very important" not just for pleasant fall days but also for his desire to bring a professional soccer team there, as well as high school and amateur sports year-round - attributes of the Metrodome that Dayton has said must be included in a new stadium.

The 21,000 parking spaces, flanked by grassy fields where families could "throw a ball," would be integral to tailgating, a point he repeatedly returned to. Tailgating is limited currently for Vikings games, and the team could stand to make hundreds of thousands, if not more than $1 million, per game by charging for the right to crack open beers and fire up a barbecue "before and after" a game. In all, Wilf said, the experience should be "as memorable as the whole game itself."

The stadium would be publicly owned and governed by a commission similar to the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission that owns the Metrodome. The Vikings would commit to a 30-year lease and pay construction cost overruns and 90 percent of the operating costs.

The stadium would take three years to build, during which time the team would continue to play at the Metrodome.

In all, some 430 acres of the 2,400-acre TCAAP site would be affected. The stadium complex would take up more than 200 acres, while the Vikings would retain development rights to the remainder, perhaps to build hotels and restaurants. Wilf also said he hoped the team could retain lucrative naming rights to the stadium.

Wilf, Bennett and Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega refused to say whether the team and the county had signed a written document. Instead, they released a number of key details of what they all described as "an agreement."

The 65,000-seat retractable-roof stadium would cost $884 million, a number, Wilf emphasized, that is strikingly close to the roughly $895 million price tag for the Metrodome to undergo a massive retrofitting as called for by Minneapolis' plan.

Parking and other on-site improvements would cost $173 million, bringing the total project cost - not including off-site roadwork - to $1.057 billion.

The funding, under the plan, would be split three ways:

l Ramsey County would pay $350 million, or roughly a third, by raising its countywide sales tax by 0.5 percentage points, or a half a penny for every dollar spent. Under legislation likely to be proposed, state law guaranteeing county residents a chance to vote on such a tax hike would be removed.

l The team would pay $407 million, or roughly 39 percent of the total project cost.

l The state would pay $300 million, or 28 percent of the total cost, via a series of sales taxes, including taxes on sports memorabilia and satellite TV, and a sports-themed lottery. The $300 million figure is significant because it's what Dayton and key lawmakers have said is the maximum the state should pay.

And there lies the most obvious obstacle: All the other road and highway improvements.

Ramsey County and the team are proposing the county borrow money to pay for between $80 million and $120 million in improvements they say are needed for the stadium. The state and the federal government would pay Ramsey County back. The state's share would amount to $7 million a year for 20 years, Bennett said.

Dayton said Tuesday morning he would consider such costs as counting against the state's $300 million share.

Potentially more troubling for the Arden Hills plan, however, is that Dayton released Minnesota Department of Transportation documents concluding that more road and highway improvements would be needed than the team and Ramsey County say. That price tag, according to the Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel, should be $175 million to $240 million.

An hour before the Vikings news conference started Tuesday, Ted Mondale, Dayton's point man for the stadium and the chair of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, released a long-awaited cost comparison of the Minneapolis and Arden Hills sites. He included Sorel's transportation figures. He omitted $100 million from the Minneapolis plan that would go toward Target Center renovations.

Mondale's conclusion: "upfront funding" for the Arden Hills stadium would cost at least $319 million more than the Minneapolis site. In other words, the Arden Hills site is currently, according to the administration, too expensive - unless the Vikings are prepared to pay more than $700 million.

"Let the negotiations continue," said Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, the chief sponsor of a framework proposal in the Legislature that will likely now be amended to include the Arden Hills plan. Rosen said she was "encouraged" by the news of an agreement, but she cautioned: "There will be no additional transportation dollars. The governor has made that very clear."

But Sen. Joe Gimse, R-Willmar, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee and was briefed on the plan last week, said he believes the transportation issues can be resolved. "I don't think this has to be an obstacle," he said. "They've got until 2015 to work it out, and 21,000 vehicles on a Sunday afternoon, that's what, 20 percent of a typical rush hour?"

Bennett said that the highway improvements to the interchange of Interstates 694 and 35W are needed and will benefit the entire region, not the team.

But neither Bennett, a former lawmaker, nor Wilf, who has seen previous stadium visions turned away from the Legislature before, predicted an easy road ahead as the clock ticks toward a May 23 adjournment.

"I know we have a lot of work to do," Wilf said.

