The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Editorials

Discussion

Add a comment on this story

Tools

August 8, 2007

Our View -- Stadium? We don't want to hear it

Another successful Minnesota Vikings training camp at the campus of Minnesota State University will wind toward a conclusion later this month. And before the next preseason drills begin here, fans will once again wonder if someday the team might throw tradition aside and opt for some other location.

Sadly, that would certainly occur should the team, at some point in the future, move its entire operation to another state. Owner Zygi Wilf continues to maintain that he’s committed to Minnesota — even in the aftermath of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse that has blown all new stadium plans to smithereens — but speculation of a possible future move won’t go away as long as the team performs in what it considers a sub-standard facility.

For many Minnesotans — perhaps a sizable majority — the very last thing they want to hear now is that the Vikings need to exit the Metrodome for a new stadium built in part by public dollars. Support for public money for the Vikings was lukewarm even before the I-35W tragedy trumpeted Minnesota’s long overdue need to address infrastructure inadequacies.

Our advice to Zygi, then, is to defer all talk of stadiums for at least a few months. That is, don’t even talk about it in public.

Wilf might have already done his vision some harm just two days after the bridge collapsed over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis last week. Responding to reporters while pledging to donate proceeds from his team’s practice with the Kansas City Chiefs to recovery efforts, he again stated he still desires public funds for a new stadium.

There does indeed need to be a refocus on infrastructure, he said, but adding, according to The Associated Press, “That does not exclude the fact that we understand that the Metrodome is also one of the oldest facilities in the league, and we want to make sure that we have a facility that meets the standards of the 21st century.”

Silence is golden in the wake of a disaster of the magnitude of the I-35W collapse. Persons reading the Vikings owner’s comments might be reminded that, though the Metrodome isn’t the newest stadium in the National Football League, it seats sports fans comfortably. It doesn’t have the most luxury boxes in the league, but it is structurally sound, and fans still enjoy themselves wildly within its confines so long as the Vikings give them a team worth cheering for.

Even the most avid Vikings fans would agree that, on the list of large public expenditures most required of our tax dollars, shoring up our transportation infrastructure easily trumps stadiums. It will be this way for quite some time until the money, and the busy construction effort, completes our need to feel safe and secure.

We hope the Vikings can make do with what they have for a little bit longer, because they remain immensely popular. Wilf obviously knows this, as he remarked recently by saying fans have a “passion” for the team despite its 6-10 finish in 2006.

That said, now is the time for everyone to put stadiums aside and concentrate on more pressing matters.

Editorials

Hyperlocal Search

Premier Guide
Find a business

Walking Fingers
Maps, Menus, Store hours, Coupons, and more...
Premier Guide