What Do Brett Favre, The Vikings, and Ronald Reagan Have In Common? Favrenomics

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is a smart guy.  He is a business guy.  He understands what moves the dial. He knows that Brett Favre moves the dial. Lost amidst all of this Favre hoopla this off-season has been the Vikings role in all of this.  I am by no means a Favre apologist, but to put on the kind of spectacle he has the last two seasons he needed some help.  Enter Mr. Wilf.  See Zygi subscribes to the economic theory of Reaganomics.  Named for the former president, Reaganomics is characterized by the trickle down effect where tax cuts and other incentives are given to the wealthiest Americans and largest businesses in the hope that their savings will “trickle down” to everyone else thus in theory stimulating the economy.

Favrenomics is the same principle, and last year Favrenomics was a big hit.  Give special privileges and rights to the most powerful and important football players and let their greatness trickle down.  Last year Favrenomics was primarily concerned with the on the field product of the Vikings, and it worked beautifully.  Don’t believe me ask Sydney Rice or Percy Harvin if the trickle down effect works.  Favrenomics allowed both the have impacts they would not have had without the old gunslinger.  T.V. ratings shot through the roof.  Merchandise started moving.  Interest in the team had never been higher.  The script was perfect, Brett Favre returns for one more magical season and leads Vikings to Super Bowl.

As we are all painfully aware of things didn’t turn out like that.  The Vikes lose the NFC Championship and Favre disappears to Mississippi.  Since that point speculation has run rampant about Favre’s future with the purple and gold.  Many pundits and fans alike wondered why Wilf and head coach Brad Childress would put up with the star quarterback’s game of cat and mouse.  Most just assume that the possibility to make it to a Super Bowl was the sole driving force behind the Vikings seemingly unending patience towards Favre.  While it may have been last year, I truly believe that Wilf’s motives are much less altruistic in terms of the fan.  In fact, this year he is more concerned with hard line off the field  Favrenomics.  

What the Vikings have been conveniently sweeping under the proverbial rug during this whole fiasco is the fact that their stadium lease on the Metrodome runs out after the 2011 season.  The NFL collective bargaining agreement runs out after the 2010 season and the real possibility of a locked out 2011 meaning this could be the Vikings last season in the Dome or in Minnesota.  Failure to secure a new stadium deal almost surely means the Vikings will be relocated. Wilf wants to make it work in Minnesota avoid being vilified the way Art Modell is in Cleveland.  To do this he needs interest in his team to be at an all time peak.  He needs the trickle down effect.  He once again needs Favre.

Because of Favre the Vikings have been in the news basically since the clock ticked zero in the NFC championship game.  This is incredibly important for Wilf because the Vikings are not one of the NFL’s bedrock franchises.  A bedrock franchise is one that will sell a jersey or a ticket just by the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.  Really there are only four franchises like that in the NFL, the Cowboys, 49ers, Steelers, and Raiders.  Casual fans won’t watch or buy a ticket if the Vikings are in town, but they will if the Vikings are in town and Brett Favre is at the helm.  He makes the Vikings relevant to more people, and Wilf knows it.  All of this extra publicity equals more time for Wilf to promote his new stadium ventures.  Increase revenues due to Favre’s playing show state legislatures that a Vikings stadium is not only fiscally responsible, but also fiscally profitable.

This is why Wilf was so complicit in Favre’s “self imposed” time table.  This is why he flew three players down to Mississippi to convince him to return. The Vikings brass and Wilf himself will never tell it that way.  Their message will always be it was about the Super Bowl, and that they didn’t know what Brett was planning on doing.  But they had a plan all along and knew how to work it to the Vikings and Favre’s advantage.  Its simple Favrenomics really.