Twins left hander Francisco Liriano, who recently pitched four innings of no hit baseball in spring training, could be headed toward dominant performances reminiscent of 2006 before he hurt his elbow.  An impressive spring comes after a strong finish last season when his record in the last 10 games was 5-1 with a 3.02 E.R.A.  His season stats were 6-4, with a 3.91 E.R.A.

The Gophers helped themselves with a possible invitation to the NCAA basketball tournament with the win over Northwestern yesterday in the Big Ten tournament.  It can’t hurt that coach Tubby Smith is president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has done a lot of relationship building over the years.

Former Timberwolf Christain Laettner, who playing for Duke made the never-to-be forgotten NCAA tournament shot to beat coach Rick Pitino and Kentucky, stars in a commercial for Vitaminwater, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFNSl4IFRfg&feature=bz301

Timberwolves rookie forward Kevin Love, who played one season at UCLA, attended his first NHL game on Tuesday night, watching the Wild against San Jose at the Xcel Energy Center. He was a guest of Wild executive Bill Robertson who is a UCLA basketball fan.  After the game Love received a locker room tour from Marian Gaborik.  FS-North filmed a segment for an upcoming Wolves show about Love’s Wild game experience. 

Ryan Wittman, the former Eden Prairie star, is a candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year after helping Cornell to a second straight conference title.  The Cornell junior was featured in a New York Times article, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/sports/ncaabasketball/27cornell.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

The Wild’s Houston farm team is 10-2-0 in its last 12 games, in second place in the AHL West Division, and center Corey Locke leads the team in scoring with 63 points.

Matt Lopes and Melissa Mackley, both from Gustavus, are the MIAC men’s and women’s Hockey Athletes of the Week.  Lopes made 17 saves in the Gusties’ 5-2 win over Hamline in the MIAC Playoff Championship game last week.  The win gave the Gusties, who are 17-10-0, an automatic entry to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1993. They play tomorrow night at UW-Superior.

Mackley, a forward, scored two goals to help the Gusties defeat St. Thomas 3-0 to win the MIAC Playoff Championship game last week.  Gustavus, which won the MIAC playoff title for the sixth consecutive year, hosts UW-River Falls in a NCAA tournament quarterfinal game tomorrow afternoon. The Gusties have a 26-game unbeaten streak, the longest in collegiate women’s hockey.

Comments Welcome

A Vikings executive told Sports Headliners that owner Zygi Wilf “doesn’t have the heart” to move the team, but it’s a mistake for lawmakers to presume the franchise can continue here without a new stadium to replace the nearly 30-year-old Metrodome.  During an interview at Winter Park, Lester Bagley, the team’s vice president of public affairs, talked in detail about the stadium issue including his publicized criticism of Governor Tim Pawlenty for lack of leadership on the issue, and the need to recover lost revenue of $15 million or more per season if the Vikings temporarily play in the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium while their new facility is constructed.

The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which owns and operates the Metrodome, has joined with the Vikings in lobbying for a new retractable roof stadium that could cost about $1 billion.  Their position is that the facility will allow the Vikings to economically survive, present fans with a first class game experience, and provide a “rec room” type facility for community activities ranging from amateur sports to rollerblading, plus attract big time events such as NCAA tournament basketball and perhaps another Super Bowl.  In addition, stadium proponents argue that the construction and later the existence of the facility will provide jobs and economic stimulus to the economy.

An economic impact analysis of the new stadium, which will be located on the present Metrodome site, was conducted by Convention Sports & Leisure International for the MSFC.  Among the findings of the advisory firm:

.  Construction of the stadium will support approximately 13,400 jobs, including 8,000 tradesmen utilized during the building process.

. Over half the cost of constructing the new stadium, or $577 million, will be directed toward wages and salaries for construction jobs, and jobs supported in other industries as a result of related spending.

. The total economic output during construction is estimated at $1.35 billion. That number is representative of the cumulative effects of direct spending on construction-related expenditures, which equals $734 million, as it is cycled through the state’s economy.

. Annual direct spending of $145 million is estimated upon completion of the stadium. This represents spending by fans, the Vikings, their employees and players, visiting teams and the NFL relative to games and the operation of the stadium.

.  A new stadium will generate over $32 million per year in tax revenue including income and sales taxes.  Presently the Vikings alone are said to generate $18 million.

