The Minnesota Vikings moved to within a governor's signature of getting a new $975 million stadium on Thursday after the state Senate approved a plan that relies heavily on public financing.
Gov. Mark Dayton has said he'll sign the measure, meaning the Senate's 36-30 vote was effectively the final barrier for the stadium. The House passed it overnight.
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The team chased a new stadium for more than a decade but had little leverage until its lease expired this past year on the 30-year-old Metrodome.
The deal guarantees the Vikings' future in Minnesota for three decades, but it still needs to be approved by 24 of 32 NFL owners, according to the Pioneer Press.
The team would pay 49 percent of construction costs: $477 million, which is $50 million more than owners initially committed. But the public expense is still high: $348 million for the state and $150 million for the city of Minneapolis.
"This stadium is the best interest for the state," said Sen. Julie Rosen, a Fairmont Republican who was lead sponsor of the bill. "This investment from three partners is the best for this state."
"It's time," said Sen. Geoff Michel, a Republican from Edina. "It's time for us to adopt a framework that allows us to keep a Minnesota franchise. It's time to keep the Minnesota Vikings here so that our children and our grandchildren, yes, can wear purple."
Sen. Scott Newman, a Hutchinson Republican who opposed the bill, predicted it would pass. He said the state should be spending its money instead on things like health care, education and infrastructure.
"I know it happens across the nation, but it saddens me to think that our citizens believe that this is a wise expenditure of tax money," Newman said.
Vikings vice president Lester Bagley said the team's billionaire owners, New Jersey developers Zygi and Mark Wilf, supported the deal even though $50 million of the cost was shifted from the state to the team because time was running out. The Legislature had only two days left to act.
The Vikings intend to take advantage of an NFL loan program, sell naming rights and possibly impose seat license fees to help cover the team's end of construction costs.
Under the bill, the Vikings would sign a 30-year lease on a stadium to be built on the site of the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The team would pay about $13 million annually in operating fees, though a public authority gets the power to rent out the building on non-game days for concerts, conventions and special events. The Wilfs would get exclusive rights to recruit a professional soccer team to Minnesota.
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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
