The Minnesota Vikings now have four plans to consider for a potential new stadium site, when they were supposed to be narrowed down to one plan half a month ago. We're now at the end of January, and the initial plan was to have it all narrowed down to one site by mid-January. That's out the window, especially with a new site being considered by the team, this late in the game.
Still, the Vikings want the site at Arden Hills in Ramsey County to get the go-ahead, as it's been their favored site from the beginning. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton doesn't like the site and thinks it has the most road blocks of any proposed, but noted that he could be turned around if given a feasible funding plan.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, they're past their deadline to submit the newest financing plan. It's not a hard deadline, so they'll be able to submit it when it's done, but there's a couple things to note, according to Star Tribune. For one, the "deadline" was set for last Friday, and the county fell short of that deadline, and likely won't have one until late in the week, or perhaps not until the following week.
It's worth noting that Ramsey County couldn't get something worked on last week because plan architect and county finance director Lee Mehrkens had the end of the week off. Perhaps it's a little jaded to think that he should be working to meet a deadline, especially with all of the drama already surrounding the stadium proposals, but it does fit well with all of the other feet-dragging and lethargic attitudes that have come out during all of this.
The Legislature is set to get another group together to work on the stadium proposals (all of them) this week according to the report, so if Ramsey County really, truly wants to get their underdog bid for the stadium, they need to step it up and get something down sooner than next week.
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