Stadium Blog Post

March 25, 2006
Pioneer Press
Aron Kahn

A radically new financing plan for a University of Minnesota campus football stadium, hailed as a win-win for the university and the state, will scamper into state legislative hearing rooms next week to a probable cheering crowd of lawmakers.

Under the proposal, hammered out by a bipartisan group of officials and acclaimed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the state would acquire 2,840 acres of university research land near Rosemount at a cost of $9.4 million each year for 25 years.

The Dakota County land, which reportedly is environmentally sensitive, would then be protected from development and available for public recreation.

The university, in turn, would use the annual $9.4 million to help pay long-term debt on money borrowed to build the proposed stadium on the Minneapolis campus, just a long throw from where the former Memorial Stadium once sat.

The new financing arrangement substantially changes a proposal already considered most appealing of three stadium plans at the state Capitol — the others having been proposed by the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Vikings.

The university had been asking for $7.4 million a year in state funds to pay for 40 percent of the stadium debt, under a bargain in which the university would raise 60 percent from private sources and student fees.
In the new plan, the state would pay 50 percent, which would allow the university to halve a previously proposed student fee of $50 per semester that would also go to debt reduction. Some lawmakers considered the $50 excessive.

"We're hopeful the Board of Regents will support this plan and the Legislature will act quickly to give our private-sector fundraising more momentum," university President Robert Bruininks said Friday in a statement.
The regents called a special meeting for 4 p.m. Monday to vote on the plan, and there's little doubt about its approval.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty asked for quick action, also. "The bipartisan leadership for this proposal is very encouraging. I urge legislators to support this win-win for the state and the university,'' he said through spokesmen.

The 2,840 acres in Dakota County, a chunk of the university's nearly 8,000-acre UMore Park, is considered some of the most beautiful, undeveloped land in the region. While it would be used for public recreation, the university would retain a right to use the land for agricultural research.

The proposal for the deal was brought to the university and Pawlenty by officials at various levels, including state Reps. Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount, and Denny McNamara, R-Hastings. Negotiations were held in the governor's office over the past week and announced to lawmakers in an e-mail late Friday afternoon.
"In football terms, this is another first down for the Gopher football stadium," said Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, the Senate sponsor of the stadium-funding bill.

The proposal might be heard in a Senate committee as early as Tuesday and a House committee as soon as Wednesday.

Read the full story at: http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/state/minnesota/14182185.htm