Stadium Special Session Shot Down (Ramsey, Arden Hills: to buy, property taxes, budget)

[golfgal]

Just a comment about MN players going to WI, Wi players don't stay in WI any more than MN players stay in MN. Actually, the gophers have 4 MN on their roster, Badgers only have 3 WI players. The issue is that too many players in MN live down the street, so to speak, from the U of MN and they want to go farther away for college. The Gophers used to be a good basketball team....

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by knke0204

does anyone agree that this is where the area has gone wrong?

You are correct that there are a lot of issues that could be handled better.

Main issues for me:
1. The cost of sports facilities is too high if you look at revenue spent vs. revenue captured. Some markets are able to deal with this better than ours, so I really blame the leagues themselves for pushing revenue models that are not sustainable for smaller markets. Lot of potential ways to deal with this, but they all seem to be lacking. Longer finance terms, multipurpose buildings that server more than one team, higher ticket prices ... To say the market is saturated in some way ties all these together.

2. There is a lack of foresight. Seems like all the effort goes into getting something built without reasonable forecasting of future expenses that are going to be a problem. you listed several of them including upgrade to target and mariachi.

3. Long term financing of these buildings is problematic. The business climate is subject to change which can make a structure obsolete before it is paid for. We saw this for both the vikings and twins even though it was a shared facility. It should not be the problem of the state when this happens, but the teams seem to have no problem making it appear as if it were.


SO the dome is paid for now and both leases are over. Twins did ok by most regards, but the vikings are in a real pickle. Perhaps it is not fair to them, but they must step up what they are willing to do in regards to addressing issues above. Seems to make more sense to look at a more realistic structure where all parties pay less. 500M outdoor stadium should be looked at in my opinion.

[Dr.drew]

Los Angeles Vikings

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by Dr.drew

Los Angeles Vikings

you posted that before, it's even stupider now

[Dr.drew]

It's kind of stupid to comment on it then.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by Dr.drew

Los Angeles Vikings

Sources: Vikings, state, Minneapolis have preliminary stadium deal | StarTribune.com (http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/139543818.html - broken link)

[Ghengis]

long way to go still...

Renovations to the Target Center are not part of the deal, but the city would be allowed to use hospitality taxes for that project, the sources said. Mayor R.T. Rybak initially proposed including Target Center upgrades and renovations in the deal, but that has not been well received at the Legislature.

for starters, Mpls CC ain't gonna like this one bit. Too bad, maybe Glenn Taylor (who's worth 3 times what Zygi is) may want to consider opening up his wallet to the degree everybody has expected from Zygi. No different at all.

Did I mention somehow incorporating giant Viking Horns in the design?

[Jericho79]

Two questions:

Will this proposed stadium be built on the southeastern side of the Metrodome (where the Xcel substation is located), as previously conjured up?

Is this deal as "tentative" as the Farmers Field project in Los Angeles?

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Just a comment about MN players going to WI, Wi players don't stay in WI any more than MN players stay in MN. Actually, the gophers have 4 MN on their roster, Badgers only have 3 WI players. The issue is that too many players in MN live down the street, so to speak, from the U of MN and they want to go farther away for college. The Gophers used to be a good basketball team....

Minnesota has one Division I basketball program. Wisconsin has four. That's why they have less. The Wisconsin Badgers current roster has some good Minnesotans - Jordan Smith from Orono, Jordan Taylor from Bloomington, Mike Bruesewitz from St. Paul, and Jared Berggren from Princeton. I wonder how much better the Gophers could be had they kept those guys home. I didn't even mention Jon Leur who was drafted and plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Throw in Cole Aldrich who went on and played at Kansas and now the Thunder in the NBA. Throw in Trent Lockett who is from Hopkins who plays at Arizona State and is a lock for the draft. Throw in Royce White from Hopkins who left to Iowa State and is their leading scorer. Jordair Jett from St. Paul is having a good season for St. Louis. You can also include Ross Tavis a freshman from Chaska for Penn St. who is looking promising.

Then the University of Minnesota has guys like Kendal Shell, Elliot Eliason, Oto Osenieks, Maurice Walker, Chip Armelin.

Then you have guys like Justin Cobb who transfered to Cal who just scored 33 the other night, and Devoe Joseph who just scored 35 the other night, who transfered to Oregon last year. You can also include Cory Joseph who played one year at Texas and now play for San Antonio in the NBA. You can also include Paul Carter who played at the U before transfering and is now playing professionally.

The Gophers had and lost and missed out on tons of talent, time to get rid of Tubby.

[iNviNciBL3]

I heard on the news not too long ago about Vikings license plates that would help fund the stadium. I think thats a great idea and id really love to purchase a Vikings license plate Bears and Packers have there license plates!! Why not Vikings