I'd like to see a Minnesota Vikings Stadium out here

I went to the Community Listening Session with Rep. Kate Knuth on the State Budget and Local Impacts of a Proposed Vikings Stadium in Arden Hills on Wednesday, July 13th at the Ramsey County Public Works building.

The room was packed with residents from the surrounding community and the moderator asked that people raise their hands in order to ask questions after Heather Worthington, Ramsey County deputy manager, finished her power point presentation.

Nice Minnesotan that I am, I did not speak up and out of turn when someone commented to the statement that the hospitality industry would certainly benefit from game attendees and said “yes Arden Hills has so many hotels.”

They might only have one hotel but Roseville and the other surrounding cities certainly do.

In Roseville, our hospitality community would be more than happy to host out of town visitors coming to the games. Not only will we see room nights from the 10 preseason and home games, but we would see room nights generated from year round events that could take place in the stadium. Why not let the northern suburbs share in some of the business generated from big name sports?

We currently have the Minnesota Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings and Gophers with Minneapolis addresses, Saint Paul is home to the Minnesota Wild and Saint Paul Saints and Bloomington is a destination onto itself with the airport and Mall of America. 

So why not build a stadium in the northern suburbs, rounding out all four corners of the greater Twin Cities area? It would be natural for light rail to follow which would help ease traffic congestion on the highways as well as increase foot traffic to local area businesses. 

Another comment made was in regards to the “$900 million football stadium that the owner paid for himself.”  That would be the Dallas Cowboy’s football stadium, located in Arlington, Texas. The stadium opened in 2009 and according to Wikipedia: originally estimated to cost $650 million, the stadium’s construction cost was $1.15 billion, making it one of the most expensive sports venues ever built.

To aid Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones in paying the construction costs of the new stadium, Arlington voters approved the increase of the city's sales tax by 0.5 percent, the hotel occupancy tax by 2 percent, and car rental tax by 5 percent. The City of Arlington provided more than $325 million (including interest) in bonds as funding, and Jones covered any cost overruns. Also, the NFL provided the Cowboys with an additional $150 million loan, as per its policy for facilitating financing for the construction of new stadiums. (Wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Cowboys_New_Stadium).  

They were awarded the 2011 Superbowl XLV bid in 2007 and that one game alone has generated an estimated economic impact of $611.7 million in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. (1)

I, for one, am proud of the way Ramsey County stepped up to the plate with a first-class plan for using the largest superfund site in the state!   I also think that, should legislation goes through allowing for a stadium to be funded and built, the surrounding communities working together with the Minnesota Vikings could come up with a final plan that is environmentally  friendly,  neighborhood conscious and beneficial for all.