NFL Facility Notes

The Vikings and Anoka County “were close Tuesday night to an agreement that would include a retractable roof” for the team’s proposed stadium in Blaine, one day after the team announced its intention to build a stadium without the $115M roof (STAR TRIBUNE, 5/17). NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue yesterday told a Minnesota state House-Senate conference committee that a new stadium “likely would be the site of” a future Super Bowl (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 5/17).

SAINTS: The Saints “appear to be closing in on Millsaps College” in Jackson, Mississippi, as the site of their training camp, though GM Mickey Loomis “insisted Tuesday night that no decision has been made” (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 5/17). Millsaps President Frances Lucas said that the Saints “have agreed” to use the school’s facilities and that the school “is waiting for contracts to be signed” by the team. The Saints are also scheduled to play an August 26 preseason game against the Colts at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (Jackson CLARION-LEDGER, 5/17).

L.A. COLISEUM: The L.A. Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve a plan to create a three-tier, 68,000-seat stadium inside the existing walls of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. The City Council will vote on the proposal on Friday. However, L.A. Conservancy President Linda Dishman said when her preservation group signed off on the plan in ’03, “we believed the exterior of the bowl and the outside walls, particularly the walls, were sacrosanct.” The changes “have her worried that the renovation could lead to the revocation” of the Coliseum’s status as a national historic landmark (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 5/17).

COLTS: N.K. Hurst President Rick Hurst said that he “had an unexpected fan in his showdown” with the state of Indiana over land for the Colts new stadium, Colts Owner Jim Irsay. Hurst, whose company reached a deal in April with the state of Indiana to provide land for stadium parking, said, Irsay “said he supported our business. He said, ‘I think the state can work out how to abide by the contract (with the Colts) and have you still stay here.” Hurst added the Indiana Stadium Authority “made an agreement with Jim Irsay to give them our land for parking. My guess is Jim had to say something to them for them not to” (INDY STAR, 5/17).