The Minnesota Vikings Play for More than Just a Super Bowl Title

Many have said the Minnesota Vikings have been on the verge of becoming a major player in the NFL and becoming a Super Bowl champion at last after four near-misses.

With talent beginning to fill the void in the roster, the Vikings are showing they're more then just able to compete. After finishing the 2008 season as the NFC North champions with a 10-6 record, the Vikings are no pushovers.

Although an honest assessment can be made that the talent in some areas is going down the wrong side of the hill, the Vikings still have a chance to prove in the coming three to four years at least to make an honest run for a Super Bowl championship...

But will it be in Minnesota? And if so...will it keep the purple in the state for years to come?

For a closer look at what the Vikings' future could be, a look at the past and the present might help paint a vivider picture for fans and football enthusiasts alike.

The Vikings' current lease with the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission for the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, as signed by both parties in August 1979, keeps them in Minnesota (at the Dome at least) until 2011. The lease is considered one of the least lucrative among NFL teams.

It includes provisions where the commission owns the stadium, and the Vikings are locked into paying rent until the end of the 2011 season, which is usually around $3.5 million annually.

The Vikings pay the MSFC 9.5 percent of its ticket sales and the commission "reserves all rights to sell or lease advertising in any part of the Stadium" and the team can't use the scoreboard for any ads and does not control naming rights for the building.

The commission controls the limited parking and its revenue and the commission pays the team 10 percent of all concession sales, which in 2004 and 2005, amounted to just over half a million for the team each year while the MSFC takes roughly 35 percent of concessions sold during Vikings games.

The Vikings were 30th out of 32 NFL teams in local revenues in 2005. The Vikings, as well as the stadium's other tenants, have continually turned down any proposals for renovating the Metrodome itself.

A plan for a joint Vikings/University of Minnesota football stadium was proposed in 2002, but differences over how the stadium would be design and run, as well as state budget constraints, led to the plan's failure.

Originally, under the ownership of Texas-based billionaire Red McCombs, the Vikings pursued a new stadium in the northern Twin Cities suburb of Blaine in Anoka County.

The process moved forward: the Vikings presented a full stadium and entertainment complex, and both they and Anoka County began lobbying for funding at the Minnesota State Legislature, resulting in a ballot measure for funding the stadium placed on the November 2006 election ballot.

The area had been nicknamed the "Northern Lights in Blaine," and had grown since its initial proposal in Spring 2005 to include 740 acres of total development featuring a 68,500-seat retractable-roof stadium, at least 800,000 square feet of retail shops and restaurants, a hotel, as well as undetermined quantities of housing and office space.

The stadium itself was initially projected to cost $675 million, of which $280 million was proposed to come from a county sales tax, $115 million from sales tax revenue the complex would generate, and $280 million from McCombs and the team's six other owners.

However, just before the 2006 NFL season, McCombs sold the Vikings to Zygi Wilf, a New Jersey-based commercial property developer. Unlike McCombs, Wilf was more interested in the current downtown Minneapolis location.

After going along with the inherited Anoka County plan for a few months, Wilf caused the process to halt in its tracks when he also voiced interest in building a stadium downtown, and the Vikings agreed to cooperate in a study looking at building the stadium in downtown Minneapolis. Anoka County withdrew its support and the ballot measure failed.

Meanwhile, the two other major tenants of the Metrodome, the Minnesota Twins and University of Minnesota Golden Gophers were able to get approval of two separate stadiums, Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium, in the summer of 2006.

From the outset, Wilf had stated he was interested in redeveloping the downtown site of the Metrodome, no matter where the new facility was built.

Taking into consideration downtown Minneapolis' growing mass transit network, cultural institutions, and growing condo and office markets, Wilf considered underdeveloped areas on the Downtown's east side, centered on the Metrodome, to be a key opportunity and began discussing the matter with neighboring landholders, primarily the City of Minneapolis and the Star Tribune.

As a result, once the negotiations for the Anoka County location had been put aside, the Vikings focused on proposing a stadium that would be the centerpiece of a larger urban redevelopment project.

On April 19, 2007, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission and Vikings unveiled their initial plans for the stadium and surrounding urban area, with an estimated opening of 2012.

The plan included substantial improvements to the surrounding area, including an improved light rail stop, 4,500 residential units, hotels with a combined 270 rooms, 1,700,000 square feet of office space and substantial retail space.

Wilf's Vikings began acquiring significant land holdings in the Downtown East neighborhood around the Metrodome in June 2007, the Vikings acquired four blocks of mostly empty land surrounding the Star Tribune headquarters from Avista Capital Partners (the private equity owner of the Star Tribune) for $45 million.

In May 2007, the Vikings also acquired three other downtown parking lots for a total of $5 million, and have made a bid for a city-owned, underground parking ramp next to the neighborhood's light rail station.

The current proposed cost estimate for the downtown Minneapolis stadium is $953,916,000. The total breaks down to $616,564,000 for the stadium, $200,729,000 for a retractable roof, $58,130,000 for parking, $8,892,000 for adjacent land right-of-way, and $69,601,000 to take into account inflation by 2010.

The estimate compares to upcoming stadiums in Indianapolis at $675 million (retractable roof, completed 2008), Dallas at $932 million (retractable roof, est. completion in 2009) and New York at $1.7 billion (open-air, est. completion in 2010).

In addition, according to Wilf, taking into account the costs for the surrounding urban developments put forth in the proposal would bring the estimated total to $2 billion.

The estimated costs were based on projected 2008 construction and material costs, so it is possible that the stadium costs could hover near $1 billion if the Minnesota State Legislature does not approve the project in the 2008 session.

The Vikings, like most NFC North teams this offseason, have been silent in Free Agency so far with the exception of Karl Paymah and Glenn Holt.

With the exception of a certain T.J. "Who'syomomma," the Vikings have made minimal attempts for a big name acquisition this offseason even when Wilf has made it clear that "money is not an issue."

Head Coach Brad Childress has also stated that newly acquired quarterback Sage Rosenfels will compete with his experiment Tarvaris Jackson for the starting QB spot in training camp this year.

For Childress' sake, he better hope that whoever that starting QB is, that they produce wins.

With fans crowding the Metrodome shouting "Fire Childress!," he won't be high on job security, especially if no one comes to games because they think the head coach is a bust.

One answer solves these issues...Wins.

If the Vikings can take their pro studded line-up and either match or improve upon their '08 record of 10-6, and possibly win a Super Bowl title, Childress will stop hearing chants, Wilf won't have to bend over backwards for a stadium with state representatives, and the Vikings will more than likely not leaving Minnesota... at least any time soon.

The state of Minnesota will feel pressure from the team, fans and the league for having a team representing the state produce a championship.

Everyone's time is running thin...

Wilf's chances for a stadium, Childress' job, the careers of the talented veterans on the Vikings squad and the Minnesota faithful that must watch their team's fate and future in Minnesota hang in the balance.

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