Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Vikings to Arden Hills? XXXI - We Shall Send You a Letter

It's increasingly evident that there's a push to stampede the Vikings into accepting the Metrodome site for their new stadium. One problem -- they don't want to do that:
In his letter aimed at dispelling portrayals of the Metrodome site as the cheapest option, Vikings President Mark Wilf wrote that "The $67 million in costs identified above brings the total costs to build at the Metrodome site to $962 million." The team, he added, was also concerned "about the significant disruptions to our football team, our fans and our sponsors and partners."
I've seen a lot of headlines indicating the the Vikings are supposedly "warming" to the idea of building at the Metrodome, but I still don't see it. This has always been about maximizing revenue and the Metrodome site will never allow the team to do that. You can bemoan the Vikings for being greedy. Go right ahead. It won't change their stance, though. There's enough to pick at in the Star Tribune article linked above to provide fodder for about three stories. We'll return to this subject soon.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm still trying to understand why the choice is to BUILD at the Metrodome site. There is a perfectly fine stadium there, right? They could fix it up here and there in the off season and not lose a penny. If we sold it to them for a penny, they would immediately make the $28 million annual rental back on the bottom line. Perhaps with enough other events at the Dome, the Vikes could eventually fund their own place elsewhere, if they wished.

J. Ewing

Mr. D said...

See, you keep trying to be sensible, JE. No market in that!

Gino said...

if they want to sell it for a penny, i'll buy it.

in a proper world, they wouldnt be allowed to make that offer without allowing others to accept it to.