After weeks of committee hearings, each one bearing new amendments and surprises, the already-dramatically divergent House and Senate stadium proposals faced an onslaught of on-the-fly amendments on the floor this week, and some major changes were adopted.A conference committee made up of six legislators is expected to meet sometime on Wednesday.

Following a contentious 10-plus-hour debate, the Senate passed legislation authorizing construction of a $975 million stadium for the Minnesota Vikings on Tuesday evening. The proposal cleared the chamber by a 38-28 vote margin.

"It's something I want to lay low on right now," DeKruif said Saturday morning. "I'm not going to comment on that at this moment."

The Senate Taxes Committee passed the Minnesota Vikings stadium bill 7-6 after an intense hearing that lasted well into Friday evening. The panel removed the racino provision from an earlier committee that was believed to have put the bill in jeopardy. The stadium legislation is now on the floor of both the House and Senate.

When the sun rose on Tuesday, April 17, the slow death of the Minnesota Vikings stadium bill appeared complete at last.

The Senate Finance Committee turned the Vikings stadium political situation upside down by inserting the controversial revenue source of allowing slot machines at two Minnesota racetracks. The Senate's chief author immediately vowed to have the so-called racino removed from the bill tomorrow in the Taxes committee.

The swift pace at which the Minnesota Vikings stadium bill advanced through the House and Senate this week amounted to nothing short of a legislative resurrection.

The publicly subsidized Minnesota Vikings stadium proposed for downtown Minneapolis survived a Senate committee on Friday evening with more DFLers than Republicans voting for it.

With momentum building to finish off the 2012 legislative session, the House and Senate spent hours on the floor last week debating bills.

Barring some unlikely resurrection as part of a close-of-session grand bargain, the long-troubled Vikings stadium bill has apparently drawn its last breath of 2012.