vikings/nfl

But right now the Vikings still play in the biggest dump in the entire NFL! That dome is downright awful to watch a game in. Football and baseball need to be played outdoors to have any kind of game day experience at all. Who cares if it gets cold. Look at all the Super Bowl winners since the first one, and over 80% are COLD WEATHER cities that play OUTSIDE. Why do you think the Vikings went to 4 Super Bowls in 20 years while at the Met? And ZERO in 30 years at the dome? Some people just dont get it, and Minnesota never will again..........

I have neither the time nor desire to do the research myself, but it would be interesting to read a little run down like this on teams with one or more super bowl wins who play outdoors vs. indoors, cold weather vs. warm, the age of their venue at the time of winning, etc.

My argument against the Vikings extorting a new stadium from Minnesota's stalemated and spineless legislature is this (and it has precious little to do with my lack of infatuation, to put it politely, with a team of so many negatives, so few positives over the years). Instead, I've not understood how an enormously wealthy man like Wilf can set as his "final offer" a figure of $200 mil without revealing his total and actual financial assets, all the while knowing those same assets of the State of Minnesota. So far so good, since that's the basis of business i.e. I'll offer you what I wish to, and if you bite on it no matter how I pressure you to do so, so be it. (Thus the unfortunate dearth of corporate ethics in the land of the free (enterprise, that is). However, here is where it gets interesting. I said initially that Zygi and fam are attempting to extort a stadium from the legislature, yet is not "blackmail" the more operative word here ? Meaning that Zygi didn't get this far with his financial dealings riding a platform of ethical dealings but by knowing this legislature could well face enormous public censure if the Vikings did in fact leave. So, even reading polls that the majority of Minnesotans don't want a new stadium constructed with any public funds, I have never read any poll asking if those same citizens wanted or could accept the Vikings leaving if the franchise did leave. Yet, I have to believe Zygi's think tank has done their own research here and has some theoretical answers to that question, and is using it to bend the arms of recalcitrant legislators to help publicly fund this stadium. So, is that not blackmail or extortion, and if not, what else might it be called ?

Keeping up with the Jonses (Literally) is not going to sway anyone's empty pocketbook to pay up more of what they do not have so Wilf can have his playpen subsidized by taxpayers.

but it would be interesting to read a little run down like this on teams with one or more super bowl wins who play outdoors vs. indoors, cold weather vs. warm, the age of their venue at the time of winning, etc.---elaborate. I don't see in anyway how that would be interesting or relative to....anything.

Don't forget that we also just built a brand new football facility for a Division One college. That is 4 of 5 major sport venues in the Twins Cities in the past 11 years. Though the Metrodome isn't that good, I really don't know that we can afford to build a $1.1 billion stadium. I wrote my legislators and told them that if the stadium measure does pass, then the Vikings should foot the entire loan of $1.1 billion up front and hold the carrying cost of interest, and the State of MN and county (Ramsey right now) would just send their yearly portion to the Vikings so that the taxpayers contribute their $650 million, and not the additional $400+ million in interest. The Vikings should carry that cost. That is only fair in my book.

I really don't understand how so many people think that Zygi is trying to pull a fast one on everyone. He is a businessman, and rightfully so he should only care about one thing, the return that he gets on his investment(The MN Vikings). While I would hate to see the Vikings leave town, both because I am a huge fan and because of the business that having a pro football team brings to the Twin Cites, I would not blame Zygi for one minute if he moved the team.

The article said that none of the other cities would have three or more venues being built after 2000 - there is a major reason for that. It is financially impossible to build three or more venues in that timeframe. To maintain a quality venue for your four major teams, you must learn to stagger them over a 25+ year timeframe. That way you are only replacing one every six/seven years. What happened in Minnesota is poor timing and giving in. A new hockey arena, Twins say, "hey, they got one, we deserve one." A new Twins stadium, Gophers say, "hey, they got one, we deserve one." A new Gophers stadium, Vikings say "hey, they got one, we deserve one." And finally, and this one is a big shock, Wolves are already licking their chops and making it known that they are already gearing up to ask for a new venue just as soon as the Vikings get theirs.

I may be wrong here, but didn't Wilf say he would be fine with building an outdoor venue? Which would cost much less than a retractable roof. But the state wanted a retractable roof so it could hold other events. Then why doesn't the state just go with the cheaper option?

In Michael Rand's columns, who is "we?"