Vikings call plan to extend lease at Dome 'a non-starter'

The Metrodome's landlords are considering a carrot-and-stick approach to get the Minnesota Vikings to extend the team's lease, threatening to penalize the team if it doesn't agree. But Vikings officials say it won't work.

The proposal would keep the Vikings in the Dome at least two more seasons after the team's lease expires in 2011, with year-to-year renewal options after that.

"It's unacceptable for a number of reasons, and the lease extension is a non-starter," said Lester Bagley, the team's vice president for public affairs and stadium development.

Paul Thatcher, who chairs the finance committee for the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, said that the resolution approved Tuesday by the committee is aimed at keeping the Vikings in town long enough to secure a new publicly financed stadium. There's no way that's going to happen in the 2010 legislative session, he said, as the state confronts another soaring deficit and an idling economy.

Legislators "can't discuss this with this economic and political climate," Thatcher said. "We need to kick the can down the road a ways. There isn't a chance in a trillion -- there's no one with a political IQ over 3 who thinks that it's possible."

Bagley and the Vikings insist the reality is otherwise.

In the past few months, and as recently as Tuesday in Owatonna, team officials have made their case that a public-private partnership must be formed in 2010 to build a new multipurpose facility to host the team and other large events.

If the team declines, the resolution says, the commission could resume charging $4 million a year in rent. The commission has forgiven the team's rent since 2002 to help the Vikings keep up, revenue-wise, with other NFL teams playing in new stadiums.

Bagley said that team officials were "blindsided" by the proposal and that they will continue efforts to reach a stadium agreement in the legislative session. "We're making progress with our state leaders on moving this discussion forward in 2010, and it's not helpful to have the sports commission drop this proposal and make comments on whether we have a chance in the session," Bagley said.