The folks in Minnesota are trying to build a new stadium for the Vikings before the Vikings join in California the NBA team that once played in the Twin Cities.
Dave Orrick of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that a plan for partially financing a stadium with taxpayer money will be submitted to the Legislature on Friday.
The plan would raise up to $300 million via a sales tax on memorabilia and luxury seats, a lottery game, and even an income tax on the team’s players. The plan also would permit the local government hosting the stadium to raise money via a sales tax -- without the measure being submitted to the public for a vote.
The bill doesn’t specify a site for the stadium, but it specifies a process that could result in a site being picked in early 2012.
Potential locations include an area in Minneapolis near Target Field, where the Twins now play, the site of the current Metrodome, which would displace the Vikings for one or more seasons, and a location in nearby Ramsey County, site of the former Twin Cities Army Ammunitions Plant.
And if the folks in Minnesota can’t make it work in any of those locations, the fourth option goes by the initials “L” and “A”.
Join us at noon ET on PFT Live for a discussion of the situation with Vikings V.P. of public affairs and stadium development Lester Bagley.