The Vikings 30-year lease expires after the 2011 season, meaning the team has just 20 games remaining in the Metrodome.
Nearly half of Minnesota’s five million residents watched, listened to, or attended Vikings games each Sunday in 2009.
28 of 32 NFL communities have built new stadiums or significantly renovated their existing facilities since 1992.
The Vikings rank at the bottom of the NFL in revenue, primarily because of poor stadium revenues from the Metrodome.
Because of the revenue-challenged Metrodome, the Vikings receive annual subsidies of $15-20 million from other NFL teams in order to compete, including smaller markets like Green Bay and Kansas City.
State lottery proceeds were used in Baltimore and Seattle to help pay for new football and baseball stadiums.
The Twins ballpark legislation required the team to pay 30% of the total construction costs while Hennepin County covered the remaining 70%. The Vikings have agreed to fund 33% of the costs of an NFL-ready open-air stadium in Minnesota.
The cost of this project has doubled since 2001. Each year of delay continues to add more costs to the project.
For the last three years, every player on the 53-man roster and the eight practice squad players participated in the Vikings’ community outreach program.
The Star Tribune’s largest single day of web traffic was the day Brett Favre signed with the Vikings, when they had over 5.4 million page views.
The Vikings receive over 300 donation requests per week, and the team tries to fulfill all of them within the five-state attendance area.
Governor Pawlenty recently suggested a new lottery and taxes generated from the economic activity at the new facility being directed toward stadium construction costs as two potential funding options.
The team believes in user-based funding, meaning those who use or benefit from a new stadium contribute to its cost.
According to Mortensen Construction, a new Vikings stadium will support 13,000 jobs, including 7,500 construction jobs, and have a $754 million subcontract value. The Building & Construction Trades Council is currently experiencing nearly 40% unemployment.
Meet Minneapolis, the official convention and visitors association of Minnesota’s largest city, “strongly supports an aggressive public discussion and action leading to a solution to the team’s facilities needs before the end of the 2010 Legislative Session.”
The Vikings NFC North opponents – Chicago, Detroit, and Green Bay – all generate approximately $30 million more annually than the Vikings because of their stadiums.
40% of Vikings season ticket owners come from outside the metro area, with 22% living outside the State of Minnesota. These season ticket owners spend approximately $107 per person outside the stadium on game day.
The Vikings pay $18 million annually in state and local taxes? A report from Convention, Sports & Leisure said a new stadium and the retention of the Vikings will generate $26 million annually in tax revenue.
The Metrodome was built for $55 million total, including $33 million in public dollars..The State of Minnesota contributed none of this money, but has received $304 million in tax revenue since the Metrodome opened.
The original funding source of the Metrodome was a 2%, 7-county liquor tax that converted to a 3%, Minneapolis-only liquor and lodging tax once the site was selected.
The Metrodome is the 2nd-oldest facility in the NFL.
The Metrodome has the smallest site footprint in the NFL at 900,000 square feet, compared to the NFL average of 1.5-1.6 million square feet.
The average public-private partnership with new facilities around the country is 1/3 private and 2/3 public.
The reason teams like the Cowboys and Patriots can raise more private capital for a new stadium is because they have a market large enough to charge personal seat licenses, something the Minneapolis market is unlikely to accept.
The cost of a new Vikings stadium is $670 million for open air, compared to the Twins’ $550 million total project costs in 2006.
A retractable roof adds an additional $200 million to the total stadium costs.
The Target Center, the Xcel Energy Center, the Mall of America and the Guthrie Theater all included some public funding.
A new stadium would be publicly-owned and operated and the Vikings would pay rent to play their 10 games each season. During the remaining dates, concerts, high school and college sports and other events could be held in the facility.
A collaborative study by the University of Minnesota and Meet Minneapolis found that non-metro residents attending the the Vikings-Cowboys playoff game on January 17, 2010, spent $5.8 million in restaurants, hotels, and retail stores and on transportation in the Twin Cities.