Vikings Message Board.Com

dead_poet wrote: You're suggesting Wilf pays $1.1 billion for a stadium that gets utilized by the team 7 games out of the year while the state benefits the rest of the time? Granted the guy is rich but he's not that rich. And if that's the case, the state should've made this clear from the start (5-10 years ago) and it would've cost Wilf a fraction of the amount.

This is more than losing a football team. It's about losing a state's identity. I see many parallels between this and when a small town loses a school. I'm seriously nervous now.

Well if he built it then he could say, sorry, you can't use my stadium.

See FedEx field for a good example. Funny thing, DC want's the Skins back in the City.

I hate to #### say it, but this may be a convoluted way for Goodell to get a team in LA, with Minnesota down on his list when compared to Toronto and London.

He can't do the latter two without a team already in LA.

NextQuestion wrote:
Not everyone in MN cares about sports. Such a massive art/theater/music community in MPLS/STP area. Sports is an after thought for some folks

If a referendum had been held to decide it the United States would not exist.

It's not about what *everyone* wants or thinks is important. It's up to the political leadership to decide and set the direction knowing beforehand that *everyone* will never be happy with the decision and outcome. When they abdicate these responsibilities and let *everyone* decide, nothing gets done because *everyone* will never agree. That's why the political system exists - to ensure that something gets done. The time for *everyone* to weigh in is on election day. Punting it to the voters is politically safe, but almost guarantees a poor outcome.

The people of Minnesota will regret the lack of leadership shown by their political representatives if the Vikings end up leaving because of this.

i dont get it ? if the vikings leave wont restaurants, bars, hotels, and other businesses suffer ? not to mention catering and other vendors. wont other jobs be lost that depend on the vikings?

hibbingviking wrote:i dont get it ? if the vikings leave wont restaurants, bars, hotels, and other businesses suffer ? not to mention catering and other vendors. wont other jobs be lost that depend on the vikings?

Early this year I stayed at the Holiday Inn Minneapolis, right next to the dome. The employees there said it had been very slow since the dome collapsed. I don't know if the Vikes leaving would have the same effect because the dome hosts more events then just NFL games but there would be millions of dollars lost regardless.

dead_poet wrote: You're suggesting Wilf pays $1.1 billion for a stadium that gets utilized by the team 7 games out of the year while the state benefits the rest of the time? Granted the guy is rich but he's not that rich. And if that's the case, the state should've made this clear from the start (5-10 years ago) and it would've cost Wilf a fraction of the amount.

This is more than losing a football team. It's about losing a state's identity. I see many parallels between this and when a small town loses a school. I'm seriously nervous now.

If Wilf had to (and was able to) put up all of the money, I can't imagine the state would get any benefit outside of taxes. The Wilfs would get any other revenue generated by the stadium, wouldn't they? If there were concerts, events, etc ... the profit from those would simply go to him ... at least you would think that.

jim Souhan has a must-read column about this today. It's superb:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 45763.html

Mothman wrote:jim Souhan has a must-read column about this today. It's superb:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 45763.html

That was an excellent column. It's hard to argue this:

We agree that: Big-time sports offer immense tangible and intangible benefits; the Vikings are the most popular entity in the state; losing them would be an embarrassment to our cities and state; the price of building a stadium only goes up every year; building a stadium creates jobs and stimulates at least a portion of the economy; if we lost the team we eventually would pay three-fold to replace it.

"The most powerful argument is the creation of 7,000 to 8,000 jobs,'' he said. "That's a really big number. I'm a believer that you have to invest during difficult times. ...

I think we should start a fundraising campaign. Not so much a bake sale but matching contributions and an opportunity for local businesses to get a lot of good publicity. If it were organized correctly we could raise a lot of money by giving corporate donors some bang for their buck.

That eliminates the whole controversy of state funding too.

Anybody with experience in this kind of campaign?

Be great to organize events with current and former vikings with proceeds going to keep the vikings in minnesota. Probably all of us involved could get season tickets for life out of the deal too

MN population: 5,266,214

have everyone just put in twenty bucks.

$105,324,280

There. You've got your chunk!!!

position ourselves as a group trying to keep the vikings in MN while avoiding a tax hike and I bet a lot of people who would vote against a $20 tax increase would be willing to donate $20.

This doesn't even take into account all of the vikings fans all over the country. I have been a patron of a couple of thriving vikings bars in different cities across this country. Coordinate with these groups, and out of state fans in our various areas.

Who's with me!?

your board handle says it all!

It would be awesome to get a "grass roots" thing going for the Vikings. Just will never happen

NextQuestion wrote:your board handle says it all!

It would be awesome to get a "grass roots" thing going for the Vikings. Just will never happen

want to give it a try?