As others see it: Stadium idea will fail again

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Here are three reasons the proposed pro football stadium in Arden Hills will fail in the coming legislative session:

1. The stadium being proposed is not in Minneapolis. They might be called the Minnesota Vikings, but the team has a 30-year relationship with the state’s largest city. A well-managed NFL team courts a good relationship with its city. ...

Minneapolitans have been there for the Vikings, in terms of labor, fans and business. The mayor and the council want them to stay in the city. However, the Vikings want to skip town.

Hurt feelings create votes in the Legislature against the Arden Hills proposal.

2. The stadium location lacks the transportation infrastructure.

The former Army dump in Arden Hills surely needs to be cleaned up, but that’s another issue. There just isn’t the transportation grid to bring 80,000 people to this northern suburb. Besides, common sense says people from southern Minnesota don’t want to drive to northern suburbs, just as anyone from northern Minnesota would dislike driving to southern suburbs.

Minneapolis is the state’s gathering place, and it has two sites that have the support for transportation. ... Besides, the price tag of a Minneapolis stadium would be less than one in Arden Hills, by all reasonable estimates.

A lack of a viable transportation systems creates votes in the Legislature against the Arden Hills plan.

3. The best means to fund a stadium has been taken off the table.

This newspaper, the governor and just about everyone opposes spending funds from the state’s general fund. That’s a no-brainer.

However, if there must be a public portion of the stadium, it ought to be funded just like Target Field and the Metrodome were — a local tax. ... But near Halloween, state leaders declared sales taxes to be off the table, leaving little else besides gambling as a primary funding stream. It seems in poor taste to fund a sports stadium with gambling. Pro sports and gambling don’t mix well. Leave that to Las Vegas. ...

Conclusion: It would be politically wise for the commercial developers who own the Vikings — and thus drool over the commercial possibilities of the Arden Hills site — to stop course now, court Minneapolis and together roll out a sensible, local-tax deal. ...

Tags: opinion, editorials, minnesota, politics, vikings