ST. PAUL — A Minnesota Senate committee narrowly approved a public subsidy on Friday to help the Vikings build a new football stadium, reviving the team’s struggling effort just hours after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell visited the state Capitol to jumpstart what had been a stalled stadium debate.

The Senate’s Local Government and Elections Committee passed the bill on an 8-6 vote after a hearing that stretched nearly four hours. While the stadium bill still faces a long haul in the waning days of Minnesota’s legislative session, the committee’s vote gave the $975 million stadium proposal new life four days after a companion bill’s defeat in a House committee earlier this week sparked near panic among supporters.

“We’re very pleased with the progress and that the bill moved forward,” Lester Bagley, the Vikings’ vice president for stadium development, said after the Senate committee vote. “It’s been an up and down week, touch and go.”

Minnesota political leaders and National Football League officials said a meeting Friday morning gives them more confidence a new Vikings stadium can be built.

Gov. Mark Dayton said House and Senate leaders promised to “do their best to move their respective bills to the floor,” although House Speaker Kurt Zellers was less positive in saying he will know more “in a couple of days.”

“Maybe that vote Monday night forced some people to get serious and get to work,” said Rep. Rich Murray, R-Albert Lea. He said DFL, GOP, NFL and Dayton would have to work together to get the bill through.

Goodell and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II, head of the NFL stadium committee, apparently achieved part of their goal, injecting new life in proposals that were defeated or stalled in legislative committees.

But none of the state leaders were willing to declare victory.

“It has to be a good deal for the state of Minnesota,” Zellers said after the meeting.

The eight state leaders and two NFL officials called the meeting productive, but they gave few specifics.

“Our presence here is a signal of how important it is to the National Football League” that the Vikings remain in Minnesota, Goodell said.

A stadium “is very close to the goal line,” Rooney said.

Goodell said he did not threaten state officials with the Vikings moving if there is no new stadium, but others in the meeting said the commissioner made it clear that other cities — including Los Angeles — are interested. A newspaper reported that the Vikings’ owners plane was in Los Angeles Thursday.

The Wilf family is “very frustrated,” Goodell said, but remains committed to Minnesota. The Wilfs were not in today’s meeting, but Dayton said he planned to call later.

House bill author Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, called the meeting constructive, and said it helped add urgency to his cause.

“We cannot afford to have this wait another year,” he said.

The Vikings say they cannot continue to play in the Metrodome. While the Wilf family says it will not move the team, it has the option of selling it.

The main proposal is for a $975 million stadium on the Metrodome site, with the state paying $398 million, Minneapolis $150 million and the Vikings and other private sources adding $427 million.

Though the Vikings will play next season in Metrodome, their lease there has expired. Moving the team is not permissible under league rules this year, but there’s always 2013.

A simmering movement to put a franchise in Los Angeles came up in the discussion at the prompting of lawmakers, Dayton said. Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, a sponsor of the stadium bill, said legislative leaders heard that Los Angeles is an option, even if there was no explicit threat from the NFL.

“There is no ultimatum, but we did clearly talk about LA. We did clearly talk about that is an open market,” Rosen said. “I do believe there is a feeling in some legislators and even in some folks throughout the state that they would never leave. So it was good to hear from the NFL, and from a very prominent owner, that they do have the right to move or be sold.”

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.