Category: Stadiums

Smith suggested the possibility of a financial package that will both renovate the arena and build a new practice facility. How to finance it? Smith’s ideas include perhaps a combination of large gifts from donors and use of basketball game day parking revenues that are now retained by the University and not the athletic department.

The Gophers coach knows winning will help make the facility a reality. He acknowledged a Big Ten championship would make a difference, but the Gophers are coming off a 17-14 season. It was the first time in 18 years of coaching that a Smith team didn’t play in a post-season tournament.

Two of Smith’s first three teams made the NCAA tournament, with the other participating in the NIT. He wants to compete for championships and had hoped his program would be further along after four years. But he’s upbeat about the coming season that starts with a regular season game against Bucknell on Friday night after the Gophers conclude their exhibition schedule versus Augustana at home tonight.

This is also a newsworthy week for recruiting since college basketball teams can sign prep players to national letters of intent starting on Wednesday and continue through November 16. “We’ll sign two, maybe three (players),” Smith said. “We’re excited about the guys. …”

Coaches can’t talk about specific recruits now but it’s known the Gophers have a commitment from Rice Lake, Wisconsin shooting guard Wally Ellenson. Another player who might end up being a Gopher is Charles Buggs, a power forward from Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia.

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Minneapolis City Council president Barbara Johnson told Sports Headliners she doesn’t expect a special legislative session to be called in November to address the Vikings stadium issue.  “I would be surprised if the governor (Mark Dayton) and the legislature can get agreement to go ahead on one (stadium) proposal,” she said.

The Ramsey County-backed Arden Hills stadium proposal is “in trouble,” according to Johnson who is working with mayor R.T. Rybak to promote stadium sites in Minneapolis.  “People want a referendum on Arden Hills and that will kill it (the proposal),” she said.

Johnson believes there are also “too many unknowns” about the Arden Hills site to gain state approval in November, and she said a stadium there leaves Vikings fans “captive to ownership.”  Those who have the latter opinion will argue the Arden Hills site doesn’t have access to public transportation, fans will pay the Vikings to park, and food-drink and entertainment options presumably will be less varied than downtown if a new stadium is built in any of three potential locations supported by Johnson and Rybak.  Minneapolis advocates claim their proposed sites are all less costly than Arden Hills.

The Vikings are adamant in supporting the Ramsey County plan that the two parties reached accord on earlier this year.  Johnson knows Minneapolis isn’t being courted by the Vikings while franchise leaders try to push through a special session and a vote in favor of an Arden Hills site.  “We just have to continue to be like Rocky (Balboa),” she said.  “We’re not discouraged.”

The Minneapolis funding proposal to become the local partner for the stadium would increase the sales tax now dedicated to paying off bonds for the city’s Convention Center.  The sales tax would increase from .50 percent to .85 percent and generate benefits beyond a stadium including property tax relief for city residents, according to Johnson.

The effort to keep the Vikings downtown would be made easier if Hennepin County became a partner.  “I’ve been talking to county commissioners and the mayor has, too,” Johnson said.  “They’re more willing (for now) to sit on the sidelines.”

Although Johnson believes there’s a need to expedite the stadium solution process, she doesn’t believe it has to be in November.  “The governor heard from the NFL ‘you better do something,’ ” she said. “He’s trying to be responsive.”

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What a mess!  Back in the 1990s a Vikings executive told me Governor Arne Carlson informed franchise leaders to be patient until the Twins need for a new stadium could be resolved.

Guess what?  Three governors later and the Vikings are still waiting.  During the last 15 years, new stadiums for the Twins and Gophers football were approved while the Vikings unsuccessfully courted host communities to help them.

Get the idea the Vikings upper management and ownership is frustrated.  Bet your autographed Adrian Peterson jersey on that!

Now if you don’t care whether the Vikings stay in Minnesota and you oppose public funding for a new stadium, then God bless you and the Constitution.  You have plenty of company, but understand the majority of state political leaders are likely to disagree with you.  If they don’t today, sometime soon they will.

The Vikings will remain in Minnesota.

Franchise owners and the NFL office in New York have leverage like never before with the Minnesota stadium issue.  The whole mess is reaching critical mass.  Not only have the Vikings been knocking on the doors of governors and host communities for more than a decade, but their lease in the Metrodome expires at season’s end and Los Angeles is flirting with the franchise.

It’s a new Minnesota stadium or bust mentality that the Vikings and NFL are presenting.  That view threatens a cultural entity even more important to some Minnesotans than our 10,000 lakes.

No wonder Governor Mark Dayton is scrambling to call a special legislative session before Thanksgiving.  He wants no repeat of 60 years ago when Los Angeles became the new home of the Minneapolis Lakers.

Dayton might be able to convince enough legislators to approve a new stadium in the coming weeks, but even if he has to kick the can a little further down the road that’s not likely to send the moving vans to Winter Park before New Year’s Day.

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