The bill to build a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings at the site of the Metrodome passed its first legislative hurdle on Monday when it advanced through the House commerce committee, but obstacles to the plan remain.
"It's a very big step in that it's the first committee it's cleared," said state Rep. Morrie Lanning, sponsor of the House stadium bill, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "But we've got a long ways to go."
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The proposal presented Sunday by House Republicans would create ways to fund the state's share of costs for the nearly $1 billion stadium.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said on Monday that a part of the funding package that would allow so-called tip-board betting on professional sports games would violate federal laws.
The constitutionality of that law is being challenged, Dayton said, but in the meantime, "it clearly is something that would not be able to be used from the beginning as an assurance to bondholders that they were going to get repaid. ... I just don't think it's viable."
The plan could get more hearings in both the House and Senate this week before the Legislature begins a 10-day spring break.
A similar stadium bill is stalled in a Senate committee.
