Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak views news of a forthcoming Vikings bill with state money — via user fees and taxes on players, among other items — as “a very positive development that has the state at the table. It’s a good start.”
But he stuck to his long-held position: Although he believes a Vikings facility can be built most affordably in Minneapolis, it cannot be funded by using any excess in a Minneapolis Convention Center tax or by city property taxes.
Convention Center tax revenues are one option included in the proposed Vikings stadium bill that now is expected to be introduced in the Legislature next week after a week of political wrangling and the ironing out of financing details.
Amid the swirling Vikings news is the more significant slashing of Local Government Aid to the city, St. Paul and Duluth.
“I have noted the irony when I’m at the Capitol, and people have pounded on me about the massive cuts they’re about to make to the city and then lean on me about, ‘When are you going to lead in building a statewide [sports] facility?’ ” the mayor said.
“There’s an irony that the city has been the single-largest leader in building sports facilities, and we generate $400 million more in sales and property taxes than we get back in LGA,” Rybak said. “And yet the idea is to make a massive cut to the city and to lead the stadium debate.”
The state contributed no money to Target Field, which is funded with a Hennepin County sales tax. The state provided limited funds after the city rescued Target Center, and it provided no initial funding for the Metrodome, which was paid for via city taxes, too.
While he said he “will be at the table,” as the Vikings debate goes forward, “The city of Minneapolis cannot lead any effort. We can be a supportive partner. It’s unlikely we would lead.”
In an interview with MinnPost, the mayor noted that a cocktail of city taxes — including a half-cent sales tax, and liquor, restaurant and lodging taxes — currently funds the Convention Center, which is, in his words, “a statewide facility.”
The mayor and other city leaders have said if there is ever any excess money from those taxes once the Convention Center’s debt is paid off in 2020, it will be needed to maintain the facility or improve it. Then, there’s the matter of Target Center, which is also city-owned.
“If there’s excess money, it should go to the [facility] we own,” Rybak said, and not to a Vikings stadium.
All that said, the mayor said he wants a new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. Rybak said that the current Metrodome site — or one near it — would be the cheapest for construction because of the existing infrastructure around it; it is infrastructure that has mostly been paid for by city taxpayers.
The mayor said he met recently with Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Chairman Ted Mondale, who is Gov. Mark Dayton’s point man on the Vikings issue. That led to “conversations” about ways to “re-use” the Dome site.
It could mean putting a new stadium on the site. Or keeping the Dome open for other uses even if a new Vikings stadium is built nearby.
Apparently, a significantly cheaper design for a Vikings stadium on the Dome site is under consideration, but the mayor said there’s nothing “that can make sense yet.”
The stadium bill is expected to include a site selection process that will involve a competition between potential sites, including Arden Hills and, perhaps, other cities.
Does Rybak expect Minneapolis to win that competition?
Diplomatically, he said, “I think it’s important now to be a regional partner and say we’re trying to solve this together and we should fund this together …. I’m confident the Metrodome site has enormous built-in advantages that will make it the most exciting, least expensive option … But if there’s some great way to have it somewhere else, I should be open to that … But we want to continue to have the Vikings in Minneapolis.”
