Dan Erhart has a word of advice for Ramsey County when it comes to building stadiums for the Minnesota Vikings: Do not expect things to be fair when competing with Minneapolis or Hennepin County.
Erhart chaired the Anoka County Board for much of the time when the county negotiated with the Vikings to build a publicly-subsidized stadium in Blaine, only to see the Vikings walk away from the project in late 2006 and look instead toward Minneapolis.
"I was disappointed," said Erhart, recalling what happened. "I moved on."
Last year, the Vikings partnered with Ramsey County to build a stadium in Arden Hills – but the stadium debate has now again shifted to a location in Minneapolis, the state's largest city where the team has played for 30 years.
On Wednesday, Ramsey County officials met with the Vikings to gauge the team's continued interest in Arden Hills given Gov. Mark Dayton's insistence that a public subsidy package could only pass the Legislature this year if the project were built at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis.
While the team has said Arden Hills remains its preferred site, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said Wednesday that he was "optimistic" that a new stadium could be built at the Metrodome.
Six years ago, Anoka County was pushing for a $675 million stadium whose price tag rose to more than $800 million. The proposed Arden Hills stadium would cost $1.1 billion.
Erhart said he vividly remembered a phone conversation with Wilf as the Anoka County deal was falling apart. "I can just hear him saying on the phone one night at about 9 o'clock," said Erhart. "He [said he] couldn't do the deal" because of rising construction costs.
