It’s Cheaper to Write Zygi Wilf Checks Than Build a #Vikings Stadium #wilfare
One of the justifications the Vikings use for their Wilfare demands is that the Vikings don’t make as much money as the Green Bay Packers franchise. I don’t know how things work in your business, but normally a problem like this is solved through private investment rather than the dole, but Zygi ain’t too proud to beg.
However, as letter writer, Ward Lyndall, pointed out in the Strib today, there may be a much more efficient way to solve Wilf’s profit margin “problem”. Rather than continue with the gymnastics involved in stadium sites, construction, and funding, let’s just start writing checks to the businessman in New Jersey:
A little math produces the following analysis: The Vikings are proposing a stadium estimated currently to cost $1.1 billion. The team will contribute about $400 million, leaving about $700 million to be financed by the state and various other public entities.
In its September 2011 bond issue, the state paid an average of 2.8 percent on 20-year general obligation bonds. That’s an average of about $46 million annually in public costs for repayment of a $700 million bond to build a new stadium.
Instead of building a stadium, with its unknown cost inflation and other imponderables, why not simply offer the Vikings an annual subsidy equal to the difference in annual revenue generated by the Packers and the Vikings.
I like it. This would provide much greater government efficiency, and a more straightforward approach to redistributing the state’s wealth to a New Jersey millionaire.
