Four Anoka County Commissioner seats will be determined in next week’s elections. A majority of commissioners in the past have been supportive of a sales tax increase to help fund a new Minnesota Vikings stadium in Blaine. Scott LeDoux, the former pro boxer and a commissioner not up for re-election, predicts that after the election the stadium will still have support of the board.
“I am more concerned about downtown,” he said. “All the money is downtown.”
LeDoux is concerned about reports that Viking owner Zygi Wilf will make a deal to play in a new stadium downtown (tear down the Metrodome, build on or near the site). Money talks, whether it’s in business or politics, and many leaders, he said, prefer to keep the team in Minneapolis including for their own self interests.
Such a decision would be consistent with what LeDoux said has been the trend of metro area economic development including infrastructure. “I really believe the northern suburbs have been abused and neglected for the last 50 years,” he said.
Wilf has increasingly shown interest in a downtown stadium and land development there. “He’s leveraging Anoka versus Minneapolis,” LeDoux said. “It’s all part of business. That’s what business people do.”
LeDoux remains optimistic the Blaine site will win out and he said Anoka County is negotiating weekly with the Vikings to reach an agreement on a stadium project deal. He said whether an agreement with Minneapolis can offer Wilf enough land to satisfy him will have to be determined.
Wilf’s Blaine proposal to build retail space, restaurants, office space, a water park and other development along with the stadium to spur economic activity excites LeDoux and a lot of other people in Anoka County. He said the “billion dollar” project would produce $20 million in property taxes per year for the county.
Regarding the downtown stadium, the question no one seems to have a definitive answer for is how to finance it. With Hennepin County already financing the new Twins stadium using a sales tax increase, some other metro or state financing will be needed if the stadium is built in Minneapolis.
Ultimately, leadership from the governor’s office will be important. On a televised debate on KSTP earlier in the week Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty said, “The Vikings don’t even know where they are going to play yet. Zygi Wilf, the owner, is looking at all of his options. We don’t even know what the proposal is. I support a referendum. I wish they would have had it on the Twins bill. I didn’t want to lose the Twins so I signed the Twins bill. As Mr. (Mike) Hatch has said he would have done as well.”
Independent party candidate Peter Hutchinson said during the debate he doesn’t “support public subsidies for businesses in general.” The DFL’s Mike Hatch told the Elk River Star News earlier in the campaign he would need a “whole lot” of convincing to support state involvement for a Vikings stadium.