Stadium benefits

As leaders in the labor and business communities, we don't always agree on public-policy issues. But there is one issue on which we agree wholeheartedly.

The stadium deal now being debated at the State Capitol is a no-brainer. Minnesota has a chance to preserve a community asset that enriches our economy and quality of life, while putting thousands of unemployed Minnesotans to work. We need to seize this opportunity.

The current stadium proposal would keep at least $587 million in the Minnesota economy. That number captures the benefit of major events hosted in the Metrodome. Their organizers have said these events -- and the money they bring -- won't return to Minnesota unless a new stadium is built.

That $587 million includes other money Minnesota would lose if it lost the Vikings: an estimated $2.2 million in parking revenues; $12 million in state and local government taxes, and $34.8 million in hotel, retail, bar and restaurant spending.

These additional dollars come from Vikings fans who travel to the Metrodome from outside the metro area and often from outside the state. Absent a stadium, it's doubtful that these visitors would make enough trips to replace what they spend on game days.

And in Greater Minnesota, Mankato would lose the $5 million benefit its economy enjoys every year during the Vikings training camp.

The stadium deal also would bring badly needed help to a construction sector where unemployment has been running at around 20 percent. Between the Vikings stadium and the Target Center renovations, about 8,600 construction jobs would be created during the three-year construction time frame.

After more than a decade of debate, the proposal being considered by the Legislature is a solid deal for Minnesotans. Though the public would own the stadium and use it for hundreds of non-Vikings events each year, the team would pay more than half the construction and maintenance costs. No new state or city taxes are in the mix.

In a recent statewide poll, more than 61 percent of respondents supported "a stadium financing proposal that used gambling and existing revenues along with a major contribution by the Vikings."

In these politically polarized times, there aren't many issues where the AFL-CIO, the Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations, and 61 percent of the public agree.

So, let's move forward, before construction costs escalate and unemployed construction workers' families suffer another agonizing year.

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