MPR’s John Merli reports that Minnesota Vikings General Manager Mike Lynn and Twins President Calvin Griffith were among the large crowd of onlookers who packed into the governor's reception room to watch the signing of one of the most controversial bills to pass through the legislature.
Also present were six of the seven members of the new stadium site committee. They're charged with selecting a new location and designed for the new facility. Senator Wendell Anderson was also there. He tried unsuccessfully in past years to get a stadium bill like this one passed.
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JOHN MURLEY: Minnesota Vikings general manager, Mike Lynn, and Twins President, Calvin Griffith, were among the large crowd of onlookers who packed into the governor's reception room to watch the signing of one of the most controversial bills to pass through the legislature this decade. Also present were six of the seven members of the new stadium site committee. They are charged with selecting a new location and design for the new facility. Senator Wendell Anderson was also there. He of course, tried unsuccessfully in past years to get a stadium bill like this one passed.
WENDELL ANDERSON: There are thousands and thousands of people who get tremendous pleasure out of listening to the Twins on Radio and watching them on television. On a Sunday, most people in the state are either at a Viking game or watching them on television. And it's just not the people that can afford to attend the games. Most of the people that derive pleasure are those that are living in the small towns in Minnesota, or apartments, or their own homes here in the Metropolitan area, shut-ins, people in hospitals.
And I think we did them a tremendous service by passing this bill and providing a facility that these two great organizations need. And I'm just very, very proud of the legislators who are here who took a very strong stand. They all knew that it was a subject that was controversial. They knew it was a bill that would get them in trouble with some of their constituents.
JOHN MURLEY: Senator Anderson, "the stadium bill can still get many legislators in trouble back home depending on what happens now. The stadium site committee must appear to maintain absolute neutrality in a sense of fairness in its deliberations without exception. It will select three potential sites by August and make a final selection by no later than December 1978.
Politically, the final site in design of the multi-million dollar facility must meet with the approval of most people, which in itself appears to be a near impossible task. And finally, the new stadium must prove its worth and its drawing power, or its many critics will never let supporters hear the end of it." Both critics and supporters publicly acknowledge this. The new stadium is not expected to be completed until 1981. This is John Murley at the Capitol.