I-35W bridge collapse has thrown Vikings stadium issue for a big loss

If you're a Vikings football aficionado, you must feel like it is fourth-and-50.

The thorny ethical issue confronting you and many thousands of your fellow fans is how the state can finance even part of a new stadium when, as this newspaper's editorial page pointed out after the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge, "There can be no doubt that today, the adequacy and safety of the rest of the state's roads and bridges is Minnesota's No. 1 public policy concern."

A week later, a front page story said that the state Department of Transportation estimates that "taxpayers will have to spend a minimum of $1.4 billion over the next two decades to repair or replace the metro area's aging bridges." A Federal Highway Administration report said that more than 35 state and federal highway bridges in Minnesota ranked about the same as or worse than the Interstate 35W bridge.

Less than a week before the disaster, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf told Star Tribune reporter Kevin Seifert, in response to a question of whether he saw any roadblocks to the proposed $929 million stadium project: "All I can tell you is that it's very, very important as we see the cost of materials going up that we make sure we get this done as quickly as possible."

The projected figure does not include a retractable roof, estimated to add as much as $225 million to the project's cost. Wilf wanted the 2008 legislative session to resolve the issue, but events since the Aug. 1 bridge collapse have made it clear that the Vikings have decided to delay that issue by a year.

The Vikings lease on the Metrodome expires after the 2011 season. Under the current proposal, the team would move into the new stadium for the 2012 season.

There had been conjecture before the bridge tragedy that the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which owns Metropolitan Stadium, would take the drawings for the new stadium on a statewide tour this fall to harness taxpayer interest.

But the response now, when some state bridges are labeled structurally deficient, would have been unsettling.

Missing from the discussion so far is an add-on to a Hennepin County sales tax, which the Legislature passed last year enabling construction of a new baseball stadium, leaving in its wake an opposition miffed because voters were denied a referendum on the tax.

There also is concern that the public is beginning to arch its eyebrows about support for professional sports facilities. The last test was in November, when Seattle voters overwhelmingly passed Initiative 91, prohibiting the city from using tax dollars to subsidize a professional team unless the subsidy generates a certain amount of profit for the city. The Seattle Supersonics basketball team has threatened to move to Oklahoma City unless a new arena is built.

Given today's new reality, the Vikings appear to need a political variation of a successful "Hail Mary" pass to score a new stadium.