Minn. lawmakers add $50M to Vikings' stadium tab

The reworked bill has the Vikings paying $477 million, a significant cut above the figure team officials had once described as "set in stone." But though the package was tougher, it also is the closest the team has come to winning a replacement for the Metrodome, a 30-year-old facility that the team says has outlived its usefulness.

Early Thursday, a Vikings officials said the team's billionaire owners, New Jersey developers Zygi and Mark Wilf, are backing the deal.

"The Vikings and the Wilfs have stepped up," said team vice president Lester Bagley. "The Wilfs have stepped up and made a huge commitment to Minnesota and a huge commitment to Vikings fans."

For weeks team executives had insisted they wouldn't up their contribution.

Rep. Morrie Lanning, a Republican who was the stadium's chief advocate in the House, said getting the required votes depended on upping the team contribution.

"We knew we had to drive a hard bargain and we drove a hard bargain," he said.

He said a vote would come with or without the team's approval.

As revised, the $975 million stadium would draw on $348 million in state money, plus $150 million from the city of Minneapolis. The new stadium would be built on the site of the Metrodome near downtown Minneapolis.

The deal isn't final. It's subject to approval by the House and Senate, and would then go to Gov. Mark Dayton for his signature, a near certainty given the months he has pressed legislators to come up with a stadium deal that would guarantee the Vikings don't leave the state.

The state's share was to come through expanded gambling, which some legislators opposed on principle. Others worried the state overestimated the money it would get by authorizing charitable organizations to offer electronic versions of pull tabs, a low-tech paper game offered in bars and restaurants around the state.