The Pontiac Silverdome, site of countless amazing runs by Lions great Barry Sanders and MHSAA football championship games, has depreciated in value.
A lot.
An unidentified Toronto-based group submitted the winning bid for the property with a paltry offer of $583,000. It’s pretty minuscule when you consider that the Silverdome cost $55.7 million to build.
I have seen the future, and it is not pretty.
That is going to happen whether the Vikings move or not just like it did with Met Center and Metropolitan Stadium. After all Detroit still has the Lions.
Apples and oranges. The silverdome sits out in the middle of nowhere, many miles from DT Detroit. It's bland, ugly and was never very popular.
The metrodome is in the heart of the city. It's a great football stadium for the general public. It's just the VIP's that hate it, because they can't squeeze any more revenue out.
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It's a great football stadium for the general public.
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Beg to differ.
It's a lousy stadium, and no self-respecting SEC School would keep that albatross around. Even Free$hoesUniverity's stadium is better than the Metrodome.
A story on MPR mentioned that the City of Pontiac has been paying $1.5 million / year for upkeep on the empty Silverdome, almost three times what the new owners paid for it.
The most profitable use of land in Minneapolis right now is hourly parking.
How about this. We can fight against this, and gnash our teeth about unfair corporate welfare, and stew in righteous indignation because it's bullshit, but it is going to happen. Why don't Dems show some leadership and try to figure out how we can make it work best for the people of Minnesota. We are going to eat this turd. I think we should get over it it and spend our energy coming up with creative ways to make that turd more palatable. Requiring all jobs be union, requiring architects from the state, requiring it to be "green" maybe requiring that they donate the use a few times a year for charity events or city/state use. We can use our brain power productively instead of trying to hold back an unstoppable wave.
Best idea yet Alec, turn this project into a showcase of how things can be done for the benefit of all parties. It's going to happen, so why not turn this sow's ear into a silk purse.
Richard and Alec…this is a comedy routine, right…?
Word of the day - again: delusional
And the payoffs begin. So not only are you willing to roll over you want to make sure you can hone in on the extortion racket. Increasing the costs of the project that everybody has to pay in order to benefit the groups you like. The birth of a boondoggle is an amazing thing to see.
I'm fine funding this with a poll tax on those that vote Republican.
I'm just fine with a plan that excludes Hennepin County from a stadium tax.
Why don't we let the billionaire owners pay for their own stadium??? They're going to receive the most benefit from it.
Because it's fair and makes sense.
I couldn't tell you who's performing at the Gutrie or who's been there in the last six months. I haven't taken the kids the Minesota Zoo in a while. I don't understand why the Supreme Court or Transportation needs their own building. I don't have kids in high school. However, I pay taxes for all of that. Everyone of you on here probably use facilities more than I do.
I like professional football and if it costs a little more ($35/yr), I'm for it. It doesn't matter if I'm having ribs at Bistro 7 1/4 up in Winnipeg or bar pizza at the Half-Time Rec or grabbing some fish at Foley's in Sioux Falls, I can talk Vikings football with the patrons. Try that with the Guthrie performances.
No you can't measure it in test scores but, you can measure it in quality of life. I don't care if its privately owned. We just tossed out hundreds of billions to save the economy and yet the credit markets (now flush with cash) is killing small businesses and sustaining the unemployment.
Keep my football team here.
Sports are in no way shape or form anything but a luxury item. You want football, you pay for it. You want to have something to talk about, read a book. If the topic has to be football, become a Green Bay fan. You think it is a better use of resources than education or health care show me why. That you will never be able to do that means you are talking out of your ass. The fact we have wasted billions in other areas isn't an excuse to waste more on this crap.
KH - I think you agree with me that an annoyance is when other people tell you how to spend your money, or worse actually spend your money for you.
DJZ and I want to spend our money on the Vikings. Maybe its dumb. Maybe we don't get an economic return from it. I also spent money on a 6-pack last night, which probably is bad for me and I had to pay some user taxes on. But I would do it again if I had the choice.
