For $600 million, we get to keep 130 Vikings jobs in MN!

[annm4peace]

Minnesota is being blackmailed by Vikings owner, billionaire Zygi Wilf. He claims he'll move his losing team to Los Angeles if Minnesotans don't cough up $600 or $700 million to build him a new stadium. While Minnesota is cutting money for education, healthcare, housing, the elderly and disabled, it is insane to spend hundreds of millions on a stadium the Vikings will play in 10 days a year! Get involved with WAMM - Women Against Military Madness - to work against all kinds of madness!


The Star Tribune reported on May 1 that Mpls share would be $675 million when interest costs are included. Could go as high as $890 million (from same article). They are talking about a roofless stadium - there won't be 200 events. People would spend their money on local bars and restaurants if they don't spend it at a football game. During the long baseball strike of 1994, business at bars and restaurants boomed. (From Free Lunch - How Wealthiest Enrich Themselves thru Gov't Expense)

[annm4peace]

1. Say "no" to a taxpayer-funded Vikings stadium

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/novikingsstadium/


i'm not against Vikings or footballs or stadiums. I'm against the 99% funding it when we have other needs.

hell, most of us can't even afford to go to the games or buy their 50.00 jerseys.

*****


Stop a taxpayer-funded Vikings stadium!



According to recent news stories, a taxpayer-funded Vikings stadium is "imminent." In fact, the Minneapolis City Council is currently coming up with proposals for a taxpayer-funded Vikings stadium, which would mean a bill would be pushed through the state legislature as early as May 15.

We do not want a bill to be pushed through the legislature via back-room deals! Let the public vote on a publicly funded stadium.

Enough is enough. Though a 1997 referendum demands proposals for publicly funded stadiums be put before voters, Hennepin County residents were forced through last-minute political and business negotiations to pay $350 million for a new Twins ballpark. That amounts to three cents of every $20 spent in Hennepin County going to a team and owners only footing $130 million for a stadium that will continue to net them millions.

Now, despite public opposition, the Minneapolis City Council is currently in further negotiations to formulate a deal that would have taxpayers funding another Vikings stadium, despite the fact that we have the Metrodome (the Vikings current home) and the TCF stadium within spitting distance of one another.

According to ESPN, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf and the NFL will commit only $215 million to the estimated $870 million project, leaving taxpayers who never had the opportunity to vote on a stadium bill to fund the rest.


Minneapolis City Council and state representatives: We urge you not to push a bill through the state legislature that will have Minnesota taxpayers funding another stadium.



On top of the fact that a new stadium is burdensome to taxpayers, tearing down and building new is also detrimental to the environment.

What's more, we do NOT want to line the pockets of millionaires/billionaires with our hard-earned money. A stadium is not a public investment in the same way schools, parks, and transit are. Our tax dollars should go to the crumbling city schools and infrastructure. NOT private profits.

STOP the taxpayer-funded Vikings stadium now!

[bluestateguy]

2. Let 'em leave

LA is a shitty football town anyway. If the Vikings want to learn that lesson for themselves then by all means...

[annm4peace]

7. don't blame L.A.

It is just the spin doctors using the "fantasy" of L.A. paved in gold.

MN are suckers to think L.A. wants or can afford a pro-team.

[bluestateguy]

10. With a few exceptions, LA sports fans are lousy

They are fairweather, abandoning attendance when the team loses; they come late, leave early and all the season tickets and good sets get bought up by Hollywood celebrities and their groupies.

[libinnyandia]

3. Viking fans could become fans of the socialist Green Bay Packers:o)

[elleng]

4. B.S!!!

Where's LA gonna lodge them, eh? (Aside from culture shock!)

[CurtEastPoint]

5. Celebrity Profile puts Zygi Wilf's Net Worth at $1.3 billion dollars.

[SDjack]

6. Poor Wilf, out of his $1 B, he can't come up with

$600M to fund this "good" deal in MN.

[annm4peace]

8. I had to share another poster's comment from another link

It was just too good and is what I'm sharing with my city council members and state Reps.

from: post 5. Mr. Know-It All.
on this post on discussion.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101726430




The Vikings owner Ziggy Wilf is playing his hand just as the NFL has instructed him to.
The NFL is the worlds most profitable professional sports league and they did not get that way by playing by the same rules as everyone else. After Robert Kraft financed and built his own stadium for his New England Patriots, the NFL has made sure that all new owners follow league procedures by "crying poverty" and demanding public funding for;
- tax brakes
- free land
- new stadiums
- lax regulations
- job subsidies
- unsold ticket buy-outs
- black-outs of public broadcasts, etc.

