"Appealing for City Council support for a new Vikings stadium, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak surrounded himself with construction workers on Monday and said the project would create more jobs than any "single action that you can take."

Rybak and Barb Johnson, the City Council president, did little to disguise that the press briefing was an overt attempt to apply political pressure for the project, which does not appear to have the backing of a council majority. Rybak did not directly answer when asked whether he had majority support for a city subsidy package and chose instead to remain optimistic about the project's political chances.

Union leaders used Monday's event at the Metrodome to declare that they had reached an agreement with the Vikings to abide by union contracts should the stadium be built in Minneapolis. They also acknowledged that the news was largely expected since the team had generally agreed to do so."