Stadium Dreams

The next few weeks are crunch time for the Minnesota Vikings stadium efforts. It's ridiculous that it has even gotten to this point. The lease with the horrible Metrodome ends after the 2011 season. Something should have been done long before this to allow for a seamless transition. There has always been the threat of the team moving if a new Stadium is not completed. I don't see the Wilf family moving the Vikings. Even with Los Angeles begging for an NFL team. I can see the Wilf's selling the team, if the politicians ignore it all once more, and who knows what the next owner will do. For whatever reason, Minnesota's people and politicians just sit and waffle with their professional sports teams. The Lakers and North Stars left the state. The Twins were nearly dead and buried. It still baffles me that the Twins owner comes within a whisper of folding up shop, and is rewarded with a new ballpark before the Vikings. Both teams called the same dump home. Although the great success of the Twins new park may help the Vikings get a new stadium. There has been an incredible explosion of new stadiums in the NFL. The run away success of the of the league has forced the teams to keep pace, culminating in Jerry Jones' ridiculous shrine to himself. The ability of other communities to build stadiums highlights the inability of Minnesota to do the same. In the 10+ years that then owner Red McCombs and the Wilf's have been pushing for a new stadium, a Stadium Bill has never been brought before the legislature. It has always been crushed, pushed aside or ignored well before that. Next week, a Stadium Bill will be presented for the first time. They have some interesting and unusual money generating methods for the state to cover a third of the cost, a third from local funds, and a third from the Vikings. The Vikings are too much a part of Minnesota to lose. The people should be all too aware of the potential loss of another professional team. It's real. If they waffle some more, it will happen again. The dreams finally seem real. Get it done.