No New Vikings Stadium

     For a quite a while now the Minnesota Vikings have been pushing to get a new stadium. But time after time they have gotten knocked down. I agree that the Viking shouldn’t have a new stadium.

     I know how impressive it would look with a all new pro sports facility in Minnesota. With the new Twins stadium and a newer Excel Center and possibly renovations coming to Target Center. But the Viking want a brand new stadium that will cost $750-$954 million dollars. Sure with a retractable roof and a glass exterior it will look so nice and we can brag about what we have would be exciting.

      But upward of $954 million exactly where will this come from. One way they are talking about is passing a half-cent tax that could generate $300 million toward a new Vikings stadium. The other way they propose is the Vikings organization will raise a third which they would cover about $315 million of the $954 million leaving the rest up to Ramsey County and possibly the state. They said about 75% of Minnesotans don’t support using taxpayer money for a new Vikings Stadium. When our state deficit is $5 billion, we can’t afford such an expensive stadium. The other option is renovating the Metrodome that will cost about $250 million, which is about 26% of what the new stadium will cost. I looked at some of the drawing of the renovation and I think it looks very nice. I also looked up what the Cowboys stadium was suppose to cost and they projected it to cost $932 million dollars, but the stadium actually ended up costing $1.3 billion after all the constructions delays and the extra construction fees. What if that happens to us and our stadium ends up costing in the upwards of billions of dollars

     So sure, the stadium will make the addition to the good looking pro sports facilities we have already. But with a $5 billion dollar deficit we can’t afford a $954 million dollar stadium. So from what I have read it’s just putting too much pressure on taxpayers. So I say just renovate the Metrodome instead of a brand new ones.