Betting Sports Forum: Bill Takes a Gamble for new Vikings stadium

Betting Sports Forum: Bill Takes a Gamble for new Vikings stadium

By MIKE KASZUBA
Star Tribune

Should the state authorize a casino with proceeds going to pay for a new stadium for the Vikings? Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, wants to ask voters whether to authorize a metro-area casino to help build a new football stadium.
Two hot-button issues at the State Capitol -- gambling and a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings -- came together last week in new legislation that proposed using revenue from a new Twin Cities metro casino to build the much-discussed stadium.
Saying his constituents were adamant about not wanting the Vikings to leave Minnesota, Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, said his plan would propose a constitutional amendment, asking voters in 2010 whether revenues from a new casino should be used to finance a new stadium. Hackbarth said bonds would be issued to finance the stadium's construction -- work would begin almost immediately if the amendment passed in November 2010 -- and the Vikings would have to sign at least a 30-year lease and enlist a local government partner to help bring about the project.
"Let's let the voters decide," said Hackbarth, who acknowledged he had not spoken to the Vikings and had floated a similar proposal five years ago that gained little political traction. "I think this is a perfect solution" because there would not be a general tax increase, he said.
State legislators, and even the Vikings, were cool to the idea. "We're not advocating for a gaming situation," said Lester Bagley, a spokesman for the Vikings, who have been searching unsuccessfully for a way to kick-start debate on a stadium at the Legislature.
"[But] if that's what the state leaders want to use," Bagley added, "then let's sit down. At least someone is thinking creatively."
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said she did not find the proposal appealing, and Brian McClung, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, said the governor "has said that he isn't interested in gaming." In the past, Pawlenty has had mixed reactions to gambling expansion proposals.
Said Kelliher: "I don't think Minnesotans have an expectation that the words 'casino' and 'stadium' should be enshrined into our state Constitution.

Betting Sports Forum: Bill Takes a Gamble for new Vikings stadium