Saturday, May 07, 2011

Vikings to Arden Hills?

I've always thought it was a long shot that the Vikings would actually want to build a stadium at the old Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant site in Arden Hills. While there are distinct advantages to the Arden Hills site, especially all the space that they could want, there's a large problem in that the fan base of the team, especially those who are inclined to buy tickets, in the main lives south and west of the Twin Cities. But since Hennepin County is tapped out, and likely the city of Minneapolis is tapped out, too, if the Vikings want their new stadium, the only place that would have the ability to fund it is Ramsey County.

There's a lot to think about in this potential move, of course. First, I strongly suspect that the two members of the Ramsey County Board who are trying to drive this initiative, Tony "Remember I'm a Republican Even Though I Never Act Like One" Bennett and Rafael "Sure I'll Give You Someone Else's Money" Ortega, are way out in front of the public on this one. I'm not convinced that the citizenry of Ramsey County wants a sales tax hike for a pleasure dome for the Vikings. While Ramsey County is a small area geographically, it's going to be hard sell to the people who live in South Maplewood that they should be paying more for a facility that's a long ways away. From what I've read, the St. Paul crowd isn't so keen on it, either.

I'm going to write about this topic more in the coming days, as there's a lot to think about. If it turns out that the stadium is sited in Arden Hills, it will change my little corner of the world quite a lot.

1 comment:

CousinDan 54915 said...

I hear they don't need any extra land for a facility to host the Vikings Super Bowl trophies. So maybe they can shoehorn it into some parking lot downtown?