The latest wave of stadium renovations has brought about
some imaginative ideas for how to build a mega sports palace. When the pockets of billionaire owners are
deepened by the seemingly endless yet also cash-strapped wallets of their city and
state governments – and by extension, your wallet, if you live there – the imagination
roams free with uninhibited reckless abandon.
If you have not seen the designs
for the Minnesota Vikings’ new stadium plan, then you should surely check
them out. The all-glass structure to let
the beautiful sunlight in through its non-retractable roof looks to be on the
same futuristic level as the Atlanta
Falcons’ new stadium design. Some
say it looks like it should be on a Sandcrawler. I think it looks like one of those robots
from the old show Robot Wars.
Whatever your opinion is of the design, we can at least all agree that it is an ode to excess. Just as the Falcons design is. Just as is Marlins Park or Cowboy Stadium or the new Yankee Stadium.
And as the rich get rich and we continue to privatize profits
while publicizing debts, it is impossible to ignore the hefty price tag that
will fall squarely on the shoulders of the Minnesota (namely Minneapolis) taxpayers.
In total, the price tag of the new stadium is estimated to
be in the $975
million range (I can’t imagine what
they had to give up to keep the tag under $1 billion). Almost half, $427 million to be exact, will
come from the Vikings
and a loan from the NFL. The rest - $548
million – will come from the state of Minnesota ($398 million) and the city
of Minneapolis ($150 million). That
means the Vikings’ new stadium will be 54%
publicly financed, fourth most out of the last 10 NFL stadiums built.
According to Forbes,
Minnesota senator John Marty estimated that under the current financing structure,
the new Vikings stadium would cost
the taxpayers $77.30 per ticket per game
for 30 years. And apparently the estimated does not even
include the tax exemptions that the Vikings and the construction will receive in
yet another sweetheart lease deal.
Funding for the project is already hitting a snag as the state
tax on electronic pull tabs that was supposed to generate the first wave of
revenue has come up short. This is all
coming from a state government that has already proposed $2 billion in new
taxes and looked to cut
$150 million from the state Health and Human Services budget that has
already sustained over
$1 billion in reductions in the past two years. Oh yea, the state has a deficit of $627
million too (yes it is
progress from the $1.1 billion that it was when Gov. Dayton took over two
years ago).
Meanwhile, the anti-public-funding for the stadium
oppositions continues to gain traction. The
problem is not necessarily that the rich get richer; it is how they are doing
it. We are living in a day and age where
we pay more, get less, and are left wondering where exactly our money is
going. The people of Minnesota know
where this money is going, and it is going straight into the pockets of Vikings
owner Zygi Wilf and the NFL.
With the government strapped for cash, their actions should
be rooted in righting the course, not playing into billionaire
profiteering. If only the world were as
transparent as the new Vikings’ stadium will be.
Follow Kevin Rossi on Twitter @kevin_rossi.