We need to find a way to help finance a stadium in a manner where people like me and DJZ pay for it, and you don't.
The least offensive way for the state to pay for such unnecessary items is the lottery. The lottery has about $80 million a year in profits which would mean a $1 billion stadium would take 20 years or so to pay off. About the length of time the stadium would last before they start to ask for a new one.
This is one of those politics make strange bedfellows deals. I see both sides of the argument and see both the right and the left as having very valid reasons this should not be done… and just as valid arguments that it should be done. The quality of life issue trumps much of the outrage over spending tax dollars for frivolous reasons.
My guess is that Alex has it about right… this is going to happen one way or the other. Why not try to mitigate the disaster and try to make something positive about it? (The reason it is going to happen? Because no politician will get elected fighting it and every politician who gets tagged with it if Vikings leave has committed career suicide.) I just don't know what mitigating and "positiviting" is and what needs to be done.
The jobs creation and tax revenue are nothing to sneeze at. And, guess what? After this stadium, we will have three new ballparks. We shouldn't have to revisit this in our lifetime. That said, if you think it is inevitable, then the state/county should make the best possible offer that is over and above what the Vikings will expect. But, an offer that still puts much of the monetary burden on the Wilfs. If the offer is so attractive that they throw a lot of their own money at it, we put the state in the driver's seat. After all, there are many reasons they do not want to move the team. The fan base is here and it is a successful franchise. Put the PR pressure back on them.
Really? The dome has become obsolete in much less than my remaining life expectancy.
Just to clarify, there is no "good", rational reason for this to happen, but it is not an intellectual decision. It is a visceral, emotional decision. Logically we would do just fine without a stadium or the Vikings. We would just be a nice pleasant version of Iowa North. Our society, our leaders, and our citizens are not Vulcans though. We act on emotion a lot. That is why this will happen.
Live long and prosper.
One correction to that. The Hawkeyes rule football in Iowa. It's their pro team. Iowa's coach is getting to the point he could be governor. The Gopher program is a mess. Brewster is getting to the point he couldn't get hired to be the dog catcher. You should see more proof of that Saturday.
The Iowa Football coach makes $3 million a year. Until yesterday, the Vikings head coach was making $2 million a year. Yeah, the Hawkeyes are Iowa's pro team.
The only exception is that when you build a stadium for a collegiate team, even when the head coach has a $21 million contract, there is little handwringing.
Just to clarify, there is no "good", rational reason for this to happen, but it is not an intellectual decision. It is a visceral, emotional decision. Logically we would do just fine without a stadium or the Vikings. We would just be a nice pleasant version of Iowa North. Our society, our leaders, and our citizens are not Vulcans though. We act on emotion a lot. That is why this will happen.
Unlike Detroit, Minneapolis is still a city with a clear future. The Dome can be razed. It's great downtown real estate on the light rail line.
That said, we should start a pool on when the LA Vikings become the Las Vegas Vikings. LA has proven at least twice now that it can't/won't support the NFL.
It's disappointing to see Mnpublius is now echoing relocation threats and shilling for Club Wilf. Remember Don Beaver?
The Metrodome was one of many FAD stadiums all built in the same era. Most all are now a piece of history, a few remain. I don't think the high dollar stadiums of today will become obsolete in 25 years. The teflon domes were nothing more than a covered shell with seats. One of the first of it's kind was built in Cedar Falls, IA at the University of Northern Iowa. A controversial structure for sure. It is still in use, but was retrofitted with a structured dome years ago mainly because of the cost just to keep it blown up. Just a guess, but the Metrodome probably costs 2-3 million a year to inflate. If you look at Big Ten stadiums, most have, or are in the process of renovation. Big money is part of the college game also, and the amenities and boxes are being added to those stadiums to increase revenue. The Big Ten stadiums are 50 - 80 years old with Camp Randall at Madison in at 92 years old. So, I do believe any new Vikings stadium will exist much much longer than our 25 year old balloon.