It's been a week since Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton's imposed deadline for potential new Vikings stadium proposals, and despite a news conference on Wednesday, we've learned nothing new. At least four proposals were handed in to Dayton, and after eliminating one (as everyone knew the Shakopee proposal was not feasible), we're still down to three with no end in sight.
Most assumed that Dayton would pick a stadium site to run with on Wednesday, and for awhile it looked like the site at Linden Avenue would be the way to go. He opened up his conference talking about the Arden Hills site and the fact that there wasn't enough information, saying the Vikings hadn't done enough to convince him of the site's financial feasibility. Kind of odd, given the 100+ page report handed in.
Instead, he focused on the Metrodome site and the Linden Avenue site, despite those reports being four pages long. At any rate, it was clear he wanted a site in Minneapolis, but then again, most everyone knew that going into this. So after the press conference and a week out from the deadline, we're not much closer to figuring out if the Vikings are going to get a new stadium in the near future. It's worth noting that Dayton spent the least amount of time reflecting poorly on the Linden Avenue site, so there's a chance that one is now the front-runner, but everyone had hoped to be beyond this point by now.
Back in January, Ted Mondale, the chief stadium negotiator for Dayton, said that they would all be considered "behind" if they didn't have it narrowed down to one site for the stadium by mid-January. That point has come and gone.
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