LINK

(I here by refuse to use the Strib for this issue.....)

[slipperydog]

This deal is still a long way from reality.

[www.sercan.de]

so cap. will be 65k?

[Avian001]

Here's the Arden Hills proposal:












Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Benn]

Originally Posted by www.sercan.de

so cap. will be 65k?

Ostensibly it will be 65,000 with temporary expansion to 72,000 for Superbowls, Final Fours, possible World Cups ect. Thats been the Vikings ideal number for the last couple years now, but we have yet to see anything final involving this proposal past the funding plan and some site planning, so I would guess somewhere between 64,000 and 68,000 permanent seats but we will have to see first if the project gets state funding and then some concrete numbers and architectural drawings.

[Jericho-79]

Originally Posted by Avian001

Here's the Arden Hills proposal:

So the Metrodome site proposal is now dead?

[GunnerJacket]

Originally Posted by Avian001

Here's the Arden Hills proposal:

I realize this is way early in the game, but even then these are some incredibly crude and weak images to pull from. By now Mr. Wilf has surely had time to pitch ideas of imagery and form to pull from, especially for a site that is essentially a blank slate. I can't even imagine these being used for an RFP, let alone a promotional piece by the supposedly chosen firm. Shame on you, Populous.

[spectre000]

Originally Posted by Jericho-79

So the Metrodome site proposal is now dead?

Seems so. The Vikings don't sound enthusiastic about playing at TCF Stadium for 3 years. They'll lose around $40 million in revenue. Also Zygi Wilf will get development rights for the surrounding land. Cha-Ching!

[Somnifor]

If there is no stadium deal by the end of this legislative session then we go back to the drawing board so we might still see a new stadium on the Metrodome site.

My guess is that nothing happens this year. The state budget deficit is just too big and there are claims that the numbers the Republicans want to use to balance it aren't realistic. I don't see this as being politically doable.

[spectre000]

Originally Posted by Somnifor

If there is no stadium deal by the end of this legislative session then we go back to the drawing board so we might still see a new stadium on the Metrodome site.

My guess is that nothing happens this year. The state budget deficit is just too big and there are claims that the numbers the Republicans want to use to balance it aren't realistic. I don't see this as being politically doable.

The drawing board wouldn't be blank though. Below is the link to Ramsey County-Vikings Agreement. It looks pretty well developed. The budget bills are all now in conference committee. A deal will be made. We'll just have to see if there's time for the Vikings. But it looks like Ramsey County is stepping up in the way Hennepin did for the Twins. There might be just enough time and votes to get this done.

http://blogs.twincities.com/politics...5-10-11%29.pdf

[Jericho-79]

By the way, does that ammunitions plant on the proposed Arden Hills site still exist?

According to the satellite image from Google Maps, the area around the site is just empty fields.

[dfwabel]

Originally Posted by spectre000

The drawing board wouldn't be blank though. Below is the link to Ramsey County-Vikings Agreement. It looks pretty well developed. The budget bills are all now in conference committee. A deal will be made. We'll just have to see if there's time for the Vikings. But it looks like Ramsey County is stepping up in the way Hennepin did for the Twins. There might be just enough time and votes to get this done.

http://blogs.twincities.com/politics...5-10-11%29.pdf

But remember, the Ramsey County sales tax is still contingent on the passing of the Senate Bill as the county commission will have the ability to levy a higher tax without it going to the voters. No state = no agreement and the legislative session ends next Saturday.

[spectre000]

Originally Posted by dfwabel

But remember, the Ramsey County sales tax is still contingent on the passing of the Senate Bill as the county commission will have the ability to levy a higher tax without it going to the voters. No state = no agreement and the legislative session ends next Saturday.

They did it for the Twins, I think they'll likely do so for the Vikings. They may run out of time, but I think the bill will pass in a later legislature session if they don't make it in this one.

[BoulderGrad]

Originally Posted by spectre000

They did it for the Twins, I think they'll likely do so for the Vikings. They may run out of time, but I think the bill will pass in a later legislature session if they don't make it in this one.

Washington and Seattle did it for the Mariners and Seahawks, but not the Sonics. "they did it before" is never a guarantee.

[hngcm]

I wish California would kick in some money for the Chargers stadium.

[slipperydog]

Originally Posted by hngcm

I wish California would kick in some money for the Chargers stadium.

That's about the state's 4,370,929th priority right now.