Unscientific stadium survey shows opposition

Updated at 2:04 p.m.

A day before the Minneapolis City Council takes its first official vote on the Vikings stadium plan, a conservative group says a majority of city voters do not approve it.

The unscientific phone survey comes from the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, which opposes the plan for the city to use sales tax dollars to fund a new stadium on the Metrodome site.

Fifty five percent of survey respondents said they do not support the plan, while 27 percent support it and 17 percent are undecided. The survey, which was conducted by Winding Creek Group, called 1,331 Minneapolis residents in four wards who voted in the 2009 municipal election.

Here is the question:

"Hi, my name is ___ with Taxpayers League of Minnesota and we are calling residents asking if they support the plan to spend $675 million city sales tax dollars for a new Vikings stadium?"

If respondents said they did not support it, the interviewer offered to patch them through to their council member.

"The residents of Minneapolis are being used as an ATM for the bilionaires of sports palaces, funding the Twins, funding the Target Center, plus funding a new billion dollar stadium," Krinkie said.

Council Member Gary Schiff, who was "glad the Taxpayers League of Minnesota did this phone poll," said his plans to tack amendments onto the city's support will likely prove fruitless.

"The city attorney said any motions to amend would be ruled out of order," Schiff said. "So we are being told by our city attorney we cannot amend or offer any conditions."

He still plans to make a motion for an amendment that would allow the city to revisit its financing plan if the state's appropriation bonds are ruled unconstitutional.