Wiggle room for the Vikings?
Vikings vice president and stadium capo Lester Bagley couldn't make it on Kerri Miller's Mid-Morning show about a new NFL stadium in Minnesota this morning. But he did send a tantalizing email. He wrote to producer Ted Canova that the team may chip in more than the 1/3 they've talked about paying for an open-air stadium.
"The Twins added additional funds after the bill was passed," Bagley wrote. "Which is likely to occur in a Vikings scenario as well."
So how much more than 1/3 did the Twins kick in for Target Field?
A lot, says the Twins' spokesman Kevin Smith.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
He says the team chipped in another $50 million for in-progress upgrades during the construction and got an additional $4.5 from Target for the Target Plaza buildout. He said the Twins threw in another $15 million for buying land, after the court tussle over the stadium site's price. And he says they're tossing in another $4 or $6 million this off season for a new video board, fixes to the outfield and other changes.
All told, he figures its about $200 million of the $545 million the place will cost by opening day this year.
That calculates out to about 36.7 percent of the bill for the final product, including the $90 million in infrastructure costs.
They weren't the only team to do that, of course. The Minnesota Wild, after signing a deal for the Xcel Energy Center that cost them $3.5 million annually in rent for 25 years, pledged $30 million more for post-hockey arena-deal upgrades to the $130 million X in 2000.
The question is: Will the Vikings end point look like the Target Field deal? Or is that the new starting point for negotiations for the team's contributions at the Capitol?