Minnesota Vikings: Why Zygi Wilf Is Not Norm Green in Vikings' Stadium Battle

Entering today, the most terrible act in Minnesota sports was Norm Green moving the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas.

The hockey team was involved in a lengthy dispute over whether public money should be used to build a replacement for the Met Center in Bloomington, Minn.

During this situation, the Minnesota legislature tried everything to convince Green to keep the team in Minnesota. However, no deal was ever good enough for Green as he became the biggest villain in the history of Minnesota sports.

On Tuesday afternoon, it seemed like Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was ready to raise Green by moving another beloved Minnesota team south in the Vikings after the 2012 season. While there are many parallels between Wilf and Green, this much is clear: Zygi Wilf is not Norm Green.

Since Wilf made his intentions of a new Viking stadium public, the Minnesota legislature has told him to be patient and the Vikings' time will come for a new stadium. Wilf waited and never threatened to move the team as the Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota football team got their new stadiums.

In the 2012 session, the Vikings' turn finally came in the legislature. Wilf and his staff organized not one, but two stadium solutions. (One in the Twin Cities' suburb of Arden Hills, and another in downtown Minneapolis.)

The Vikings preferred stadium plan in Arden Hills was shot down when legislators scoffed at the addition of infrastructure and cleanup costs for the site which was a munitions plant once upon a time.

Instead of huffing and puffing with a move to Los Angeles, the Wilfs relented and compromised by putting together a plan in downtown Minneapolis.

It seemed like this was the best option as it would replace the Metrodome site, but instead legislators decided to dance around and finally put the bill to rest by defeating it in a House committee by a nine-to-six vote on Monday night.

The latest defeat for a new stadium in Minneapolis has been the last straw for the Vikings. After Minnesota governor Mark Dayton promised that a stadium deal would get done in 2013 if time ran out during this legislative session, the Vikings finally called the Minnesota legislature's bluff.

For the first time during the six-year process, Vikings vice president of public affairs and stadium development Lester Bagley laid a hint that the Vikings would consider moving in an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

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There is no next year.The last governor said in 2006 we'll come back and work on yours next year. That was six years ago. No action this year is a decision.

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While some people will read that quote and think that Wilf is pulling a Norm Green heel turn, the reality is that Wilf has been bending over backwards to keep the team in Minnesota for six years. For that, he's been rewarded with a giant middle finger from the Minnesota legislature.

Without a stadium by the time May rolls around, Minnesota may have their new Norm Green. Unlike Green, the people of Minnesota would have the opportunity to have their new villains replaced.