Venue News & Notes: Gambling for a Stadium

In Minnesota, two of the state’s hottest issues — gambling and the Vikings — came together this week in legislation that proposes using revenue from a new Twin Cities metro casino to build a football stadium. The immediate problem with the all-for-one approach is that it requires a constitutional amendment enabling revenues from a casino to finance stadium construction. Should the vote pass in 2010, the Vikings would have to sign a 30-year lease.

A bill proposed Thursday in the Minnesota legislature would use revenue from a new Twin Cities metro casino to build the much discussed stadium for the Vikings. Saying his constituents were adamant about not wanting the NFL team to leave, Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar) said his plan would propose a constitutional amendment asking voters in 2010 whether revenues from a new casino should be used to finance a stadium…

…The group trying to save Detroit’s old Tiger Stadium submitted a plan Monday showing how it hopes to provide an estimated $33.4 million to redevelop the remaining portion of the historic ballpark. The 65-page package was hand-delivered to the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., according to Thomas Linn, president of the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy. “We’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of areas,” he said, “and I think it’s an impressive package that the DEGC will appreciate receiving.”…

…St. Paul, MN, wants to build an ice arena across the street from the Xcel Energy Center. But first, the city needs the state to forgive a loan. Bills introduced Monday in the legislature call for about $33 million in loan forgiveness, which the city would put into the arena. The bill also would allow the city to issue up to $40 million in bonds to help finance the project…

…Fans who hated Shea Stadium, fear not: Citi Field is nothing like its predecessor, the last bits of which lie in ruins a few hundreds yards away. The Mets’ new park, which will open its doors for a Georgetown-St. John’s baseball game March 29, is far more intimate than Shea and corrects some of that facility’s worst faults. Citi Field will hold about 42,000 fans, 15,000 fewer than Shea. The park is enclosed, and many seats wrap around the outfield, so it feels much cozier than Shea’s open-ended bowl, which favored watching football…

…Sports executives from Miami to Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., to Washington, D.C., are lobbying for construction of new stadiums as a way to help break the recession’s grip. They say it will put thousands of hard hats to work and create new permanent jobs in a time when unemployment is spiraling up. Stadium foes, meanwhile, see such claims as exaggerated and even cynical during the economic crunch.