Here’s one way to build a new Minnesota Vikings stadium: sell public stock in the team. (Hey, it worked for the Green Bay Packers.)

And here’s another way to help raise funds for whatever will one day replace the Minneapolis Metrodome: install slot machines at the airport.

Will either of those proposals ever fly? History and National Football League rules would say no, but that isn’t stopping state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis. She plans to push both ideas in the next legislative session. Republicans have the majority in both the state House and Senate.

In 2005, Kahn proposed a “community ownership” model to fund construction of the Minnesota Twins baseball stadium in Minneapolis, also based on a stock sale allowing public ownership of the team. That idea never went far, and state lawmakers instead paved the way for the baseball stadium to be funded by a Hennepin County sales tax instituted by the county board.

Would selling stock in the Vikings raise the necessary funds for stadium construction? There’s precedent, but not much precedent: Currently, the Green Bay Packers are the only publically-owned National Football League team, as they were “grandfathered” into the rules decades ago. They have over 100,000 stockholders.

NFL ownership rules prohibit any team other than the Packers from being owned by more than 30 owners, notes Kahn. Her proposed legislation would require the governor and Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission to work with the NFL to change the rules.

“You can’t do it unless the NFL is going to allow you to do it,” Kahn said.

She figures the funds from the stock sale could go toward a new stadium, while still allowing the Wilf family to retain 30 percent ownership required of managing owners under current NFL rules. (The controlling owner – Wilf – needs to keep at least 10 percent ownership, and his family could have as much as 20 percent.)

Would Vikings owner Zygi Wilf ever give up that much control of a team he bought just six years ago?

A call to Vikings spokesman Lester Bagley was not immediately returned, but the short answer is probably not.

Governor Mark Dayton has been saying for months that the new Vikings stadium must be a “people’s stadium,” so Kahn figures it’s still worth trying to keep the governor to his word and at least broaching the subject with lawmakers. It’s no secret, however, she’s no football fan, and those close to her say she’s not likely to fight for this concept as hard as she did for the Twins stock sale bill, which drew 34 authors.

Kahn has also been proposing for years that the state install casino-style slot machines at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, somewhere within the security gate, to reap funds from fliers. She plans to do so again next legislative session.

Even she admits it’s a long shot.

“I’ve put the bill in a lot, and I’ve talked about it a lot, but it’s never gone anywhere,” she said.

In 2004, the Minnesota State Lottery pegged the possible net proceeds from 250 airport slot machines at $27 million per year, based in part on the experience of fliers at an airport in Amsterdam. That’s now a dated estimate, if it were ever a fair comparison to begin with.

“All gambling is a regressive tax on stupidity, but if you put the gambling in the airport, it would be a progressive tax on stupidity, because you have people with higher incomes at the airport,” Kahn said. “Plus, 80 percent of the traffic at the airport is from out of state.”

Kahn, the ranking member of the State Government Finance committee, hasn’t given up hope on the idea, even though she said she personally finds gambling a waste of time and money. Could her proposal be tweaked to raise money for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium?

“If someone wanted to,” said Kahn, who said she’s neither opposed to nor pushing for that aim. “I don’t know that it has to. It gives you general fund money.”

To get around state restrictions on non-tribal casino gambling, the slot machines would be administered by the state lottery system, she said, which requires 40 percent of the revenue to go toward a state environmental trust fund.

That leaves $16 million to spare for the state’s general uses – or perhaps for the Vikings stadium. Compared to the $1 billion figure that gets thrown around for Vikings stadium construction costs alone, Kahn acknowledges that $16 million isn’t much.

“One of the reasons I think this has never flown is because compared to what everyone else is talking about, it’s not enough money,” Kahn said.

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172.