Return
to: 
House panel adds its support to U stadium funding plan
March 29, 2006
Star Tribune
Anthony Lonetree
A day after a Senate panel endorsed a new University of Minnesota stadium plan, a House committee Wednesday lent its support as well to the U stadium drive.
The House Capital Investment Committee, however, made clear in its 19-3 vote that it favored the stadium funding package being promoted by the university.
The House panel rejected efforts -- kept alive in one Senate proposal -- to prevent students from being tapped to help pay for the $248 million stadium. A bid to prohibit the U from selling stadium naming rights to a corporation also failed Wednesday.
The U's funding plan calls for a $50-a-year student fee increase and a $35 million naming-rights deal with TCF Financial Corp.
Rep. Tim Mahoney, DFL-St. Paul, said it was wrong for a stadium being described Wednesday as a window to and the soul of the university to carry a corporate name.
But Rep. Ron Abrams, R-Minnetonka, the bill's chief author, said there were plenty of precedents for such action at the U and other higher-education institutions nationally.
"This is not new ground," Abrams said.
A related move by Mahoney to add $1.4 million per year in state money to the project and to name the stadium in honor of veterans also was defeated.
On Tuesday, the Minnesota Student Association voted overwhelmingly to back the $50-a-year student fee to help fund the project.
