Vikings Stadium Bill

Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been in favor of and advocated for sports stadia; both for the Minnesota Twins (and, gawd…look at that beautiful Target Field!!) and for the Minnesota Vikings. It’s also no secret that my rooting interest in getting a new stadium for our pro sports teams is my very own love of sports.

I’d be happy to argue all day with you the merits of pro sports for our state and our community but in the end it comes down to this: Building a stadium now will be less expensive. It is not a matter of if we will build a new football stadium, it’s a matter of when. We’ve seen this movie before in Cleveland; if we let the Vikings leave, we’ll see its sequel here in Minnesota. This state will inevitably build a new stadium to attract a pro football franchise back to Minnesota and the only difference will be a few years of an NFLless state and a significantly higher cost for the stadium.

We should pass this bill this year. The Strib compiled footage from the press conference:

New Vikings Stadium Proposal

This should come as no surprise but I’m all for a new Vikings stadium. I like stadiums. I LOVE stadiums. I want opulent stadiums. My paper trail is long on this topic; I’ve been in the yea column since, what? 1997 when the Twins first started talking about a new ballpark.

Senate Tax Chair Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, talks with Capitol Report host Julie Bartkey about the framework for funding a news Minnesota Vikings Stadium. Senator Bakk’s interview was taped earlier today, and the entire Capitol Report program, including comments from officials from the Minnesota Vikings, will air Sunday, April 18th, on the Minnesota Channel and local PBS stations. Found at YouTube from UpTakeVideo.