Category: Vikings Stadium

by Dave Mindeman

Revenues from pull tabs for the Vikings Stadium continue to disappoint. But with each inquiry about the problem, we get the same answer - Don't panic.

There is always one more word as well - yet. Don't panic yet. Which seems to indicate that some panic is in the offing down the road.

Former Rep. Morrie Lanning, who was the architect of the stadium bill....and who incidently retired from the legislature after the session, is among the "don't panic" crowd.

But he offers little reassurance as to when improvement may happen outside of the murky "be patient"....and this:

I am still reasonably confident that we?re going to be able to generate the revenues that we need. And remember we?ve got back-up revenue sources, too. If we have to, those will have to kick into effect.

When asked about the fact that the "back-up resources" are not capable of more than a few million per year, Lanning confessed:

I had wanted additional back-up. In fact, if you go back and look at some of the earlier versions [of the bill] we had other back-up revenues that we thought would have been good to keep in there. Unfortunately, with all of the trade-offs you had to go through along the way, with getting the bill passed, we lost some of those, and it?s unfortunate.

This is very dubious financing. Everything is watered down with few guarantees about its viability.

The urgency of pleasing the Zygi outweighed prudent fiscal policy on this project.

"Let's be patient" is not an encouraging answer.

Category: Vikings Stadium

by Dave Mindeman

About a year ago, I posed this problem when we were discussing the Vikings Stadium....

Back to gambling. Although electronic pull tabs seems to have the least objections, I'm not convinced that it can bring in enough revenue to fulfill state obligations.

Back in February, Dayton said this in an interview with MPR regarding the stadium bonding via pull tabs:

Wurzer: I have to ask you about the Vikings stadium. We have a report this morning from [MPR reporter] Tim Nelson that basically says counting on gambling revenues can be kind of risky and sometimes the revenues raised don't meet projections. What happens if, say, electronic pull tabs, which you support to raise the state's share of a new Vikings stadium, don't bring in enough money?

Dayton: Well, we're going to have to commit revenues from whatever sources that are greater than the actual amount to pay off the bonds. If there's, say, $300 [million] to $400 million of bonds issued, that would take about $40 million a year in proceeds to pay it off ... So the people who are going to buy the bonds are going to require that the revenue stream be more than $40 million, as much as $60 [million], maybe even as much as $70 million.

So we'll have to allow for a shortfall as part of the equation, and we're prepared to do that. It may require another source in addition to expanding electronic pull tabs, because as you say, no one knows for sure until it starts exactly what revenues it will bring in. But we'll have to cover it in order to proceed with the bond sale.

Wurzer: Any idea of where another pot of money could come from?

Dayton: There are various possibilities being talked about, but I don't have anything in mind right now.

That was then -- this is now--

Minnesota's new electronic pull tabs aren't generating as much revenue for the Minnesota Vikings stadium as originally projected, leading Minnesota Management & Budget to reduce its future projections as part of its latest budget forecast on Wednesday.

They tell us there is no need to panic....

Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority Chair Michele Kelm-Helgen said there's no need to panic, noting that these are projections for reserve funds above and beyond the amount needed to cover the bonds for the state's $350 million share of the nearly $1 billion stadium.

Panic? Who's panicking? We'll just take everyone's word for it. I mean everything has gone according to plan so far, right?

Well, uh, no. But we won't panic.....yet.

Category: Vikings Stadium

by Dave Mindeman

Zygi Wilf seems to hold us in contempt.

He gets the state and city to fork over nearly half of the costs for "his" stadium" and now he wants the fans to help pay his portion......

The (Dayton) letter comes less than a week after the team sent out an e-mail survey to season ticket holders to gauge their willingness to pay thousands of dollars more for personal seat licenses or "stadium builder's licenses" to secure the best seats. The fee, most likely a one-time payment if imposed, would be on top of the annual cost of season tickets.

Now the Dayton letter referred to here is a kind of "complaint" letter sent by the Governor objecting to this little scheme....

Gov. Mark Dayton wrote a stern letter Tuesday to the owners of the Minnesota Vikings threatening to undo the stadium deal if they pass on the cost of building the $975 million project to the fans.

Zygi's play here is just pure unadulterated greed.

The stadium itself increases the value of "his" franchise by millions. And yet, Joe Six Pack seems to be unwelcome to attend. One of the numbers floated around for this "seat license' is $10,000. And all that does is give you the right to pay for a season ticket. Guess those average fans are going to have to cut down on face paint.

The arrogance of this astounds even me.

The legislature put everything on hold while this stadium deal was cut....and Governor Dayton invested a lot of political capital to keep the Vikings here. And despite all that, Zygi Wilf thinks he can put the screws to all of us again.

It's dealing with the devil.