While the “Mission Accomplished” banner is clearly strung across the deck of the aircraft carrier, and Minnesotan’s are rightfully celebrating what appears to be a guaranteed future of their pro football team within the State, it is not yet officially official.
On Monday, however, the State will make their commitment to the new stadium official when Governor Mark Dayton signs the recently-passed bill into law.
The bill will be signed at a ceremony within the State Capitol at noon on Monday.
In order for this thing to be a 100% done deal, however, the Minneapolis City Council must vote in favor of the bill within 30 days of the Governor signing the bill. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak predicts that the vote will take place on May 25th.
That means there is a nearly two week window for something absolutely, positively horrible to happen that throws a wrench into the whole thing. Something like that would be more disheartening to Vikings fans than a Cowboys hail mary, a missed Gary Anderson field goal, and a 12-men in the huddle call all wrapped into one.
Now, I’m not trying to be an alarmist here or anything, as plenty of people who know far more than myself about this situation consider this a done deal. However, weirder things have indeed happened.
The Council needs seven “yes” votes to put the bow on this bill once and for all, and Mayor Rybak has received seven letters of support for the original version of the bill from Council members. The thing is, though, this isn’t the same bill they agreed to as it has been changed around by the House and the Senate.
At least one Minneapolis Council member that put forward a letter is reserving the right to change his mind should he see something in the bill that he doesn’t agree with.
“Right now I am reviewing every line of it, and obviously I have to determine if what’s in there, line-by-line, is consistent with some of the goals and concerns I had,” said Council member Kevin Reich. “So it’s undetermined at this time. It’s under review.”
In his comments, it sounds like Reich will be voting “yes” once again and that there is little to worry about.
As I have said in the comments section, however, there are significant events that could take place between now and May 25th that could make members reconsider their commitment to a professional sports venue.
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the pressure on the council members to vote yes will be so immense, about the only thing i can think of that could stop it would be if Jesus Christ appeared over the metrodome and declared it to be the new holy dome
Haha, yes, that is probably true.
Adam, you are right to invoke the Yogi Berra "It ain't over 'til it's over" clause here. It's true. However, the fat lady is singing, Dandy Don is singing "Turn Out the Lights", and Red Auerbach has lit his cigar.
I prefer to feel the combined euphoria of an Ahmahd Rashad hail mary, a Bobby Bryant blocked field goal, and an Anthony Carter playoff punt return. I pity the fool among any of those seven who might choose to flip their vote.
Well we have the Tomb guarantee and Coach's word so it would take divine intervention to stop this now.
Tebow?
Maybe if he walked across the Mississippi or something like that.
What is taking the Vikings so long to sign their draft picks? There is quite of few teams that have signed their whole draft class. The Vikes have yet to sign any of them.
Don't worry, Norse. They do that every year.
They like to wait until the players are in the building (i.e. today) and we should start seeing them signed soon.
I am not worried Adam, but I really wonder why they are always the last or one of the last teams to sign their draft picks every year.
There are still items to negotiate in these contracts despite the rookie scale. The only benefit to signing early lies with the players, not the front office. I'm not sure they are trying to be cheap, but I suspect that is the case.
They also like the guys to be in the building during these negotiations, and the Vikes offseason is about a week behind many of the other teams in terms of schedule.