Let Them Eat Personal Seat Licenses

Due diligence is for other people:

Gov. Mark Dayton’s harsh review of the Minnesota Vikings’ owners’ new legal troubles in New Jersey is igniting fresh concerns about the state’s agreement with them and threatens to complicate the entire project in the closing days before final contracts are signed for the $975 million publicly funded facility.

“Everybody is on high alert that this is going to be looked at under a fine microscope,” said Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority Board Member Duane Benson, a former legislator and NFL linebacker. “The governor is not going to, nor are we going to, treat this lightly. A lot of legislators will be watching this very closely, as well we should.”

Wait a sec. I thought this was a done deal. Why a harsh review now? Back to the Star Tribune:

The new doubts about the Wilfs intensify pressure on stadium negotiators to come away with the best possible deal and perhaps press for added concessions or assurances.

In recent days, the project became swamped with new questions after a New Jersey judge said the Vikings owners, real estate moguls Zygi and Mark Wilf, committed fraud, breach of contract and violations of the state’s civil racketeering statute in a 20-year-old real-estate partnership.

“The bad faith and evil motive were demonstrated in the testimony of Zygi Wilf himself,” Superior Court Judge Deanne Wilson said in a New Jersey Star-Ledger report.

That would be this report, which notes that the civil trial in question has been going on for 21 years:

The Wilfs’ business partners claimed family members systematically cheated them out of their fair share of revenues from Rachel Gardens, a 764-unit apartment complex in Montville, by running what amounted to “organized-crime-type activities” in their bookkeeping practices that gave the Wilfs a disproportionate share of the income.

Wilson found that Zygmunt Wilf, along with his brother, Mark, and their cousin, Leonard, committed fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty and also violated the state’s civil racketeering statute, or RICO.

The partners, Ada Reichmann of Toronto and her brother, Josef Halpern of Brooklyn, the longtime former on-site manager at Rachel Gardens, are entitled to compensatory damages, punitive damages, triple damages under the RICO statute, a redistribution of revenues dating to 1992 and reimbursement for their attorneys’ fees, Wilson said.

“The bad faith and evil motive were demonstrated in the testimony of Zygi Wilf himself,” Wilson said.

Wilf’s “candid and credible” testimony detailed how he felt Reichmann got “too good a deal,” and he “reneged” on the arrangement initiated by his uncle, Harry Wilf, back in the 1980s, when construction began on Rachel Gardens, Wilson said.

But it's going to be different this time, of course. Well, no. Back to the Star Tribune:

Dayton became furious when he realized the team was looking at charging a seat license fee, which would force season-ticket holders to spend thousands for the right to buy premium seats. Then the state’s much-debated funding plan — new electronic pull­tabs and bingo games — fell far below projections, causing Dayton and state leaders to pull tobacco tax money and close a corporate tax loophole to pay the state’s share.

Dayton continues to back the framework of the agreement, which he calls “a fabulous deal.” But, he added, “there are things I would do differently if I could go back and do it again.”

He said the seat license provision — which will make it harder for middle-class fans to get the best seats — was “sneaked in there.” But Dayton said it is not reason enough to sink the project.

Well, one thing is certain: no one needs to worry that Zygmunt Wilf will decide that the State of Minnesota got "too good a deal." Hell, we got ourselves a "fabulous deal." Just slap on those Helga braids and forget all this other stuff, folks. It's fabulous.