Thus far, the plan for a new Minnesota Vikings' stadium has been thought to be the team paying one-third of the cost of the new stadium, the state of Minnesota paying one-third, and an (as of now) unknown local partner paying one-third. However, if yesterday's meetings are any indicator, it sounds like the Vikings might be willing to increase their share of the burden in order to get something worked out.
The team would neither confirm nor deny the potential increase to their contribution when they were asked about it yesterday, but Ted Mondale, the head of the Minneapolis Sports Facilities Commission, made an overture yesterday to that effect.
"The number's going to be a lot higher than people have thought," Mondale said of the Vikings' contribution. "It's somewhere in the 40s -- 40 percent.
"They know that's where they need to be to make it work," he added. "So, they've been running around town for the last three days [and] they appear to be" accepting that the Vikings need to pay far more than a third of the project in order to partner with both the state and either Minneapolis or Ramsey County.
Yes, Minneapolis still appears to be in the game at this point, even though Ramsey County has been much better organized and has put themselves "very, very close" to a deal with the team, as we reported to you earlier on.
If you'll recall, a few years ago the Vikings were "very close" to a deal with the folks in Anoka County to build a stadium in the Blaine area, but continued to flirt with the city of Minneapolis to the point where Anoka County pulled their deal off of the table. Certainly, Zygi Wilf wouldn't allow history to repeat itself on this stadium deal.
Would he?