ST. PAUL -- Minnesota would receive $100 million annually in new taxes if the state allows the Vikings to build a stadium and retail complex, senators heard Wednesday.
Team owner Zygi Wilf said the complex would draw a million visitors a year.
"The NFL (National Football League) has become a year-around tourist destination," Wilf told the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee. The panel approved the stadium proposal on a voice vote Wednesday.
It will have at least two more committee stops before reaching a full Senate vote.
In the year Wilf has owned the Vikings, he has taken a rough proposal to build a stadium in Blaine and enlarged it to include a major shopping complex, hotel and entertainment center 15 minutes north of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
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Called the Northern Lights, Wilf would fund most of the development himself. He and Anoka County officials seek permission to increase the state sales tax 75 cents for a $100 purchase, to raise $280 million of the stadium's $675 million cost. Wilf would pay another $280 million, while $115 million of sales tax collected in the North Lights complex would be set aside to repay a loan funding part of a retractable roof and area infrastructure improvements such as roads.
The 68,500-seat stadium, which could be expanded to more than 72,000 seats to host a Super Bowl, would be built on mostly vacant land along Interstate 35W in the northern Twin Cities.
Supporters said Northern Lights would create 4,000 construction jobs for three years and 9,000 permanent jobs once the complex is open.
Steve Novak, an Anoka County official, said the Vikings project would create more jobs than the entire Public Works bill, which funds construction projects around the state.
Echoing what the university and Twins say about the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis, Sen. Don Betzold said it "has outlived its usefulness."
The Fridley Democrat, sponsor of the Vikings plan, said the football team wants to put all its facilities in one place -- stadium, practice field and team headquarters. The team now plays in the Metrodome, which opened in 1982, and has its headquarters and practice facility in the western Twin Cities suburbs.
Northern Lights would be close to the National Sports Center and the Tournament Players Championship golf course, which combined already draw 3 million visitors to the area. Vikings officials say another 1 million should visit their team museum and other attractions at Northern Lights.
Wilf said his complex would be the anchor to the northern Twin Cities like the Mall of America and airport anchor the south.
