No Stadium? Ziggy Will Not Move, Ziggy Will Sell

For over 10 years now, the Minnesota Vikings organization has been trying to work with Minnesota politicians in finding ways to budget a new stadium for the team.

This dates back to the Red McCombs era and Governor Ventura's days in office. Jesse was an avid Vikings fan and was seen at plenty of games supporting his team.

But when it came to funding a stadium, Mr. Ventura felt that he couldn't tax the citizens of Minnesota to fund the budget, even though it would only cost the average tax payer five cents. McCombs drew tired of finding funds and talking with Minnesota politicians, and finally decided it was time to sell the team.

In came Ziggy Wilf, a real estate guru from New York. Ziggy made it clear in 2005 that he would never relocate the team out of state.

So far he has kept his word, and rumor has it he would not discuss moving the team to L.A, when and if a new stadium is built there. Just like McCombs, Ziggy has been trying to find and brainstorm different ways to get a stadium funded, yet to no avail.

He has offered to put in $250 million of his own money to help get it started, and the latest rumor has it that a new casino may be built to fund the new stadium.

With all this talk of "stimulus," you would think that the Minnesota legislature would jump on such a chance to get jobs going, not to mention the revenue that would be created if there was a new stadium.

I mean, how cool would it be to see an Eric Clapton concert outdoors in a new stadium? You see, it can be used for more than just football.

In building a new stadium, it alone would produce 5,000 jobs for five years, not to mention the new jobs it would create after the stadium is up and running. With the casino being built, that would just add to more of what this state needs, a functional, circulating economy. 

What makes me scratch my head is the fact that the greedy, tightwad Pohlads got the funding to build their new stadium for the Twins. What makes me scratch it even more is the fact it only holds 40,000 people, thus kicking up ticket prices in an already bad economy.

The Pohlads hate to spend money, but have no issue with tax payers spending it for them. At least Ziggy is willing to spend the money to get quality players into the organization, even with being one of the lowest grossing teams in the NFL.

So Minnesota, don't be surprised if Ziggy ends up selling the team to new ownership and that ownership gets the approval from the NFL to move the team. If it can happen in Cleveland, then it can happen here.