to the Vikings management - you are pointing to other teams in the league where this FEE is used. This fee has been used for improvements to an existing stadium and such.. I should not have to remind the Ownership that they are getting a BRAND NEW STADIUM. Curtesy of the State of Minnesota and other interested parties. Since when should the fans of the Vikings have to subsidize the ownership with this LICENSE FEE. If it could to verified that the ticket holding fan could be guaranteed the License fee would improve their game day experience, I might listen. This ploy, in its current state, only serves to line the pockets of the ownership... PROVE ME WRONG

Let them run their business without my tax money.

This logic is flawed. I understand a shrewd business person passes costs on forward but the problem here is that this customer is already paying for its portion in taxes. And the comment about we agreed on it is wrong in the fact that the politicians agreed to in it, the debate was never presented to the general public for vote. Let the owners, as the article states, getting money from every corner pay a good share of their committment versus asking the taxpayers who have already got an ante in the pot pay more.

your "business" argument fails miserably when they go to the public trough to pay for their stadium with a huge public subsidy. Let them sell stock in the company to pay for capital expenditures.

There are no economic benefits to funding a stadium with public dollars. Haven't you read the multiple reports from people who study such things? The state did not agree to pay for economic benefits but for political and emotional reasons. If Wilf wants to run is business without interference then he should not ask for handouts from the government. Now that he has asked and taken such a handout, he can expect more than a little comment and criticism about what he does with his business.

Wilf is simply following other NFL owners such as Jerry Jones who is Wilf's idol and who with his new stadium is charging up to $150,000 for a PSL. Unless people weren't paying attention to what was going on, it was very crystal clear from the outset that Wilf wanted a new stadium to increase his revenues and to put his team competitive with other NFL teams and the only way he wcould do that is to use PSLs since the seating capacity in the new stadium is the same as the seating capacity in the old stadium.

This was in the contract signed by all the big shots. It wasn't even 2000 pages!

I think a couple of points need to be clarified. Governor Dayton is simply doing the same thing the Wilfs are doing-running HIS business. While he was instrumental in getting the stadium passed, Dayton also represents all of Minnesota's citizens. That includes those hard-working types without a lot of disposable income, still willing to shell out good money for season tickets because they love the Vikings. And he represents those diehards dressed in face paint and horns, who went down to the Capitol every day to get the word out. I find it interesting how so many are quick to dismiss the PSLs as just "good business". There's a huge difference between hitting up the owners of the luxury suites at Target Field or TCF Bank and sticking it to folks who've mustered up enough to help keep filling the Dome in the upper deck. The Vikings say they were very clear about this from the start. Yet notice the language in the contract refers to "business licenses", not "personal seat licenses". Schafer is right about one thing: The Wilfs have a right to see what the market will bear. They just might be surprised at the answer.

I would let Minneapolis go the route of business, and charge everybody entering a one block radius on game day $20. Over the 30 year contract it would raise over $250,000,000 and relieve the City of this onerous burden on it's residents.

What we are witnessing is the end of the USA as we know it ... in microcosm. Which is why I am so fascinated watching this stadium issue as it unfolds. BY by middle class it was nice knowin ya. What a shame.