By Mike Kaszuba
Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf arrived Wednesday morning for a meeting at the State Capitol with Gov. Mark Dayton, hoping to make progress toward a new stadium.
Smiling and telling reporters he was "feeling good", Wilf walked into the meeting with Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, the chief House author of stadium legislation.
The meeting came two days after the DFL governor abruptly announced that the only way to pass stadium legislation this year was to focus on the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis, where the team has played for three decades.
Lanning, a key player in the negotiations, has been critical of the rush to focus on the Metrodome, and has said that the Vikings' preferred $1.1 billion site in Ramsey County's Arden Hills should not yet be discarded.
But Dayton and Minneapolis officials have argued that a $918 million project for a new stadium at the Metrodome -- despite its flaws -- is a more politically advantageous site.
"We're here to work," said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, as he entered the governor's office.
