Anoka County Rescinds Vikings Stadium Offer
Here's the release. More later...
Anoka County today announced that it is rescinding its offer and terminating negotiations for a new Vikings stadium in Blaine.
“We’ve been operating on the premise that Anoka County was the chosen site by the Governor’s Stadium Screening Commission since February 2004 -- a competition that Hennepin County and Minneapolis did not enter into. That appears to have changed with the Minneapolis-based Sports Facilities Commission developing a proposal that would include an NFL football stadium. It’s as if the state and team are willing to start all over,” said Anoka County Commissioner Dennis Berg. “It’s unfortunate, because we’ve had strong public support, as was evidenced in this past election.”
“We got into this project to benefit Anoka County residents, and we said all along that when it no longer benefitted Anoka County residents we would terminate negotiations,” said Anoka County Commissioner Scott LeDoux. “It doesn’t benefit Anoka County taxpayers to negotiate against other communities to keep the Vikings in Minnesota, or to be used as leverage for a better deal somewhere else.”
“The reluctance of the state to support Anoka County’s efforts and the unwillingness of the Vikings to adhere to our agreement make it no longer viable for us to stay at the table,” said Steve Novak, Anoka County’s stadium project coordinator. Sticking points in recent weeks and months have included whether to have a roof or not, whether to move the Vikings headquarters to Blaine or not, securing state funding, and agreeing on exclusive negotiations.
“The reason Anoka County was involved in the project was to substantially increase the number of quality jobs in the county, strengthen the tax base to hold down residential property taxes, draw attention to Anoka County as a place to develop businesses, and build on the existing sports facilities in the area to create a sports tourism destination for the entire state and region,” said Novak.
“We’ve been saying for a long time that the marketing side of this project has been a success. We’ve reaped threefold in national publicity what we’ve spent on this project. Even without achieving the final prize, it’s been money well spent,” said Novak. The county estimates the value of publicity gained in nation-wide press at over $3 million, while the county spent just over $850,000 on the project over a period of three years.
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