Daunte is gone — Zygi and the Vikings are next!

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 3/23/2006

Now that the Vikings in two years have traded away superstars Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper — and in each case failed to get value in exchange — the bigger plan for the team is becoming clearer by the day: That is, the Vikings must go.

 

When Roger Headrick was part owner of the Vikings in 1992 and hired Dennis Green as head coach, they needed a stadium. When the team was sold to Red McCombs in 1998, he tried to get a stadium and failed. How many lives do the Vikings have?

 

Zygi Wilf, the billionaire Vikings owner from New Jersey, has proposed a $1.5 billion development in Blaine that includes shops, stores, wetlands and a 250-room hotel — all to be part of a $780 million retractable roof stadium in the northern suburban area. Wilf even said he is willing to put up $1 billion of his own money to get this done.

The late Kirby Puckett was right when I asked him if he thought Minnesota would get a new Twins ballpark. “Not in my lifetime,” Puckett said. Speaking of Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, Puckett also said, “If you want to leave a legacy, put up $250 million up front, and I think the legislature and the State of Minnesota will chime in and you will have a stadium.”

 

Have you stopped to consider how many proposals for Vikings stadiums in Minneapolis, St. Paul or the suburbs have been talked about since 1992? What has changed? We all know the Gopher football team left old Memorial Stadium in the early 1980s, and the Twins want a new stadium.

 

Minnesotans obviously don’t think big. The logjam continues with the Vikings, Twins and Gophers. Who gets priority? If the State House of Representatives, the State Senate and the governor turn down an owner who offers to put up a billion dollars of his own money to move on building the Vikings a new stadium, can it be any clearer to you that the Vikings and owner Wilf will move elsewhere?

 

Everyone knows about the agreement signed by the late Pete Rozelle to keep the Vikings in Minnesota until 2011. That is just five years away, and no extension for the Metrodome lease will be signed by Wilf. Arizona has a new stadium, and their football team has had one playoff appearance in 20 years. Green Bay, Chicago, and Detroit —- all in the same division as the Vikings — all have new stadiums. Minnesota, have you no pride?

 

People can pick their own scapegoat for whom to blame for all this, whether it’s Head Coach Brad “Never-called-his-own-plays” Childress or Daunte Culpepper, but it doesn’t matter; what’s done is done. Just like with the decisions that were made under Mike Tice, good and bad, the people of Minnesota will have to live with what happens.

 

The Vikings are in full rebuilding mode. All the brothers are gone: Green, Moss, Culpepper, Moe Williams, Brian Williams, Corey Chavous and Michael Bennett. The Vikings will be gone, the Metrodome can’t get renovated for the Twins, and the Gophers can’t get their little 38,000 seat on-campus stadium.

 

The clock is ticking. Zygi is about to get his answer in the next five months. When he gets it, and the answer is no to Blaine and $1.5 billion, he will take his team that he paid $600 million for and find another community for its home. It takes a community’s commitment to their home team to stop this from happening. Will Minnesota make a commitment to the Vikings?

 

Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio, 89.9 FM, at 8:20 am, and Monday evenings 6-7 pm. He welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-recorder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.

 

 

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