Apr 19, 2006 11:59 am US/Central
Managers: Metrodome Doomed Without Vikings
Minneapolis (AP) ―
The managers of the Metrodome think the stadium could survive the departure of the Minnesota Twins and Gophers to new homes in Minneapolis. But they think a loss of the Vikings to Blaine, Minn. would doom the 24-year-old venue.
Momentum is building at the Capitol for at least two new stadiums. The University of Minnesota is inching toward securing a new on-campus football stadium, and the Minnesota Twins have potentially make-or-break hearings this week on their proposed ballpark.
And the Vikings, who pay the highest rent at the Metrodome, are pushing legislators hard for a new stadium in Blaine.
Stadium officials are already openly speculating about the Dome's demise. A three-year-old city study suggested using the land for housing and a park.
"My thinking is the Metrodome would be imploded and the land would be sold," said Loanne Thrane, a longtime member of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which owns and manages the stadium.
The Vikings produced nearly $5.7 million in Metrodome revenue in 2004 -- 44 percent of the Dome's total annual revenue.
While total revenue for the Metrodome in 2004 was $13.1 million, total operating expenses came to $10.3 million. Subtract revenue from the Gophers -- $287,020 -- and the nearly $1.3 million generated by the Twins, and the margin becomes much slimmer.
The Metrodome hosts 300 events annually, but only about 100 come from the Twins, Gophers and Vikings. The rest are a hodgepodge including motor sports, trade shows, college baseball and high school football.
"A lot of those event days are not high revenue producers," said Roy Terwilliger, the commission's chair. "If the Twins left and you still had the Vikings there, it could still survive."
Of the three proposed stadiums, a new Vikings stadium would be the only one to have a roof and be climate-controlled, so it would most directly compete with the Metrodome, and it would be in the best position to lure away the bread-and-butter sporting and trade show events that the Metrodome currently relies on to augment its income.
Metrodome officials are watching what has happened in suburban Detroit, where the 80,325-seat Silverdome closed in February after 30 years. The Silverdome's closing came four years after its major tenant, the NFL's Detroit Lions, moved to a new stadium.
There were "not enough rents to keep it functioning," said Eric Walker, the Silverdome's former executive director. The Lions, he said, "did the same thing the Vikings are pursuing."
Though the Silverdome is still standing, redevelopment plans have stalled and its future remains unclear.
In Minneapolis, a 2003 city study that looked at a future without the Metrodome recommended that the property take advantage of its proximity to light-rail transit, new nearby housing, and now the new Guthrie Theater, and be redeveloped "as a new downtown neighborhood with high-density mixed-use and residential projects."
The study added that the city should organize any new development "around a new 'central' park that includes a lake and new recreational fields that would serve nearby residents."
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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