Given the fact that both Ramsey County and Minneapolis are having difficulties raising funds for the local portion of a Vikings stadium, DFL Sen. Tom Bakk was asked this morning if the local requirement should be dropped.

That would mean, of course, that the state and the Vikings would be the only two partners in the financing of a new stadium.

Bakk, the Senate minority leader who hails from Virginia, seemed intrigued by the idea.

He suggested if a local partner didn’t need to come up with funding, the stadium should be built in Duluth.

“At the site of the old Central High School,’’ he said. “It sits high up.  … You could have a glass wall overlooking the lake. It would be the most beautiful stadium in the country.’’

“That’s proposal No. 10,’’ said Rep. Paul Thissen, the House minority leader, of the Bakk proposal.

Actually, it might be No. 11.

Clear back last year, Sen. Dave Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, suggested the stadium be built in Cotton, an unincorporated village 36 miles northwest of Duluth.

“There’s a lot of land, it’s halfway between Duluth and Virginia, and people need the work,’’ Tomassoni said. “We could build a train line from the Twin Cities right to the stadium.’’