The NFL has carefully controlled league expansion so as to always have a few cities hungry for an NFL team. The problem is, LA is not one of them. Here are a few reasons why the Vikings Will not move to LA;
- most NFL fans in LA are transplants... They follow their home teams
- the Vikings are not well liked in LA (they knocked the best Ram teams of the 70s out of the playoffs)
- there is very little interest in a new NFL team in LA (voters in Pasadena have already turned down the NFL twice by voting "No" to allowing the NFL to put a team in The Rose Bowl)
- LA has already had, and lost three NFL teams... They all left due to lack of fan support.
- the Vikings are "fully branded" in Minnesota. They have a rabid multi-state fan base and the "Viking" image is perfect for the heavily Scandinavian population... "branding" is worth million$

Finally, it should be noted that Ziggy Wilf made his billions in the construction business, meaning that he could easily build his own stadium with his own construction firm "at cost" and then watch the value of his franchise increase by the retail value of the new stadium...

People in Minnesota love their Vikings, NFL owners love public funding... Thus, the "shakedown"

[glinda]

9. This video plays into the hands of the Republicans who now want tax cuts for the richest and are

saying they will create more jobs than that. So combining the attack by both the left and the right it makes the right look pretty good huh?

The whole "sports" thing is screwed up everywhere. What I would like to say is that I like football and would like to see them stay. I lost part of my hearing in my right ear because of the poor construction of the current Metrodome. Seriously. I actually suffered hearing loss of a significant amount.

Sports contributes to the economy as entertainment. Yes, restaurants, bars, other events and even the food industry makes money during games. As an Arts person I understand that. As someone who has worked with the poor also I understand the other pressing and moral issues. I keep hoping for a solution to build a better facility and to keep the Team. HAte Zig all ya want, he donates to Dems pretty much. It is a right winger's dream to both kick a Dem supporter out and make the sports people hate the Governor all at the same time. It is a twofer.

I would rather see the energy focused upon voting out the Republicans and Blue Dogs and getting a strong majority back personally.

[annm4peace]

11. didn't know Ziggy donated to dFL

that makes sense why Dayton and Rybak are supporting the tax dollars going towards a new stadium.

let the top 10% pay for it.

[annm4peace]

12. there some Reps who have common sense.

Rep Marty's whole article is good.. I just put parts of it up. I hope my Rep is signing with Marty.


http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/05/01/john-marty/

Why public funding for a Vikings stadium doesn't make sense
May 1, 2012

By John Marty

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, is serving his eighth term in the Minnesota Legislature. This commentary is adapted from an open letter he sent to his colleagues late last week.

I recognize that many legislators have strong positions on the Vikings stadium issue and many have been tracking the issue closely. However, there are a number of misconceptions about parts of the issue, and many unexamined assumptions that deserve an airing. Before we give $700 million to Zygi Wilf for a new stadium, here is some information that I hope you will consider


Size of the subsidy

To put this proposal into terms to which we can relate, as it passed out of the Senate Finance Committee this week, the legislation would provide public money in an amount equivalent to a $77.30 per ticket subsidy for each of the 65,000 seats at every Vikings home game. That's $77 in taxpayer funds for each ticket, at every game, including preseason ones, for the next 30 years.

That's a lot of money. Especially when many Minnesotans are struggling to make ends meet. This calculation is based on 65,000 seats in the new stadium, with 10 games per season (if you don't count preseason games, the subsidy is more than $96 in taxpayer funds per ticket), for 30 years. It counts the payments for the state and city share of debt service on the bonds, and the state payments for operating expense and for the capital reserve. The real number would actually be significantly higher, because this calculation does not include the value of the property tax exemption on the stadium and the parking ramps (this subsidy is worth at least $15 million to $20 million per year more, year after year) or the value of the sales tax exemption on stadium construction materials (if it is included in the final legislation).

snip..

Public funds can create construction jobs, but those projects should serve a public purpose, constructing public facilities, not subsidizing private business investors. The need to employ construction workers is not an excuse to subsidize wealthy business owners, especially when there is such great need for public infrastructure work.

snip...
To Zygi Wilf's credit, back in 2006, he promised to keep the team in Minnesota forever: "From Day One... I have promised that I would keep the team here in Minnesota forever..." When asked whether he planned to keep the team in Minnesota , whether we had a new stadium or not, he replied, "Yes, I've stated that from Day One.... all I can tell you is this, that I live by my commitment."

The only reason for this debate over a public subsidy is that many politicians think that Wilf will break his promise and move the team, or sell it.

Both of the stadium financing proposals in Los Angeles are privately funded, without taxpayer money. Under one proposal, the investors would give the land to the team and the team owner would build a stadium without public money. Under the other, investors would build the stadium for the owner. Both L.A. proposals use revenues generated by the stadium to pay for the stadium, and the team owner gets the left-over revenue after paying for the stadium.

[geardaddy]

13. My rep voted against.

Thank you, Frank Hornstein.