Colts show Vikings how to get a stadium

A combination of taxes and user fees helped Indianapolis put up its new football playground.

By JUDD ZULGAD, Star Tribune

Last update: September 15, 2008 - 3:17 PM

Other than the fact that Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said he would contribute $250 million, franchise officials have said little about how a new football stadium on the site of the Metrodome would be financed.

But after spending two days last week meeting with executives from the Indianapolis Colts and getting a tour of the brand-new Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis, it appears the Vikings are hoping the solution can involve hospitality taxes.

"That's up to the Legislature and the governor to determine what's the best package of taxes to solve the issue," said Lester Bagley, the Vikings vice president of public affairs and stadium development. "We're not there yet.

"We're working on some finance options, along with the sports commission, but we're not ready to lay those out yet."

What the Vikings learned in their meetings with the Colts was that public funding to help build the retractable-roofed Lucas Oil Stadium included increases of 3 percent for a county hotel tax, 2 percent for a county rental car tax, and 1 percent for a six-county restaurant tax and county admission tax.

Such taxes also were used to help finance stadiums in Dallas and Phoenix. The Colts contributed $100 million to a stadium that cost $720 million to build and drew raves from the Vikings contingent.

"I didn't see it as an over-the-top facility in terms of comforts," owner/vice chairman Leonard Wilf said. "It was built with a lot of good look to it but not in a manner where money was just spent willy-nilly."

The Colts have signed a 30-year lease to remain in the city. The Vikings' lease expires in 2011 and the franchise's goal is to get a new stadium approved in the 2009 legislative session. If that were to happen, the Vikings would spend two years playing in the new Gophers stadium on the University of Minnesota campus, then move into their new facility in 2012.

On Thursday, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission is scheduled to select one of four architectural firms to work on the design for a stadium. Candidates include Minneapolis-based Ellerbe Becket; Kansas City-based HOK Sports; 360 Architecture, of Kansas City, and Dallas-based HKS, which worked on the Colts stadium.

Bagley said that once the design for a stadium is in place, a price can be set. Now, the estimate for a Vikings stadium stands at $954 million, but that amount includes a roof, so the facility can be used year-round and attract events such as a Super Bowl or NCAA Final Four. Without a roof -- and the Vikings have said they don't need one -- it would cost $750 million.

Colts owner Jim Irsay, in town for his team's game Sunday with the Vikings, said Wilf's team "simply can't remain" in its current stadium.

"It's not possible," he said. "I think there is urgency, but I think people need to talk about solutions and getting it done. ... Any negotiation is about leverage and I think this is a good situation because the Wilfs and the Vikings have tremendous leverage with the lease expiring," he said. "At the end of the day it needs to get done here."

Irsay saw his father move the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis after the 1983 season and doesn't want to see the Vikings depart Minnesota. Irsay also said he would be in favor of helping Minnesota get its second Super Bowl if the stadium situation is resolved.

"The thing we have here in Minnesota, we have a great tradition and I'm a traditionalist," he said. "I wish we never had to leave Baltimore. I grew up there as a kid and it's a tough thing when a team leaves."

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