It’s been an eventful week for the citizens of Minnesota and the NFL team that plays there. It almost became even more eventful on Wednesday night.
Representative Morrie Lanning, a co-author of the stadium bill, recently told WCCO radio (via Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune) that the Vikings nearly didn’t agree to increasing their agreed contribution of $427 million by $50 million.
"[W]e were trying to get the Vikings to agree to what we thought we needed in order to get the votes in the Legislature and they didn’t really respond in a positive way,” Lanning said. “I was beginning to think on Wednesday night that maybe we weren’t going to get this done, but finally they did come through.
“The Vikings agreed to putting in another $50 million, which was a pretty substantial financial commitment, and that’s what we needed, quite frankly, to get the votes and seal the deal.”
Lanning said that, even if the Wilfs had refused to pay the extra $50 million, the bill would have proceeded with the team owing the higher number. Then, if it had passed, the Vikings would have had to choose between following through or walking away from the final proposal.