ST. PAUL -- Two football teams itching to escape the Metrodome got closer to the goal Wednesday, but still have considerable ground to cover.
Separate committees in the House and Senate kept alive new stadium plans for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Minnesota Vikings. The Gophers bill is due for a House floor vote today.
"It's time to get these things done," said Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm. "The longer we wait, the more they cost."
Several lawmakers are uneasy with the university's revamped plan that links a higher state contribution to the Minneapolis stadium to a Dakota County land deal. And other legislators said the entire stadium discussion rubs them the wrong way.
While debating the Gopher bill, Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, said he would like to see football return to campus but he's having trouble stomaching the trio of stadium bills.
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"I just wonder where our priorities are. Three stadiums?" Paymar said. "Something is wrong with our priorities, as much as I'd like to see this happen."
Backers are working hard to distinguish the university proposal from the professional sports requests.
They point out that the school plans to raise half of the $249 million cost from private donors, student fees and other non-tax sources.
All three stadium plans -- for the Gophers, Twins and Vikings -- still need to clear the Senate Tax Committee. The two pro sports teams are resisting calls to put local sales tax hikes before voters, as state law requires.
The university's financing plan doesn't call for any direct tax increase, and it enjoys the widest support among legislators.
The university moved its football games to the Metrodome in 1982. Its former on-campus home, Memorial Stadium, was demolished a decade later.
After two years of coming up short at the Capitol, the university reworked its stadium plan last month.
The latest version calls for an annual state contribution of up to $9.4 million for 25 years. That's $2 million a year higher than the previous plan sought, but it lops in half the proposed student fee and gives the state rights to 2,800 acres of university-owned land in Rosemount.
