Football Season is Over but the Off-Field Battle is Only Beginning.

Although the NFL season has wrapped up, the battle is only beginning for citizens and fans who want to keep the Vikings in Minnesota. With the State Legislature in full swing, we want to give you an update on some of the things we’re working on to Save the Vikes.

Welcome Back State Leaders: Now’s the Time for Action!

The legislative session kicked off February 4^th, just days before the Super Bowl, and our legislators face a number of important issues, including the Vikings stadium. It was only months ago that people thought you had to have a political IQ of 2 or lower to believe the Vikings stadium would be addressed in this session. Guess what? The Vikings are going to be a very active part of this legislative session.

Racino Bills Jockey for Position

Politics in Minnesota reports that a number of gambling bills are on deck this session. Most important for the Vikings are two Racino bills with specific verbiage about the stadium put before the Commerce and Labor committee. One is authored by Rep. Tom Hackbarth which would put the Racino plan to a public vote, amending the state constitution to allow slot machines at Canterbury and Running Aces. The other comes from former Senate Minority leader Dick Day and his organization, RacinoNow, and will have bi-partisan authors.

If you’d like to encourage members of the Commerce and Labor committee to strongly consider Racino as a funding vehicle to help pay for the stadium and overcome the State’s budget deficit contact them today.

While the Vikings are not part of the Racino efforts, they are hard at work trying to get bipartisan legislative support for other funding options. SavetheVikes.org does not endorse any specific funding model but does advocate for the exploration of all options to finding a solution to keeping the Vikings in Minnesota.

If you want a more comprehensive look at the pros and cons of the Racino bills from SavetheVikes.org’s perspective, you can read it here.

Taking notice of the legislative activity is the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which has started meeting to discuss their “strategy” during the legislative session. Sadly, that is all there is to report of their “strategy”. No real action plan has been discussed publicly by the committee as of yet.

Candidates for Governor on the Stadium Issue

Meanwhile, I’ve had a chance to catch up with two gubernatorial candidates, Democratic Mayor R.T. Rybak and Republican House Representative Tom Emmer. Here are their positions on the stadium issue:

R.T. Rybak has and will continue to publicly state his support for finding a Vikings stadium solution that uses tax dollars as long as the funding solution addresses other financial issues facing the state. He is not willing to support expansion of gambling as a way to finance a stadium.

Tom Emmer is willing to support tax dollars generated from Racino to be put towards a stadium solution. No further comment was offered.

State House Speaker and gubernatorial candidate Margaret Kelliher Anderson has had no further comment on the Vikings stadium issue since tossing out the idea of a Purple Ribbon Panel and has since said she is opposed to Racino as an option.

So where does current Governor Pawlenty stand on the stadium issue? I’m glad you asked… My fellow members of SavetheVikes.org and I recently had an opportunity to sit down with one of the Governor’s senior policy advisors. On their whiteboard I laid out over 200 million dollars annually in user-based and gambling-based tax sources that would keep from imposing a general tax increase on the public. The reaction we received to any gambling-related ideas, particularly Racino, was a loud and vigorous “no.” So it was to the great surprise of SavetheVikes.org and the Minnesota Vikings that the Governor would even mention the State Lottery as part of a funding model where you could cobble together a funding solution.

Even if it wasn’t much, it was refreshing to hear Pawlenty start talking solutions and discuss the team’s value to the state. You can encourage the Governor’s continued public leadership by emailing him at tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us. If you don’t have time to write your own email, you can use our pre-written letter.

For Vikings Fans Only

Rich Wolfe, author of the “For (Team’s Name) Fan’s Only” series, has joined up with Randy Adams to write the book For Vikings Fans Only. I had the honor of having an hour long conversation with Randy discussing my stories as a Vikings fan. If you have a story you’d like to share with him, you can find him on Facebook under “Randy Adams”. Randy expects the book to be released this Fathers day.

Don’t Mess with Success

Looming over the NFL like a heavy storm cloud ready to pour rain is the negotiations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that have come to a halt. The unfortunate result of this, should they not get it resolved, would be an NFL lockout. This unfortunately would hurt the public image of the NFL, hurt the players and certainly bring our stadium effort to a screeching halt.

We sat down with Michael Misterek of Strategic Field Concepts, the local Public Affair Firm teaming up with the NFL Players Association to help keep the lockout from happening. His firm is working hard to help bridge the divide between owners and players using grassroots public involvement. If you want to learn more about how you can get involved, or have questions, you can email them here info@strategicfield.org.

March looks to be a busy month at the State Capitol and in the media for the Vikings Stadium effort, so please sign up for email updates and keep checking back at SavetheVikes.org for all the inside information regarding efforts to keep the Vikings in Minnesota!