NFL to Loan Vikings $200 Million for New Stadium

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The National Football League team owners have approved a $200 million loan to the Minnesota Vikings for the team's new $975 million stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

The loan will be part of the $477 million the Vikings will contribute toward the stadium.

The loan is the maximum amount the league will give a team building a new stadium. It will be paid back over the next 15 years, with some of the money coming through visiting teams' share of club seat revenue in the new stadium.

Vikings vice president Lester Bagley calls the loan "a big step forward."

The Vikings expect to break ground this fall on the new stadium, on the site of the Metrodome, and be in their new home by 2016.