Minnesotans take various positions regarding the possibility of a new stadium including whether tax monies should be used to fund it.  The debate as to whether and how something should be done isn’t new because the Vikings started exploring the subject with government leaders in 1997.  In 2001 state politicians were presented with details about a $475 million retractable roof stadium, costing about half of what now is the projected cost.  What’s current is that the franchise’s Metrodome lease expires after three more seasons and there are only a couple of legislative sessions remaining to resolve the issue.

The Vikings are last in the NFL in team value, according to a forbes.com report last fall.  The website also said the franchise was last in 2007 gross revenues ($195 million) and described the team’s stadium deal as “one of the worst” in the NFL.  Bagley and additional sources report that Wilf and other partners have put in additional monies to operate the team since taking over in 2005.  Of better news for Wilf and his investors, though, is that according to Forbes the team is worth $839 million after being purchased from Red McCombs for $600 million.

Comments Welcome

Bagley, who lives in Minneapolis but grew up in the small town of Barron, Wisconsin, was a stadium consultant for the Vikings before becoming an employee in 2005.  The following are his responses to questions presented during the interview at Winter Park:

Q. What lessons did you learn growing up in Barron that still serve you well today?

A. Small town roots, connection to community and work ethic. Both my parents worked.  My dad built a successful business, and my mother worked for the federal government.   I grew up playing sports and was a big fan.

Q. Your wife Wendy has worked at the Capitol for years and now is a an executive in the Department of Human Services.  Does her access to state administrators and the governor provide a lobbying advantage for the Vikings?

A. No, there’s no special advantage that it provides.  I’ve got a 20 some year career in public affairs including at the Minnesota Business Partnership so I’ve got my own relationships.  The good news over there is the governor is used to the rough and tumble of politics and he knows that he’s going to get his shins kicked every once in awhile.  It wasn’t meant (the publicized criticism of Pawlenty) with any malice.  It was just trying to get a point across…(with) our frustration level with our situation and we’re passed that.  Zygi and the governor met and cleared the air.  Now we’re moving forward and have a good dialogue going.  I think the governor is also professional and smart enough (to know) that my wife has nothing to do with this project.  She’s a loyal lieutenant of his and works hard for him.  He’s able, I am able and my wife is able to separate the two.  I wish it did give me some special advantage but it doesn’t.

Q. Is it correct to assume that given your years of experience in public affairs that it was a calculated strategy to call out the governor for lack of leadership over the years on the stadium issue?

A. I expressed a frustration.  It wasn’t some sort of planned scheme like ‘let’s do this in order to get this reaction,” but it was a public frustration of something that’s been brewing and growing privately for a couple of years.  It was (also) frustration I hear every day from our ownership.  I spoke that day on behalf of the ownership and took the point and got the message across.  It was effective because we’re finally making some headway both in the discussions with the governor as well as just generally in trying to move this project forward in a very difficult political and economic climate.

Q. What would you say that progress is?

A. The frustration we expressed wasn’t necessarily about lack of leadership.  It was just basic lack of engagement.  We’ve been up there in times of surplus and deficit. We keep getting put off to the point where there’s not been a serious dialogue about how to solve this problem.  It’s not just the governor, it’s (also) state leaders, and generally this (stadium issue) has not been a priority.  It needs to be a priority because we’re running out of time.  Typically these projects need leadership from the executive branch, at the very least engagement.  So the progress is that we’ve got a dialogue going with the governor and legislative leaders.  We know where we stand in terms of how difficult this environment is but we’ve got an acknowledgment there that we’re running out of time.  That we’ve got to address this.  Let’s start to kick around some creative ideas as to how this might shake out.

Q. You have mentioned that 28 of the NFL’s 32 teams have built new stadiums or renovated existing facilities since 1997 when the Vikings first approached the state about a new facility here.  Would you characterize the process here as unusually slow?

A. I think there’s been kind of an acceptance (since then) that this is something you’ve got to do.  If you want to have major league sports you’ve got to have a facility. If we want to have the NFL, you’ve got to solve this problem. That’s not a threat, that’s the pressure we get everyday from the other NFL owners saying we’re tired of subsidizing this market.  Because this market gets between 15 and 25 million dollars every year from other owners through revenue sharing to have a team here because the stadium is the worst economic situation in the league.  So I don‘t classify this as slow.  I think it’s deliberate.  We’re Minnesotans.  We’re thorough.  Unfortunately, the down side is that the delay has cost significant dollars.  In 2001 when we were at the Capitol with this project and a very similar stadium it was half the price.  A retractable (roof) stadium in 2001 was $475 million.  Seven years later it’s at $950 million.

Comments Welcome