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New Vikings stadium vision unveiled
The metro sports commission Thursday unveiled its vision of life after the Metrodome, and it's not cheap. The stadium's preliminary price tag is $954 million, and would anchor a larger redevelopment of the east side of downtown Minneapolis. But, with the Vikings' lease set to expire in 2011, the chairman of the commission said it's time to get the ball rolling on what's expected to be a protracted public debate. "It's very imperative that we engage in this conversation right now, that we engage in the policy makers, that we engage the leadership of the state and the region in dealing with this issue," Roy Terwilliger told reporters. The former state senator, who now heads the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, cautioned that the plan is in its early stages. "We think this is a critical time for us to engage in a conversation with all the policymakers as well as the public," Terwilliger said. Exactly how much the Vikings would pony up for the deal, and how the team's owner Zygi Wilf would figure into development of collateral properties are two unanswered questions. Governor Tim Pawlenty went straight to the money question when asked to weigh in on the plan. "Probably in all probability I?d say it?s a nice plan. But that?s not the issue. The issue is where the dough coming from." When asked how he would read the Viking's stadium's vital signs at the legislature this year, Republican minority leader Marty Seifert seemed surprised to even hear the issue being raised. "Oh my gosh the Vikings stadium? If I checked it for vitals I?d say we were at the morgue." Senator Tom Baak, the Democrat who heads the tax committee this year, said he hopes the Vikings can borrow a page from the Twins playbook and find a local financial partner. "Part of what took the Twins so long it took them a long time to figure out that the Legislature just was not going to put any state money into the project." Baak concedes it's too late to get a Vikings stadium bill moving this session, but he'll invite the Sports Commission to the Capitol next week to present it's plans to his tax committee. "I actually think the timing is pretty good," Baak told KARE 11 News. "It kind of raises the level of interest and then we?ll get a sense if there?s any public support for moving forward with something next session." Stadium designer Boris Dramov sees the Metrodome's replacement as more than just another football stadium. He calls it a "new front door" for the city, a project that in theory would serve as a catalyst for a revitalization of that section of downtown. "But let?s do it in a way that it helps to build our city," Dramov told reporters. "And that?s what?s happened in a lot of communities, and that?s what can happen here." His ROMA design firm was involved in designing new baseball parks in San Francisco and San Diego. "You have a tremendous; you have really a golden opportunity to make a very, very special place." He premiered a computer animation depicting an aerial view of the new stadium, which would feature a retractable roof allowing it to be used year around. As a stadium designer Dramov said he prefers the downtown site to the Anoka county site the Vikings focused on for the past two years. "It?s extremely hard to build the kind of activity linkages to create urban areas if you start in an empty field," Dramov remarked. "Here you?ve got many, many years of history. You?ve got many efforts like the Mills district that?s already taken off."
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