NFL Commissioner Bullies MN Congress Over Stadium Deal - Polidicks

[quote]ST. PAUL, Minn. — With a proposed Minnesota Vikings stadium deal foundering, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell headed to Minnesota on Friday in a bid to persuade state legislators of the peril of putting off the issue for one more year. Goodell and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney were scheduled to meet with legislative leaders and Gov. Mark Dayton on the $975 stadium plan, which would replace the Metrodome but suffered a potentially fatal defeat in committee this week. For Goodell, the personal touch follows phone conversations earlier this week with Dayton, a stadium booster, to underscore the urgency the league sees with the legislation. “A failure to bring this to the floor is going to be perceived by the ownership and other cities as if it came to the floor and it were voted no,” Eric Grubman, the league’s vice president for operations, said on Thursday. The group will meet in Dayton’s office. “If it isn’t passed this session, the league itself — beyond the Vikings — the league itself has serious concerns about the viability of the franchise here and the future of it here,” Dayton said after a 20-minute phone conversation with Goodell and Rooney on Thursday. So what’s the harm in waiting another year, after elections are over this fall? Grubman declined to directly answer that. “It’s easier to answer why it must happen this year. It’s because the Vikings ownership has waited and waited for years. Because if there’s no action taken this year then there’s no confidence it’s worth waiting any longer,” he said. “If that’s where this gets to then Minnesota loses control of the Vikings’ destiny. That doesn’t mean it’s going to go to one city or another, it just means that you can’t count on it.” Under the plan, the Vikings would pay $427 million of the construction costs for the new stadium, which would be built on the Metrodome site in downtown Minneapolis. City and state taxpayers would be on the hook for the other $548 million — or 56 percent of the total cost. Legislative leaders said they were open to meeting with Dayton and the NFL officials on Friday, but Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem questioned how seriously lawmakers should take the suggestion that failure to pass a bill this year could cost Minnesota the Vikings. “I think we’ve had this so-called warning around here for five or 10 years, so I’m not sure it’s a threat,” said Senjem, R-Rochester. He later added: “I think the Vikings are probably going to be around another year or so.” The Vikings have declined to make lead owner Zygi Wilf or team president Mark Wilf available for comment this week. Dayton spoke by phone with the Wilfs on Thursday, a spokesman for the governor said. They had no plans to attend Friday’s meeting with the NFL leaders. “In order to buy, there has to be a willing seller. It’s very hard to find owners who are willing to sell,” Grubman said. “The Wilfs, I don’t believe they’ve ever been open-minded to selling. If this fails to get out of committee, then I think they’d be open-minded.”[/quote] [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/a-threat-to-move-nfl-commissioner-heads-to-minnesota-to-stress-vikings-stadium-urgency/2012/04/20/gIQAXKZxUT_allComments.html?ctab=all_&#comments]Fuck you commissioner.[/url]

Don't want your state to spend the dough on the stadium, eh?

Fuck yeah, taxpayer money going to build yet another stadium!

[QUOTE=Vaught;35667834]Fuck yeah, taxpayer money going to build yet another stadium![/QUOTE] Sports stuff brings in tons of revenue.

My city recently went totally batshit because we managed to get the rodeo again to the Metro Center, because it was the only thing there for a few seasons, and its the only thing keeping downtown alive.

Heard about MN and their possible loss of team, said something could we see the LA Vikings. That might not happen though. But Sports shit can bring in huge revenue.

I agree, football is great for the state. What I'm unhappy with is that every sport in the state has its own stadium, including the Vikings.

[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;35668022]Sports stuff brings in tons of revenue.[/QUOTE] The majority of the revenue goes directly to the NFL/Team/Stadium, while less than 10% is siphoned off to the state in sales tax. It would basically be a huge black hole in the local economy into which money flowed out to some other area of the country. They'd have to host a shitton of other non-national events to actually generate local economic growth.

[quote]Goodell and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney were scheduled to meet with legislative leaders and Gov. Mark Dayton on the $975 stadium plan[/quote] Ooh what a bargain!

[QUOTE=Vaught;35667834]Fuck yeah, taxpayer money going to build yet another stadium![/QUOTE] Stadiums bring in a metric fuckload of revenue. Bristol TN was (and still is, for the most part) a pissant little town before the Bristol Motor Speedway was built. Now, if I recall, that speedway pulls in the most revenue of any track in Nascar and nets a RIDICULOUS amount of money for Tennessee, Virginia and the local businesses. Stadiums are basically steroids for local economies. Hotels, gas stations, restaurants, etc. Shit, in Bristol people make a fucking killing off of simply owning empty land they charge people to park on. You can't really understand the scope of how much revenue these things rake in without seeing a town's population skyrocket by like a 1000% in one weekend. I'm talking an unbroken line of parked cars on both sides of the highway for like five miles in any direction.

[QUOTE=Lankist;35669196]Stadiums bring in a metric fuckload of revenue. Bristol TN was (and still is, for the most part) a pissant little town before the Bristol Motor Speedway was built. Now, if I recall, that speedway pulls in the most revenue of any track in Nascar and nets a RIDICULOUS amount of money for Tennessee, Virginia and the local businesses. Stadiums are basically steroids for local economies. Hotels, gas stations, restaurants, etc. Shit, in Bristol people make a fucking killing off of simply owning empty land they charge people to park on. You can't really understand the scope of how much revenue these things rake in without seeing a town's population skyrocket by like a 1000% in one weekend. I'm talking an unbroken line of parked cars on both sides of the highway for like five miles in any direction.[/QUOTE] They usually build the stadiums in the crappier parts of town because it's like you said, steroids. Suddenly building a high-rise apartment next to the thing gives you the extra selling point of having a stadium view for fans, bars want to open near it, hotels, restaurants, etc. It's like a leach of growth to parts of cities.

[QUOTE=OvB;35669538]They usually build the stadiums in the crappier parts of town because it's like you said, steroids. Suddenly building a high-rise apartment next to the thing gives you the extra selling point of having a stadium view for fans, bars want to open near it, hotels, restaurants, etc. It's like a leach of growth to parts of cities.[/QUOTE]That's not really important, though, because Minneapolis is growing anyway. For some, unexplained reason, there's a growing music industry down there and other shit's coming in too. If they built a stadium in North Minneapolis, maybe it would scare away all the Somalians to a less flammable part of the city. [editline]wait a minute[/editline] Oh, and I forgot the most important part. WHAT THE FUCK, THEY CAN'T TKE AWAY THE GODDAMN VIKINGS. >:l The whole state is descended from Scandinavians, that's why they're called "The Vikings." Even worse, we haven't even won a superbowl over those cocksuckers in Wisconsin, our hated enemy. Eventually we will, I have faith in that, but we need a team to actually do it. Hell, even if we somehow stop the Packers from winning a superbowl a few times that would make me happy.

[QUOTE=OvB;35669538]They usually build the stadiums in the crappier parts of town because it's like you said, steroids. Suddenly building a high-rise apartment next to the thing gives you the extra selling point of having a stadium view for fans, bars want to open near it, hotels, restaurants, etc. It's like a leach of growth to parts of cities.[/QUOTE] But that's not going to happen. They are going to be building it exactly where the old stadium was. [editline]22nd April 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Lankist;35669196]-Bristol Motor Speedway-[/QUOTE] But Bristol used to and probably still does hold the best races in the entire NASCAR circuit. Everyone wants to go see the races that happen there because they are worth watching. The Vikings aren't exactly a top caliber team and thus don't draw swarms of fans like Bristol races do.