New retractable roof stadium in Arden Hills

[LMITOUT]

I still wanna know what's wrong with the Vikings playing in the Metrodome?

[jwmiller33]

absolutely nothing. especially considering they just put a new $18.3 million roof on it (even tho insurance covered most of it). Especially if the Vikes are only going to get one more year out of it, that is not justifiable in my mind.

[goblueM]

well, apart from the fact that its a crummy stadium, there's nothing wrong with them playing there. The dome is serviceable, barring more record snows anyways .... its a great location, just a terrible venue.

[chasineyes]

I still wanna know what's wrong with the Vikings playing in the Metrodome?

Same as..

Old Coke vs. New Coke

Ipad 1 vs. Ipad 2

Rotary phone vs. touch tone

old car with 100,000 miles vs. new shiney car with 0miles

old fishing rod (that works) vs. (well I just need a new rod)

1300 square foot house circa 1956 vs. 2100 square foot house circa 2011

wooden water skis vs. fiberglass/plastic water skis

Its all about something shiny, new, and well, fancier ( you know, the american way). Granted the team you put IN the stadium is what sells tickets!!!

[chasineyes]

If it's so crummy then why did the team sell out every year for like 10 years????

[creepworm]

How about instead of building a stadium to create a few temporary high end construction jobs, take that $300 million and save some of the state jobs that are being cut.

I just can not even understand where people think this stadium will create jobs. It will create a few jobs for a short period of time. As far a people to run the stadium, it will probably be more efficient and easier to run so I would assume this new stadium will actually have less employees than the dome, thus cutting the number of jobs overall.

[PurpleFloyd]

It all comes down to the amount of money that the team has to share with the rest of the league. One little loophole in the agreement is that teams do not have to share revenue from the luxury suites and I also believe the PSL's are not shared revenue so teams are jumping on the bandwagon to make sure they get as much revenue as possible from those sources and the dome is configured so that their ability to get large sums of that type of money is minimal. Their solution is to spend a billion dollars on a new building so that they can design those high profit options into it. And I don't have a problem with them wanting to make as much revenue as possible but IMHO they should be responsible for funding it themselves.

There will be construction jobs created from the project but you could create the same number of jobs on a public project so that debate is moot. There will be no new net jobs except maybe a guy to grease the rails of the retractable roof.

The interesting point in all of this is that back in 1997 or 1998 Red proposed a new 350 Million dollar stadium that he wanted the state to pay a large chunk of instead of building it himself. Now, 13 years later the Vikings are still without a new stadium and even with them contributing only 45 or so percent they are now looking at spending 400 million plus and they won't own it outright plus they are losing 13 years of potential revenue they could have had if they would have just done it then.

[PierBridge]

Give the owners the tax's that the players pay on income earned and there personal purchases and have them build there own stadium/s?

[jwmiller33]

Give the owners the tax's that the players pay on income earned and there personal purchases and have them build there own stadium/s?

so you want the government to just surrender tax revenue and hand it over to the owners so the stadiums being built would be 100% publically funded????

[MJBaldwin]

If the players/coach/owners want this so bad why dont they just pay for It I dont think its right that we have to pay for stadiums when we have a ton of roads that could use fixing yet we are building stadiums... Doesnt seem right no wonder why Minnesota is so far it debt just like the rest of the country.

[james_walleye]

Because that isn't reality that's why.

[DR_FISH]

The Zigs, or any of their billinair friends can't find a way to pull in that money to build it them selves?

[zamboni]

If it's so crummy then why did the team sell out every year for like 10 years????

Wrong. General Mills, Target, Best Buy and many other local big corporations have bought out thousands of tickets over the years so we didn't have games blacked out.

[B. Amish]

what was the nfl revenue last year? 8 billion? and why can't they build their own stadiums?

[LMITOUT]

Wrong. General Mills, Target, Best Buy and many other local big corporations have bought out thousands of tickets over the years so we didn't have games blacked out.

Which are a very small percentage of the total number of tickets sold.

Overall it is nearly sold out every game. Not bad for a so-called "crummy" stadium.

[Antero]

The product on the field is the only thing that will sell out the stadium long term. The Twins, if they keep up the current level of ball will not be the hot ticket forever. Same with the Vikes, before the Randy and Cris and Daunte show came to town they had problems selling tickets for some games. Thus the General Mills buyouts.

If a new stadium is built, the Vikes will get a few yrs of sellouts just because of the stadium, it happened in Cleveland and Baltimore (baseball teams) and other places.

But as Al Davis has said, it's win baby, win. Thats whats sells tickets.

[A R Johnson]

This is such a stupid debate. People that like and watch the vikes and don't want them to leave are gonna want a stadium. The people that don't watch or like another team hate the idea. Next topic please!

[LMITOUT]

That's not true. I want the Vikings to stay. I have all this material to use and it would go to waste if they moved to another city.

[Nate McVey]

That's not true. I want the Vikings to stay. I have all this material to use and it go to waste if they moved to another city.

[FISHINGURU]

That a way, get that new stadium!! About time.

I don't care what it costs or who pays what. It don't matter if your state is 5 billion in debt or 10 billion in debt.

Everyone else is just a whiner pretending it's gonna cost them so much money for a stadium.

[LMITOUT]

-1

[jwmiller33]

This is such a stupid debate. People that like and watch the vikes and don't want them to leave are gonna want a stadium. The people that don't watch or like another team hate the idea. Next topic please!

Not true. I like and watch the vikes but I don't really feel like paying for a new stadium via tax increases. The new Meadowlands stadium (the most expensive sports stadium ever built) was paid with ZERO dollars from public/govt $$$. There are ways to get it done without the public paying for it, but like already mentioned in this thread, it is all about making money for Ziggy and the gang.

[Scott K]

I think the state/county/city should pay the share that they will recoup in 20 years. I also feel the state should pay for the roads to the place, but not within the land. I feel the roof should be 100% paid for by taxes, as the Vikings have said many times, they dont care about the roof, and it wold only benefit the other planned events.

[FISHINGURU]

This new stadium is gonna rule!!

[toughguy]

Not true. I like and watch the vikes but I don't really feel like paying for a new stadium via tax increases. The new Meadowlands stadium (the most expensive sports stadium ever built) was paid with ZERO dollars from public/govt $$$. There are ways to get it done without the public paying for it, but like already mentioned in this thread, it is all about making money for Ziggy and the gang.

Are you really comparing the Minnesota market to New York where 2 teams built 1 stadium? The Wilfs are going to pay 45%. Each NY team paid 50% in a market that's more than twice the size of MSP.

I agree we need to get creative to get this done with as little impact on the tax payer as possible, but to argue that they should build their own stadium or stay in the dome and like it is unrealistic. There are only 2 options on the table. We kick in something to get this thing built or they go to a city that will. That's the reality. I for one am willing to pay to keep them.