Tweet
Re: Minnesota Vikings stadium bill
I find this comment interesting since I believe you were in favor of the Souix Falls Event Center (although you wanted the downtown location, IIRC). Both the Stampede, and the Storm stand to gain from improved facilities, and make private financial gains off of public money, although on a much smaller scale.
The Wilfs had originally proposed a plan for an open air stadium with a price tag of < 500 million. The only reason he needed the state to be involved in this situation was because some of the property was owned by the state, and by having state funds other property was ellegible to be arbetrated under Eminent Domain - the land aquisition was going to be much more difficult if the state wasn't putting up part of the funds. The state govt. said the only way the would support it is if it were downtown & had a roof so that the state could get more events - which doubled the cost of the project.
The Wilfs will absolutely recover the costs they are putting in financially in terms of the financial value of the franchise - they wouldn't have agreed to pay the money otherwise. If you don't think the state would have missed the almost $30 million annually in income taxes they get from the players on the other NFL teams, you're crazy(game checks are subject to Minnesota state income tax when they play in Minnesota, regardless of where they are from). This absolutely had to get done in Minnesota. The only real issue was the source of the short term funding to pay back the bonds. What get's lost in the discussion is that if the Vikings had left Minnesota, they still would have needed this additional funding to replace what they were already getting every year from the players, etc.
Originally posted by goon
View Post
The Wilfs had originally proposed a plan for an open air stadium with a price tag of < 500 million. The only reason he needed the state to be involved in this situation was because some of the property was owned by the state, and by having state funds other property was ellegible to be arbetrated under Eminent Domain - the land aquisition was going to be much more difficult if the state wasn't putting up part of the funds. The state govt. said the only way the would support it is if it were downtown & had a roof so that the state could get more events - which doubled the cost of the project.
The Wilfs will absolutely recover the costs they are putting in financially in terms of the financial value of the franchise - they wouldn't have agreed to pay the money otherwise. If you don't think the state would have missed the almost $30 million annually in income taxes they get from the players on the other NFL teams, you're crazy(game checks are subject to Minnesota state income tax when they play in Minnesota, regardless of where they are from). This absolutely had to get done in Minnesota. The only real issue was the source of the short term funding to pay back the bonds. What get's lost in the discussion is that if the Vikings had left Minnesota, they still would have needed this additional funding to replace what they were already getting every year from the players, etc.
Comment