ST. PAUL, MINN. (AP) - With a proposed Minnesota Vikings stadium deal foundering, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell headed to Minnesota on Friday in a bid to persuade state legislators of the peril of putting off the issue for one more year.
Goodell and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney were scheduled to meet with legislative leaders and Gov. Mark Dayton on the $975 stadium plan, which would replace the Metrodome but suffered a potentially fatal defeat in committee this week.
For Goodell, the personal touch follows phone conversations earlier this week with Dayton, a stadium booster, to underscore the urgency the league sees with the legislation.
“A failure to bring this to the floor is going to be perceived by the ownership and other cities as if it came to the floor and it were voted no,” Eric Grubman, the league’s vice president for operations, said on Thursday.
The group will meet in Dayton’s office.
“If it isn’t passed this session, the league itself _ beyond the Vikings _ the league itself has serious concerns about the viability of the franchise here and the future of it here,” Dayton said after a 20-minute phone conversation with Goodell and Rooney on Thursday.
So what’s the harm in waiting another year, after elections are over this fall? Grubman declined to directly answer that.
“It’s easier to answer why it must happen this year. It’s because the Vikings ownership has waited and waited for years. Because if there’s no action taken this year then there’s no confidence it’s worth waiting any longer,” he said. “If that’s where this gets to then Minnesota loses control of the Vikings’ destiny. That doesn’t mean it’s going to go to one city or another, it just means that you can’t count on it.”
Under the plan, the Vikings would pay $427 million of the construction costs for the new stadium, which would be built on the Metrodome site in downtown Minneapolis. City and state taxpayers would be on the hook for the other $548 million _ or 56 percent of the total cost.
Legislative leaders said they were open to meeting with Dayton and the NFL officials on Friday, but Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem questioned how seriously lawmakers should take the suggestion that failure to pass a bill this year could cost Minnesota the Vikings.
“I think we’ve had this so-called warning around here for five or 10 years, so I’m not sure it’s a threat,” said Senjem, R-Rochester. He later added: “I think the Vikings are probably going to be around another year or so.”
The Vikings have declined to make lead owner Zygi Wilf or team president Mark Wilf available for comment this week. Dayton spoke by phone with the Wilfs on Thursday, a spokesman for the governor said. They had no plans to attend Friday’s meeting with the NFL leaders.
“In order to buy, there has to be a willing seller. It’s very hard to find owners who are willing to sell,” Grubman said. “The Wilfs, I don’t believe they’ve ever been open-minded to selling. If this fails to get out of committee, then I think they’d be open-minded.”
To becoming the Los Angeles Vikings?
Approval of three-fourths _ 24 of 32 _ of the league’s owners is required for both the sale and relocation of a franchise. The league’s rules say the NFL doesn’t favor relocation for well-supported clubs, but relocation “may be available, however, if a club’s viability in its home territory is threatened by circumstances that cannot be remedied by diligent efforts” of the team and the league.
The Vikings are the most popular team in a crowded market and haven’t had a home game blacked out in 15 years. But putting a team back in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest market, would be a financial boost to the league. Other NFL owners have expressed frustration over the years about the lack of stadium action here.
No move is permissible or practical this year, but there’s always 2013. The Vikings are no longer legally bound by a lease to stay here. They’ve been contacted before by two separate groups trying to lure a team and build a stadium in Los Angeles but have said, for now, they’re not interested in selling.
“But a purchase could happen at any time,” Grubman said.
Relocation notice for any year must be given by Feb. 15. Grubman said the Toronto market is also considered a viable option for an NFL team along with Los Angeles.
Senjem said he still considered it realistic the stadium bill could get a vote in a legislative session that’s likely to wrap up within weeks or less, perhaps even as early as Friday in that chamber’s Local Government Committee. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Bakk _ a stadium backer _ said Democratic members of the committee were willing to give it the votes necessary to keep it alive and moving at the Capitol.
Bakk said the league had a right to come out in support of the stadium bill.
“The only reason we have a competitive team on the field in Minnesota is because of the league’s revenue-sharing that comes to the Vikings’ owner,” Bakk said. “The other owners probably aren’t very happy about sending a bunch of money to Minnesota to pump up the salary structure of our team.”
Working against the Vikings is sports facility fatigue and the economic downturn. They’re the last team in line after stadiums have been built recently for baseball’s Twins and the University of Minnesota football team. Twelve years ago, a new hockey arena opened.
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Campbell reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writer Brian Bakst contributed.
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