Nov 19, 2009 11:23 pm US/Central
Vikings Face Even Bigger Foe Off The Field
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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The team's lease expires in 2011 and the Commission voted to allow the team to play rent-free and keep post-season receipts. However, if they don't agree, the Commission is threatening to charge the Vikings rent up to $4 million per year.
CBS
Over strong objections by the Minnesota Vikings, who want a new stadium, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Thursday approved a plan to force the team to extend its Metrodome lease by two years.
The team's lease expires in 2011 and the Commission voted to allow the team to play rent-free and keep post-season receipts. However, if they don't agree, the Commission is threatening to charge the Vikings rent up to $4 million per year.
It is a signal that as the Vikings reach new heights on the gridiron, the tone in the stadium debate is changing, and not for the better.
In fact, every time Brett Favre takes the field for the Purple, more Vikings fans are watching football than American Idol and CSI combined.
The team can't seem to score the touchdown on what they most want -- a new stadium.
"We need to get our arms around this issue before the clock runs out," said Lester Bagley, the Vikings' point man on the stadium.
The unspoken threat: no stadium, no team.
"The concern is that there is no dialogue, no serious dialogue, between our state leaders and the owners and management of the Vikings organization," Bagley said.
Vikings officials described the Metrodome as a 'dysfunctional' stadium. Once a marvel of the 1980s, the Vikings said the Metrodome is now the third oldest, smallest and the lowest revenue-producing stadium in the NFL.
Apparently, the Vikings aren't high on the priority list for a state facing a possible $7 billion deficit.
However, if Minnesotans don't want it, someone else does.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed a bill to allow a privately constructed Los Angeles stadium -- whose drawings include purple seats.
The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission is preparing to unveil plans for an NFL-ready stadium on the current site of the Dome -- with a roof the Vikings don't want -- that could cost as much as $800 million.
"The idea, of course, is to meet everyone's needs, but to keep it in the range of a reasonable cost," said Bill Lester, the Commission's executive director. "For these facilities, the cost has really accelerated."
In fact, a Vikings stadium that would have cost $500 million in 2004 is at least $740 million today.
Although Vikings owner Zygi Wilf once promised to keep the team in Minnesota "forever," team officials said the New Jersey-based owner is "frustrated" and "disappointed."
"In the end, if we can't solve it with this group of owners, if the answer is no, then I am not sure we can support a team in this market," said Bagley. "And that is not a threat. That is just the reality. "
Sources close to the Vikings said Los Angeles stadium developer Ed Roski Jr. has attempted to contact the team but the Vikings have not spoken to him -- yet.
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