Vikings have a love-hate relationship with the Metrodome

Kicker Ryan Longwell has mixed emotions about the Vikings becoming the sole tenant of the Metrodome next season.

[Vike Mike]

BUILD THE STADIUM!

BUILD IT......AND THEY WILL COME.

GO VIKINGS!%$!#&!!!

[40for60]

Ziggy has been the model owner, but he latched onto a state heirloom stuck in a 100 year old attic. I am a big Vikings fan, but don't blame Wilf one bit if he peddles his team to the highest bidder when the lease runs out. We have known about this situation for decades, and NO ONE touts all the great amenities of the dome, so why should this be a surprise? They under spent on the cheapest freaking tent they could find, and now don't know why it's obsolete? It will be a dark day in Minnesota if they leave, but treating the Vikings like gb treated Brett is uncalled for.

[Overnighter]

Ziggy, be a man and build your own stadium like the New England Patriots owner!

The only reason most owners do not build their own stadium is that most banks will not lend sports teams enough money to build one because most sports teams are really worthless!

[IAVikeFan]

OK, WE GET IT ALREADY... the metrodome is a dump, we need a new stadium. Enough, already...

[lIttle vike mike]

I hear they have one for the Vikes in LA.... better fan too!!!

[ezg357d]

I wouldnt think the city or the people of Minnesota would want the VIKES to leave, So why not offer the owner a deal, something like a TAX brake. this is how its works/ less or no tax for 5 years if the VIKINGS stay in Minnesota, This is what Walmart did in Ceres California & many other cities ,.Now Ziggy can pay for the stadium

[jeb]

i still don't know why we haven't gone after corporate sponsors like most other professional sports franchises? the twins did this with target and the gophers did with TCF. there are some massive companies in MN like united health, General Mills, Best Buy, 3M and USbank. why is this not part of the discussion?

[Vikingsfan01]

Minnesota can do it build the new stadium.. PLZ! if vikings move to LA! I will hate vikings or NFL! PLZ Staying in minnesota for good!

[oxboro]

outsource the team to India

[Rhino]

The "sweetheart" stadium deal that's on the table is obscene. It will never fly.

The Vikes are carrying the league's 3rd highest player salaries and receives the league's lowest revenues even when you include the revenue-sharing they receive.

Not a sustainable situation... I think they'll be the LA Vikings in 2012.

[dave d]

49'rs will lose big against the Vikings. 8-0 and the rest of the league will finially take notice of the Vikes.For now, 33-16 Vikings beat SF

[korb]

Does anyone not remember how we lost the North Stars? "Let the rich owner build his own darn stadium! If he doesn't want to, good riddance!"

Lo and behold, he called the state's bluff, and BOOM, goodbye Minnesota North Stars, hello Dallas Stars. A few years go by, and the same cheap S.O.B.s that didn't want the state to ante up for a new hockey arena were griping that Minneapolis/St. Paul was just a "colder Omaha" and that not having the NHL in MN was a travesty.

Many public dollars later, the Wild arrive, and start from ground zero. They've been in business for nearly ten years, and they are still struggling as you'd expect an expansion team would.

So I ask the people of Minnesota: do you really want to go through that all over again, only this time with the Vikings, a team that has always been the most popular and successful professional sports franchise in the state? I certainly hope not.

While I live in WI, I have been a season ticket holder for 18 years, so I try to do my part. So pony up or be prepared to repeat the gone-griping-expansion cycle that we saw in 1993-2000.

[mike b]

I've been a lifetime Vikes fan, but if this stadium deal causes them to move to CA, then so be it. The amount of money being made by the players and owners is absolutely ridiculous.

Why should the taxpayers have to build them a new stadium? Answer: We shouldn't.

What happens in 20-30 years when the "new" stadium is now obsolete and the taxpayers haven't made their money back? Time to pay up again!

Only an idiot would demand that someone making an average of $40,000/year fund a playground for people making MILLIONS/year.

[Brett Favre]

lIttle vike mike wrote:

I hear they have one for the Vikes in LA.... better fan too!!!

Mike

Go back to your corner. Packer fans aren't welcome here. Whos p i s s e d in your cherrios today. The frozen yogurt of laimblow isn't much better.

[T-Bone]

Korb, we lost the North Stars because Norm Green's wife didn't like the secretarial pool Norm was dipping into. The Wild are not successful because they are an expansion team? You've got to be kidding me. They are unsuccessful because of greed by Naegle, Risebrough and gulible fans like you who defend teams no matter what. The Vikings had the love boat scandle, Kevin Williams strip club pole whupping, the Artic Blast hot tub incident, etc. etc. etc. Wilf has brought some good players here but still the Vikes have not had any kind of playoff success. Wait until the end of the season before saying how great they are.

[korb]

T-bone, don't get me wrong, Norm Green was/is a jerk with the way that he did it, but I bet you $1 that had the folks of MN done anything to help get a deal done, he would have stayed where the money was.

Whatever the reason, the Wild are not there yet. I don't really follow the Wild, I just know that they've not yet got over the hump since their inception (just like the new Browns in Cleveland).

As to the scandals, professional athletes aren't choir boys, and I'm not deluded enough to expect them to be. That doesn't excuse their behavior, but anyone who expects them to be model citizens is simply kidding themselves.

Lastly, never anywhere in my post did I say the Vikings are "great". What I said is that they are the most successful and popular team in the state, and I think that is true, this year notwithstanding.

And to mike b, last I checked the Dome paid for itself years ago and has made lots of money for the community since it was built. Why can't a new stadium do the same thing?

Should Ziggy contribute a sizable chunk of dough to a new building? Absolutely. But if anyone thinks he's naive enough to do it with 100% his own money, you're nuts. The deal up in Anoka county would have only required state funding to improve the infrastructure around the site (e.g., roads, bridges, etc.) but even that generated no interest.

You people in MN just won't know a good thing until you've lost it.

[T-Bone]

Korb, good response, we just disagree of a couple items. Enjoy the weekend!

[The Founder]

Can anyone say "The Los Angeles Vikings"?

[bwriggy]

I fear the Vikings are LA bound in a few years... and I wouldn't blame Wilf for doing it if nothing is put in place by that time. Ughhh....

[PurpleBlood0021]

The Founder wrote:

Can anyone say "The Los Angeles Vikings"?

You're probably right - the Vikings will be relocated before the Jaguars who had 22,000 remaining seats for their home opener last Saturday...hilarious.