Gov. Mark Dayton said he wants a special session of the Legislature just before Thanksgiving to reach a final verdict on whether the Minnesota Vikings get a new, publicly subsidized stadium.I can tell you right now what the politicians are for: a way to build the thing without having to suffer any political consequences for their vote. Thus the minuet from Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch:
Raising the stakes on a long-running, divisive issue, the DFL governor gave Minnesota's political, civic and business leaders five weeks to determine where the project should be built, whether voters facing a sales tax increase should have a referendum and how the state's $300 million toward the stadium should be financed. Dayton said the stadium deal could still be a work in progress when legislators begin meeting, a move that could make a special session a politically explosive drama.
"Most of what I hear is what everyone's against. ... It has to be what people are for," said Dayton, after meeting with legislative leaders Monday. He again left open the possibility that the $1.1 billion project could be built in Minneapolis, where the team has played since 1982, rather than Ramsey County's Arden Hills, the Vikings' owners' clear choice for the new home.
The day's events provided a study in contrasts. Dayton took an aggressively pro-stadium stance, pledging to "meet with everybody and everyone" to get the deal done, and "take the lead in terms of negotiations" with the National Football League and the Vikings. Koch said she generally supported having the Vikings remain in Minnesota but joined the Dayton meeting Monday just "for the discussion."
The discussion? Natch. Maybe they served coffee, too.
In one sense, I'm glad that Dayton has decided to call the question. There's no question that spending north of a billion dollars to build a playground for New Jersey real estate developers is a stupid idea. And yet everyone knows that the Vikings could leave if they don't get a deal now. The lease in the Metrodome is up and the Vikings have no intention of staying there for even a short-term lease unless they have assurances that they will have their Xanadu later on. And make no mistake about it -- no matter how much Minneapolis tries to pretend otherwise, the stadium will be built in Arden Hills or it won't be built at all. Zygi Wilf doesn't care about your light rail access. He wants the fans arriving in cars and paying $40 to park. He'd also like personal seat licenses. And he'll get those things from someone. Whether he gets those things in Minnesota or elsewhere is up to our solons.
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