Vikings team president and co-owner Mark Wilf took a moment this afternoon during the NFL Owners Meetings in West Palm Beach, Fla., to address the latest development on the stadium front. With news surfacing that the Minneapolis City Council now will offer majority support for the plan, the Vikings feel optimistic that the stadium proposal can be passed and finalized by the end of this legislative session. Here's some of what Wilf had to say this afternoon …
On gaining the majority support of the city council …We're very appreciative of the support we're getting from the city council. And we're excited that this will move this forward at the legislature in terms of discussion. And we're appreciative of Mayor (R.T.) Rybak and Council President (Barb) Johnson and the seven members who have supported this. This is obviously going to be an exciting project for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, so from that standpoint, that we can advance this forward, this advances the stadium forward at the legislature. We're excited about that. On whether not having the city council's approval would have been a hurdle for the legislature …It's certainly something that we've been hearing had been a concern. And obviously having the local support is something important and again between the mayor and Council President Johnson, the understanding of what this means to the community of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota and moving this along forward at the legislature is something very positive we feel. On the team's patience being tested over the past month …We realize this is a major project and there's a process to go through with this in the democratic process. But as part of that, again, the city's support was critical in advancing this at the legislature. So we're encouraged by today's step. On whether anything changed with the proposal to get the city council's support …I can't speak to what's going on at the legislature and so forth. I know that the agreement we have, the term sheet that we distributed weeks ago, to my knowledge, is the framework of what we're going to be doing going forward. I can't speak to the political process. That's for the political leaders to discuss. But I know from our standpoint, what we've agreed to is what we've agreed to. On whether it will be possible to get the stadium plan approved by the end of this legislative session …We believe so. Again, the timing of today's actions by the city council is an extremely positive development and critical to moving it forward in the legislature. On what the coming weeks are going to entail as far as the Vikings' involvement with the legislature …Whatever support they need at hearings, testifying at hearings or discussions with legislators to further explain the benefits of the bill and advocating for the great benefit to it – over a million people will be utilizing the site on hundreds of days of year for the general public. There are a lot of positives to it and we're going to advocate for it right through the legislative process.
