Gov. Mark Dayton said Tuesday that he was not ready to discuss where he thinks a new Minnesota Vikings stadium should be built – but his repeated comments about the "importance of focusing on downtowns" were nonetheless telling.

Dayton spoke to reporters as he released a proposed $775 million state bonding bill, which included several downtown revitilization projects that the DFL governor said were particularly important.

Dayton however said he would not discuss his stadium plans until later this week. Minneapolis and Ramsey County's Arden Hills are both considered the front-running proposals to be the location of a new Vikings stadium.

The Vikings have played at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis for 30 years, and the city has said that building a new stadium at the Metrodome makes the most economic sense.

The team however is pushing for a new $1.1 billion stadium in suburban Arden Hills, saying the plan does a better job of satisfying the team's and county's economic needs.

But in explaining how he selected projects for his bonding proposal, the governor on Tuesday shared this philosophy: "I learned from my father and my uncle, who were pretty successful job creators in Minnesota, the importance of focusing on downtowns and constantly pushing to revitalize them."

Dayton's family established the Dayton's department stores, with a flagship store in downtown Minneapolis.

"If you lose the core of the downtown, you lose the vitality of the region," Dayton added.

Later when asked why he was proposing bonding money to upgrade a civic center in downtown Rochester, the governor replied: "I believe in the downtowns."