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Could Arden Hills Be Site For Vikings Stadium?

By Courtney King, NewsRadio 830 WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Talks for a new Vikings stadium are underway this Thursday.

Ted Mondale, chairman of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, said he has meetings with officials from Ramsey County and Hennepin County regarding possible sites for the new stadium.

"One of the pressures here is to find a site or a couple sites that would be good locations, and wrap a bill around that," said Mondale.

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Currently, there are five possible stadium locations right now, including the existing Metrodome site, the Star Tribune property, a site down by Target Field, one in Brooklyn Center and one in Arden Hills.

Mondale said his next step will be getting to know each host city and also ask questions about how the stadium would be financed.

"Just as I met with officials from other potential host cities, we are going to get an idea of what they are thinking about, what the site would be and what kind of state infrastructure would be needed to support something like that."

Last year, former governor Tim Pawlenty decided at the last minute to not sign the bill for a new stadium. Mondale said this year is different because Minnesota has a Governor who campaigned for a new stadium, and has laid out clear guidelines on what is acceptable to him.

Gov. Mark Dayton calls it a "People's Stadium."

"I think there is a lot of excitement that something actually can get done this year. Because without the support of the governor, something of this size can never happen." said Mondale.

There is talk that the Arden Hills site is a significant spot to put the stadium, and Ramsey County officials believe they have a way to fund it. Mondale said he's not sure how they will fund it but he will certainly have a discussion with them.

"The way this is going to get done is the users and the people who are going to benefit from this the most, need to be the ones who put the most resources into it," said Mondale, "So it's not going to be a state general fund expenditure, it needs to be more of a user fee funding source."

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