The proposed new Vikings stadium, while announced as dead earlier this week, is apparently on life support as the NFL and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton attempt to revive it.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said to Dayton on Thursday that there would be “serious consequences” for the team and the league if there is no new stadium deal. Goodell and Steelers President Art Rooney (who heads the NFL’s stadium committee) plan to meet with Dayton and members of the legislature on Friday.
Eric Grubman, the NFL’s executive vice president of finance and strategic transactions, says that a change may be necessary, “I don’t know if that means a sale. I don’t know if that means a move. You have a very dejected ownership.”
This may be down to the last shot to keep the Vikings in Minneapolis. If a new deal doesn’t get done, or at least a commitment to move forward with what the NFL feels is a reasonable process, it is likely that 2012 will be the last season for the Vikings in Minneapolis. The options that Grubman proposed keeps everything on the table, but staying in Minneapolis in the existing facility beyond 2012 does not appear to be one of those options.
The Metrodome was opened in 1982 and is in need of a serious update or replacement. Two games in the 2010 NFL season had to be moved after part of the roof collapsed under the weight of heavy snows on December 12, 2010. Fortunately, the facility was empty at the time.
The unfortunate truth for the people of Minneapolis is that if the Minnesota won’t put up the money for a new stadium, there are other cities that will.
