Posted on 05/07/2012 4:51:40 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
WHAT'S AT STAKE?
Minnesota Vikings' lease at the Metrodome is up. Team says it won't sign a new one without a deal for a new stadium. Los Angeles waits in the wings. Team has been here more than 50 years.
WHAT'S IN THE BILL?
Public funding for $975 million stadium: $150 million from Minneapolis taxes and $398 million from taxes on revenues of new electronic charitable gambling. Read bill at http://bit.ly/Vikingsbill.
WHAT'S THE PROCESS?
Minnesota House will take up the bill Monday, May 7. If it passes, it will go to the Senate. Numerous amendments are expected to be offered, and a long debate is likely.
WHAT ARE ITS CHANCES?
The 134-seat House has 72 Republicans, 61 Democrats and a vacancy. It takes 68 votes to pass a bill. Democrats have pledged half, but Republicans say they are not certain they have 34 votes.
HOW TO FOLLOW
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
last I read, LA was broke. how do they plan on building them a stadium?
How else do we control the masses? The glimmer of hope that professional sports offer keeps the masses placated not unlike the Lottery.
Los Angeles Vikings.
Gotta admit is sounds better than St. Louis Rams.
Sounds like MN had better build a new stadium.How long has LA gone without an NFL team?
Hey!
We “NEED” to spend $1 Billion tax payer dollars, to play 8 home games per year........
Where are your priorities?
Personally, I couldn’t care less if the Vikings packed up and went to a new stadium in Hell. For the easily distracted, they offer an entertaining spectacle and a study in eternal optimism (or rampant denial). But since I will be forced to bear some portion of the cost for this new stage, I have the right to ask for something in return. And what will that be? What will a new Vikings stadium do for me?
Answer? Bupkus.
If one is good, 3 are better. think of all the jobs if we built 3 stadiums!
This week’s score: Vikings 548,000,000 (taxpayer dollars), Taxpayers 0.
The Buffalo Bills owner also subtly threatens the community with relocation to Los Angeles if the county and state don’t come up with $200 million for stadium improvements.
All spending can be rationalized if you’re not asked the “Can we afford it” question.
Lived in the Cincinnati area when Mike Brown, owner of the Bengals, was campaigning for a new stadium. Same BS ... implying that he might move the team to LA. The city fathers of course capitulated and Paul Brown stadium was built ... going over budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The tax payers of Hamilton County, many who can’t afford a ticket to a Bengals game, are taking it in the shorts big time. Projected tax revenues that were supposed to increase, in large measure because of the new stadium, never materialized. The half cent increase in the Hamilton County sales tax that was passed by voters at the time of the heist to help fund the stadium (15 years ago) is still in place. What’s even more telling, the Cincinnati Enquirer that heartily endorsed the building of Paul Brown Stadium, within a year were regretting the endorsement ... as reality set in and the inevitable cost over runs began to become apparent.
Atlanta built a stadium and put a box over it. Ugliest thing I have ever seen. They should have built a nice open air stadium.
I’m a big NFL fan, but with all these concussion lawsuits dominating the headlines, I can see a day when we’re left with nothing but some form of flag football, which would be un-watchable. If I was a MN taxpayer and Viking fan, I wouldn’t take the risk and say “no deal,.....but that’s just me.
When is the last time you attended an NFL game, if ever?
If you are like most of us, never.
So, why would you want to subsidize a stadium you may never enter?
Isn’t this a mighty high price to pay to name the team the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Podunk Ducks or the LA Rioters?
With bad roads & schools, which serve (abuse) the entire population, this seems absurd.
The NFL owners have been using Los Angeles as a threat for decades to extort tax dollars for new stadiums.
LA lost the Rams to Anaheim. And Anaheim couldn't or wouldn't keep the Rams, even with remodeling their stadium.
Al Davis is the only one to actually carry through on the threat of moving to LA, but even he used it as leverage against Oakland to move back there once he realized LA was not going to build him a new stadium and blackouts in the coliseum were a steady thing on any given Sunday.
The threat of moving to LA is like the Race Card. Its time for being relegated to the rubbish heap of overused falsehoods is long overdue.
Don't know if you talking about baseball or football here.Atlanta in January,I suspect,isn't *that* bad.Not as bad as Green Bay is,at least.But if my experience visiting Tampa in October is applicable here then Atlanta in June/July/August has got to be unbearable! Open air...Atlanta...July? No thanks!
Wasn’t a similar bill just defeated? If I recall, it was democrats with districts in Minneapolis that defeated the bill, with republicans supporting it completely.
Having just seen the Twins at their new stadium (a really well done stadium), I’d have to say that this is a simple case of stadium envy.
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