The Minnesota Vikings have been adamant for some time now that, not only do they want to get a new football stadium built, they are really only considering the site in Arden Hills for said stadium. The surrounding cities, counties and the state itself have been trying to urge the Vikings to consider multiple sites. It's not necessarily that they don't want Arden Hills, it's just that narrowing your options decreases the chance of something getting through all the paper work and red tape that is funding a project in excess of a billion dollars.
That being said, the Vikings took a step, though it might just be a small step, in getting closer to a stadium at Arden Hills. On Tuesday, the Ramsey County Board agreed to search for various architects that could be interested in designing and building a new stadium. With the vote at 4-3, they approved a "request for qualifications," which essentially closes out the next step, which is a request for bids, where the stadium building/designing contract is actually awarded to a party.
Ramsey County is clearly ready to go with this - or as ready as one can seem with only a 4-3 vote, at this point. One has to wonder how anything gets done when the simple solicitation of qualifications from architects barely passes through, but that's a discussion for a different day. This process should begin very soon, and it will determine who is qualified to actually submit bids to get the architectural work.