The Minnesota House on Monday approved a bill for the Minnesota Vikings new stadium.
The vote was 73-58, with 40 Democrats and 33 Republicans voting in favor of the heavily amended plan.
The stadium proposal will now move to the Minnesota Senate, where it is expected to be taken up Tuesday.
Even after Monday's passage, however, approval of the new stadium is hardly a sure thing. A slew of amendments were tacked on to the bill during Monday's eight-and-a-half -hour marathon session.
The most significant amendment, according to a Pioneer Press article, cut the state's contribution by about 25 percent and stipulated that the naming rights revenue are to be shared between the team and the public.
The Vikings said that the naming provision was "not workable," according to the Pioneer Press.
Also from the Pioneer Press:
The House bill differs significantly from the one in the Senate, and the differences would need to be resolved in conference committee, after which there would be another round of votes in the House and Senate before the bill goes to the governor....
But House passage was still a significant step, and it sets up a potential end-game for a Vikings stadium push that's been under way at least 12 years and engaged in earnest for about the past three.
Republican Rep. Morrie Lanning, the bill's sponsor, warned against squeezing the team too much. The Pioneer Press also quotes an NFL executive who says that last-minute changes could put the deal in peril.
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