The task with a new Minnesota Vikings Stadium entirely before him, was Ted Mondale named Friday by Gov. Mark Dayton leading Metropolitan Sports facilities Commission.
Mondale said, the controversial project can be an "impossible task", but "I think if it is feasible, this is what we are doing this year."
In an interview Thursday was Dayton even more about your project direct, opinion polls have shown most Minnesotans will not be using taxpayer money to build. "I want to say, it has to be done this year. This [legislative] session, "he said.
The appointment is seen as a strong signal in Dayton, the State must find a way to build a new stadium with the Vikings, if the lease on stunted Metrodome ends this year.
When selecting Mondale, selected a former Dayton Metropolitan Council Chair, during the Gov. Jesse Ventura helped build the State's first light-rail line.
Mondale, 53, son of former US Vice President Walter Mondale, also brings the connections that might help: he is a boyhood friend of Roger Goodell, National Football League Commissioner, and has served on board the Vikings advisors, a group of Community leaders, including former Vikings coach bud Grant and chief executive officer Best Buy. Mondale said Friday he would resign from the Board to avoid a conflict of interest.
"[He is] a person who can bring together people regional," House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, D-Minneapolis, said Mondale. "If a solution will come out to build a stadium, it will be an important piece."
But the House Majority Leader Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, said a Vikings Stadium debate would have to wait until lawmakers treated the State projected $ 6.2 billion budget deficit. "We have a large budget hill to climb," said Dean. "This is what we need to focus on."
Mondale be confronted with more immediate challenges, including the easing tensions between the sport facilities, the Commission and the Vikings over the team's lease on the Metrodome, which expires after this year. The team and the Commission, which owns the Metrodome, has publicly feuded over Vikings insistence that the team will renew its lease by indoor stadium, where it has played since 1982.
Mondale will also have to navigate through a legislature which, for the first time in more than a generation is controlled by Republicans.
Lester Bagley, Vikings Vice President of Stadium development and public affairs, called Mondales appointment "an excellent choice."
Mondale said he had a "very long" conversation with Dayton Tuesday, which repeats the Governor that while he wanted team to get a new stadium, he would not "cross its values in order to get it done."
Mondale said Dayton gave no directions at a specific site on the Stadium should be roofed, or type of public subsidies available. "The public advantage needs to be above ... the public dollars," said Mondale, who said the Governor referred to as "the people's stadium project."
Dean, said in the meantime he was lukewarm to generate revenue for the Stadion through a racino-slot machines installed by the State's horse racing track. He acknowledged that he had voted for racinos in the past, but said he was "not necessarily" pleasant to use it to fund a stadium.
Rachel e. Stassen-Berger contributed to this article. Mike Kaszuba ‧ 651-222-1673
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