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MINNEAPOLIS - Could a new stadium be possible in 2005 after all? Earlier this month the Pioneer Press indicated that with this:

Posted on Tue, Dec. 14, 2004

House Speaker predicts stadium success

Pioneer Press

The second-most powerful state official in Minnesota predicted Tuesday the 2005 Legislature will approve funding to construct new stadiums for the University of Minnesota football team and the Minnesota Twins.

"It's going to pass this session," House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, told reporters during the Associated Press' annual legislative session preview at the Capitol. It was the first time he made such a prediction.

Stadium bills would probably be the last issue on the Legislature's plate, Sviggum said. First they must balance the budget, properly fund schools, rein in health-care costs and tackle other higher-priority matters.

"It's going to happen after we do everything else," he said. But he's confident lawmakers will vote to build two stadiums. "The time has come to make a decision," he said.

What happened last year can not be forgotten easily, with the legislature doing absolutely nothing. Funding has to be the key issue with the stadium and an issue that no one seems to be able to agree on. Who to pay for what and how much. The state does not have the money and residents of Hennepin County cant be asked to pay for it when people from all around use it. People from the entire state cant be asked to pay for it when not all of them use it.

There might not be a clear easy solution to this. That is what makes the possibility of this happening in 2005 unlikely. But if the drive for a new stadium is there, something that has been missing, it makes it much easier to try and pass.