Stadium Blog Post

Bill drops TCF name deal, raises cost to state

April 27, 2006
Pioneer Press
By Patrick Sweeney

A Senate committee on Wednesday approved a plan to build a University of Minnesota football stadium that drops — perhaps only temporarily — a $35 million naming-rights deal with TCF Bank and a proposal for the state to pay the university $2 million a year to preserve a huge tract of land in Rosemount as a nature preserve.

The bill now goes to the Senate Taxes Committee, where Chairman Larry Pogemiller said he will propose a new statewide sports-related tax to pay the state's share of building the Gophers stadium.

Under the Senate legislation, the university would be barred from imposing a planned $50-a-year fee on students to pay for the stadium.

As a result of dropping the TCF sponsorship and eliminating the fee, the state's share of the stadium's cost would be dramatically higher under the Senate legislation, compared with the bill the House passed last month.

The Senate bill would have the state paying $12.9 million a year for 25 years. The House bill calls for the state to pay $9.4 million a year.

University President Robert Bruininks said he was pleased the Senate Finance Committee approved the bill, but worried that the House and Senate would not reach a compromise between the $12.9 million and the $9.4 million payments.

"I'm hoping they'll find a way to resolve these differences and submit a bill to the governor that he would sign," Bruininks said.

Bruininks said he was concerned that Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who signed a 2002 campaign promise to veto any tax increase, would refuse to accept a tax for the stadium.

Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung declined to comment Wednesday on Pogemiller's tax proposal.

The stadium-funding proposal passed the Finance Committee on a voice vote. Several committee members who voted for the bill said they did so with the expectation that the cost to the state would come down and, in one case, that the nature-preserve transaction would be revived.

To read more, go to http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/14437102.htm