Linden Avenue stadium site footprint
MINNEAPOLIS - The prospect of an NFL stadium taking root a couple blocks away has grabbed the attention of Father John Bauer, the rector at the Basilica of Saint Mary.
The church has stood in the west end of downtown Minneapolis for a century, but those who call it their spiritual home may one day find themselves sharing the roads and precious parking spots with Vikings fans.
Just across Interstate 394 from the Basilica is a tract of industrial land that has recently become known as the "Linden Avenue Site," one of three areas in Minneapolis under serious consideration as the next home of the Vikings.
"The Basilica has been a landmark on the Minneapolis skyline for over 100 years now, and we want to make sure it will continue to be that landmark for the next 100 years," Fr. Bauer told KARE Monday.
Bauer noted the team's current home, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, currently hosts up to 300 events per year.
"If only 100 of those transfer to the new stadium at the Linden Avenue site, we'd be fighting traffic and parking over 100 days each year," Bauer said, "And that would have a severe impact on our program, our services and our ministries."
Bauer will be outlining his concerns in a letter to roughly 6,300 parishioners, to be mailed later this week. He said the Basilica share's the community's desire to see the Vikings stay in Minnesota, but the church wants to have some say over how parking, traffic and construction will be handled.
He's also concerned about the impact a new stadium would have on the annual Basilica Block Party, a rock music festival that serves as the single largest fundraiser for renovation and preservation of the church and the adjacent school building.
The festival plays out on several stages, including one in the footprint of the proposed stadium complex.
"We support the Vikings, but unless our concerns are addressed to our satisfaction there really isn't an upside for us at this point."
Deadline Looms
Governor Mark Dayton has set a Thursday deadline for the City of Minneapolis and Ramsey County to submit their final stadium proposals, in an effort to narrow the choices for lawmakers as they head into the 2012 session January 24.
Mayor RT Rybak has argued that the site of the current Metrodome is the most practical and least expensive option. But the team would be forced to play two or three seasons elsewhere during construction.
"We would lose $12 million in revenue for every season we play out of the Metrodome," Lester Bagley, Vikings vice president of public affairs, told KARE Monday.
"That doesn't count the money we'd have to spend to upgrade the university's stadium to make it compatible with pro football."
He also said a major requirement of the NFL for stadiums is a premium parking plan, which also makes leasing the TCF Bank temporarily a difficult proposition.
Bagley called the Linden Avenue site the most attractive of the three Minneapolis options on Rybak's list of Minneapolis sites, which also includes a the Farmers Market site immediately to the north.
But he reiterated that the team's preferred site remains in Arden Hills at the former site of the US Army's Twin Cities Ammunition Plant. He said the land would afford more space for tailgating and other amenities deemed essential to the fan experience.
Republican legislative leaders and the stadium bill sponsors ruled out a local option sales tax, which was Ramsey County's first choice for financing the local share of the $1.1 billion project.
Bagley expressed hope the legislature would seriously consider a three-cents-per-drink beverage tax offered by Ramsey County commissioners as an alternative to the local option sales tax.
Rep. Morrie Lanning, R - Moorhead, previously told KARE that a statewide beverage tax of two cents per drink, proposed by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, was a "nonstarter at the Capitol" as a source of funding the public's share of the stadium.
Minneapolis leaders, on the other hand, are encouraged that a hospitality surcharge currently dedicated to convention center debt could be diverted in the future to pay that city's share of the stadium project.
The mathematics are also in flux, because the team's financial commitment is conditional. The Vikings have pledged at least $415 million in private money, from the team and the NFL, toward the cost of the Arden Hills stadium.
But Bagley called that offer specific to that site. He said the team would likely offer less if the legislature rules out Arden Hills.
Ramsey County's original offered would've given Vikings owner Zigi Wilf's development company the first right to develop 170 acres adjacent to the Arden Hills sports complex. Bagley said that may be negotiable as the plan moves through the legislature.
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