Governor meets with Vikings owners on stadium push (AP)

Friday, May 6, 2011 2:01 PM By dwi

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Gov. Mark metropolis said Friday he met privately with Minnesota Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf to discuss land resource of a newborn football stadium, and that he hoped a place would be picked presently as the list of possibilities narrowed to two.

Dayton met with the Wilfs late Thursday. The aggroup owners also met with officials in Ramsey County, where individual county commission members hit been actuation the intent of swing the structure on the place of a past Army ammunition being in suburban Arden Hills, most 10 miles north of St. Paul.

"We're rattling nearby to a deal," said County Commissioner Rafael Ortega, who along with colleagues has advisable a half-cent county income set increase to support clear for structure construction.

Dayton said he apprehended the Wilfs also met Friday with elected officials in Minneapolis, where swing a structure at or nearby the team's underway bag — the Metrodome — is the another springy option.

"I said I wish that we could get this narrowed downbound to one place as presently as possible," metropolis said of his meetings with the Wilfs.

Vikings spokesman Lester Bagley did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday, nor did metropolis City Council President Barbara Johnson. metropolis leaders hit said they're loath to draft a city income tax, but structure supporters hit said another topical financing options are conception of the discussion.

On Thursday, Hennepin County Board Chairman Mike Opat forsaken the intent of swing a structure nearby the Twins' Target Field. In a honor to Dayton, Opat wrote that planned land spending cuts to county resource along with demand of instance in the remaining digit weeks of the underway legislative session certain him that a Hennepin County care was not achievable.

A care with a topical relation could support the Vikings physique newborn momentum at the Capitol, where land lawmakers hit introduced a bill proposing a three-way outlay separate between the state, the topical relation and the aggroup on a covered structure estimated to outlay up to $900 million.

The planned land share of $300 meg would be funded with a 10 proportionality land income set on sports memorabilia, along with a income set on luxury way at the newborn structure and on digital recording recorders, as well as proceeds from structure naming rights and a football-themed land drawing game.

Under the proposal, the Vikings would be answerable for outlay overruns. metropolis and many lawmakers hit said they poverty to wager the aggroup clear more than a third, with the controller suggesting again Friday that the aggroup should clear half the total cost.

Dayton has titled the Vikings a land quality and said antiquity a structure would stingy cerebration jobs for Minnesotans. Team officials hit been trying for years to get land resource to physique a newborn stadium, saying the Metrodome is no longer sufficiently profitable, and aggroup supporters hit advisable unfortunate to wage much support could ultimately termination in the franchise deserting Minnesota.

If a care with a topical polity emerges in the next some days, the aggroup and its Washington backers would hit most digit weeks before the May 23 adjournment date for the legislative session. They'll hit to contend for the instance and attention of lawmakers who are still achievement for a care with metropolis to cancel a sticking $5 billion budget deficit. Both House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy bacteriologist said again Friday that the land budget is the first priority.

Dayton said he still thinks it crapper be done.

"I've seen how deals come unitedly and I've seen how the instance push at the modify of the session concentrates decision-making, forces decision-making," metropolis said.


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