Vikings’ New Stadium Bill to Be Signed by Minnesota Governor

The Minnesota Vikings’ $975 million stadium bill will be signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton during a ceremony today.

The plan passed the state House 71-60 and cleared the state Senate 38-28 before going to Dayton, who said yesterday in an e- mailed statement that he’d sign the bill.

“The bill will put thousands of Minnesotans back to work building a multi-use facility that will benefit our state for generations to come,” the governor’s office said.

The new stadium plan was driven by the threat that the National Football League’s Vikings would leave Minnesota without a new taxpayer-supported stadium to replace the Metrodome, where the team is committed to play one more season.

The team will pay $477 million, $50 million more than it had earlier agreed to -- and less than the $532 million the House previously voted for. Under a prior Senate vote, the team would have paid $452 million plus user fees.

The team, which plans to move into the new fixed-roof stadium in Minneapolis for the 2016 season, will borrow money from the NFL, sell naming rights and possibly issue seat licenses to cover its share of the costs.

The Vikings and the University of Minnesota last week reached an agreement for the NFL team to use the school’s TCF Bank Stadium during construction of the new facility.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net