Stadium-Hungry Vikings Whore Out Jared Allen

The Minnesota Vikings are getting aggressive in their crusade for a new stadium.

Team owner Zygi Wilf met privately Thursday with state lawmakers at St. Paul’s posh University Club to discuss possible stadium bills, while Jared Allen spent that evening being, well, Jared Allen.

The defensive end/attention whore/douche bag has become something of a poster child for the Vikings’ stadium push. He popped in unexpectedly at several lawmaker gatherings Thursday night, posing for pictures and signing purple and gold footballs distributed by stadium backers.

One of these gatherings was at a Kelly Inn, but another was an informal dinner at an apartment complex after a long day of committee hearings. How annoying is that?

Allen is “a supporter of what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Vikings’ stadium spokesman Lester Bagley. The team is attempting to capitalize, he said, on the growing interest — by fans, the business community and legislators — in finding a way to publicly fund a stadium before the legislative session ends in mid-May. “The stadium issue comes up no matter where we go,” Bagley said.

Team officials have also created a grass-roots effort to enlist stadium support that they are calling “Minnesota Momentum.” Fans who become “recruiters” got a chance to win free game tickets if they signed up by Friday.

Several days ago, the Vikings website featured a picture of Allen with the words: “Join the Momentum! Are you going to argue with Jared?”

Look, the odds of getting a stadium proposal through the Legislature by the time lawmakers adjourn next month are already slim at best, so why make them even slimmer by irritating the crap of out legislators with not-so-subtle, behind-the-scenes pressure and even more obvious grip-and-grins? It makes no sense.

Some lawmakers are already pissed about the Vikings’ latest stadium push this far into the legislative session.

“We need to do a better job of vetting these issues through the legislative process, starting in January … rather than the last three weeks of the session,” said Rep. Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth. “Maybe that’s just me being overly optimistic, or naive.”

Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, said the Wilf meeting, along with other subterranean stadium activities, was “highly unusual,” even on a controversial issue.

“This is not sitting well with the public,” he said.

Polls have shown little support for public funding of a new Vikings’ stadium, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty has joined many state lawmakers in saying there are many other funding priorities this legislative session.

Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, who chairs the House Taxes Committee and who opposes public stadium subsidies, said she would look askance at any stadium proposal that popped up in the final weeks.

“I think it is completely irresponsible that we would even be talking about this, with the enormity of the [state budget] deficit before us,” she said.

Way to go, guys!! Sounds like you’re really winning them over in St. Paul. Keep this up, and you’ll be the Los Angeles Vikings in no time.

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