Tony Spadafora of Eden Prairie, who has been passionately following stadium developments for years in Minnesota and before that in Ohio, wrote an opinion piece about the Vikings for last Sunday’s Duluth News Tribune stating “we are coming dangerously close to losing them.” Spadafora’s article describes Vikings executives as “uncharacteristically skipping stadium commission and legislative committee meetings.”
With the state dealing with a huge budget deficit, Spadafora predicts a special legislative session will be needed to deal with the franchise’s request for a new retractable roof stadium on the Metrodome site. With the Vikings lease at the Metrodome expiring after the 2011 season, Spadafora foresees three outcomes: no deal on a new stadium, a “sweetheart” arrangement benefiting the franchise, or a “deal that’s good for the Vikings and good for Minnesota.”
Roy Terwilliger, chair of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, told Sports Headliners his group and the Vikings are sensitive to the political and economic climate the state faces with a budget deficit of about $5 billion. Taking a quiet approach now hasn’t lessened Terwilliger’s belief that a facility will “come together” providing the Vikings with both an economically viable stadium and the community assurance of retaining the team, plus having a multipurpose covered venue that can serve the public in the varied ways for which the Metrodome has been used.
Terwilliger said the commission hasn’t received, nor is it pushing for, results of a study authorized awhile ago from HKS Architects and Mortenson Construction to determine what can be used from the Metrodome’s existing infrastructure for a new stadium on the site. Attention to that study now would stir up the stadium issue at a time when the commission prefers to be low key.
Terwilliger wouldn’t predict if or when a special session might be called to deal with the stadium issue.