Vikings owner: Time for pols to 'step up' with a stadium
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Alumni and friends of the Carlson School of Management were finishing their first-Tuesday-of-the-month luncheon when Wilf took the podium and expressed disappointment that his Vikings had failed to deliver a victory Sunday against their rivals, the Green Bay Packers.
But the talk quickly turned to business. Wilf expounded on the value of knowing your market, communicating well, learning from mistakes -- attributes Wilf said have served his family-owned real estate company well during its 54 years in business.
"My father's still very active, my brother, my cousin. We think long-term, we're very patient. And I see that here, with the football fans," Wilf joked.
Vikings fans have had to be patient with the team's on-the-field product in recent seasons. Wilf says he, too, is being patient in his quest for a new stadium -- one that might cost $1 billion to build.
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After waiting in line while the U of M football program and baseball's Twins managed to turn Minnesota political wheels in their favor, Wilf says the Vikings are ready to make a new political push for a public-sector partnership of their own.
Many specifics are still up in the air, but the concept calls for a new football stadium with a retractable roof, surrounded by new commercial and possibly residential development on the eastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, a site including the Metrodome, which would be torn down.
In a year when the 35W bridge and infrastructure repairs generally will likely occupy center stage at the Capitol, it may be hard for the Vikings' lobbyists to gain traction in the push for a football stadium. But at the Carlson School, Wilf gave an indication of how the case could be framed. He spoke about the need for the Twin Cities to pay attention to how it competes against other metropolitan areas.
"We have to maintain the quality of life issues," he said. "That's why you have one of the best school systems. That's a priority. That's why should have the best improvement of your infrastructure. And that's why I think you should have -- we should have -- a state-of-the-art facility that everyone here in Minnesota and the Twin Cities can be proud of."
During a question-and-answer period, one luncheon guest asked Wilf about how a new stadium would benefit him financially as the owner of the Vikings. He responded that he'd likely put hundreds of millions into financing the stadium, and noted that the team would then forego much of what it currently takes in from a revenue-sharing program the National Football League uses to help teams with less revenue than their peers.
"When you put the entire equation together, if we build a new stadium, pretty much from a financial outlook we would pretty much be pretty close to the situation that we're in today," Wilf said.
Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter was among those attending the Carlson School lunch. St. Peter says it makes sense for the Vikings to do what the Twins did -- namely, focus the discussion not on the team owners and what's in it for them, but on the fans and how they would benefit from a new stadium.
"In our particular case, what we saw was a significant dynamics shift, where I think fans throughout the region finally weighed in to the level where it was pretty clear this wasn't a ballpark being built for the owner of the players, but it was a ballpark being built for the fans," St. Peter said.
Since the financial details of a prospective Vikings stadium deal are still unknown, it's hard to test Wilf's characterization of a new stadium as a financial wash for the owner. Much will depend on the specifics of financing or the lease he gets.
Smith College economics professor Andrew Zimbalist says typically, new stadiums lead to a healthier bottom line for an owner like Wilf.
"Without knowing the details of the project, and the financing of it, it's hard to believe this is not a net benefit to him," according to Zimbalist. "Indeed, it would strike me as something that would benefit the owner, to the bottom line, considerably over $10 million a year."
A stadium deal would also likely boost the value of the Vikings. Last month, Forbes magazine ranked the NFL's 32 teams according to their estimated value. The Dallas Cowboys ranked first, thanks partly to a new stadium they'll open next year. The Vikings were ranked last.
