NFL loan program may bring some clarity to Vikings stadium plan

Though the Minnesota Vikings have provided few details, a National Football League owners meeting later Wednesday may reveal more information on how the team will contribute $425 million to a new $1.1 billion stadium. The NFL has been restructuring a loan program for stadium construction and league officials, while visiting the state Capitol in St. Paul in October, said the new program could provide up to $150 million to a new Vikings stadium. In a later interview Neil Glat, the NFL's senior vice president for corporate development, outlined how the proposed loan program would work. Under the plan, he said, the first $100 million of the loan would be repaid by the visiting teams' share of club seat premiums and by the visiting teams' share of general admission ticket revenue. Glat said the Vikings may not have to repay the loan out of its own new stadium revenue as long as the Vikings sold enough club seats. "Their main focus is selling those club seats," Glat said of the Vikings. The Vikings want to build a new $1.1 billion stadium in Ramsey County's Arden Hills, and want $650 million in public subsidies for the project. At a Minnesota Senate hearing last week on public funding for the stadium, Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, pressed Vikings officials on where the team's $425 million contribution to the stadium would come from. But Ortman, after a Vikings official explained the team's stadium strategy, said she was frustrated. "What are the main elements for [your] $425 million dollars for contribution?" Ortman asked. After a Vikings officials replied again, the state senator asked again. "I don't know what the owner's contribution is going to be," she said. "It leaves more questions, rather than answers."