The Vikings have been in Minnesota for the last 50 years, and have become one of the most popular franchises in the NFL. Collectors of all things Vikings are so rampant that any rare cards that come up for sale can cause bidding wars of epic proportions. Adrian Peterson, my favorite Vikings player, is among the top valued current autographs in all of sports, and his cards are so widely collected by Vikings fans and non-Vikings fans that its gotten to a point of frustration when I find a rare card that I need. As someone who has collected cards since I was a kid, I have come to understand that in football, team affiliation can mean just as much as production, especially in the case of Dallas, Pittsburgh and New England. Oddly enough, now that the Vikings have elite players that people covet as much as any other players, Im starting to believe that any Minnesota Viking would now be considered valuable like the other teams I just mentioned.
The reason I bring all of this up was brought to light last weekend, when a HUGE blizzard came through the midwest and destroyed a part of the Metrodome’s balloon roof. Being born and raised in Minnesota, I know the dome is a piece of shit and this was just further proof. It’s a given that something like this would happen, and I FULLY support using state funded dollars to build a new stadium, even though I live in Texas now. See, if the stadium is not built, we may have a Minnesota without the Vikings for the first time in half a century come 2012. The Vikings’ agreement with the dome ends after next season, and you can bet that owner Zygi Wilf is not going to sit on his hands and watch money fly out with those howling stadium doors after a game. So, when you consider that the Vikings have become one of those teams that everyone loves or loves to hate, what happens if they do end up in LA?
Having lived in both towns, I can tell you that Minneapolis loves the Vikings much more than LA ever could. Its just a fact that sports teams not named the Lakers don’t survive well in Southern California because of the fan base’s apathy towards sports in general. The Dodgers fans are famous for coming late and leaving early because of the traffic, and its almost impossible to make a one hour commute to Anaheim to see the Angels any more. Regardless, the city’s track record with football has not been great, losing both the Raiders and the Rams in a very short timespan. Even the NFL has said they don’t want to expand the league to include Los Angeles because of this type of situation.
Up until late 2008, there was a short list of franchises that were considering the move to Los Angeles seriously. Jacksonville and Minnesota were at the top of the list, but for two different reasons. The stadium issue was Minnesota and the money issue was Jacksonville. Unlike the Vikings, however, Jacksonville’s fan base is tiny compared to the Vikings, as evidenced by the revenue the team gets from jersey and other sales. Moving a team like the Vikings would create Wilf hunting mobs in the streets of Minneapolis, where Jacksonville wouldn’t miss the Jaguars all that much most likely. Is either situation all that great? No. But the Vikings are a beloved piece of Minnesota history, and if this past weekend was any indication, this team is doomed without a new stadium.
Collectors would be hard pressed as well, as cards from LA based teams rarely sell very well unless your name is Kobe Bryant. Not that Adrian Peterson’s cards would be worthless with a Minnesota move, but I have a feeling the market on Vikings cards would become a buyers paradise thanks to all the collectors from the midwest dumping their cards.
Basically, my point centers around my own anger with and hatred for the legislature for not recognizing what a new stadium would bring to the city. For those of you who have been to Target field, you know what I am talking about. New jobs, new facilities, and most importantly, a bright future for the state’s favorite franchise.
The Los Angeles Vikings? I know it sounds trite but if they move the Vikings to Los Angeles they better change the name. Everyone SHOULD know about the Viking culture (im talking about the real Vikings not the football team) has with the state of Minnesota dating back to the 1200’s. You want a name that fits with the region. What about…the Los Angeles Hippies?
You could have said the same thing about the Minneapolis Lakers, but they obviously didn’t care about the potential misnomenclature then, either.
I’d feel really bad for the fans of Minnesota if the Vikings left… You fans of the purple people are very loyal and dedicated to a fault almost! I loved watching Randy Moss play there and was a huge fan while he was tearing it up in the Dome!!! It would be so strange to not have the Minnesota Vikings and I don’t know why everyone wants an LA team so bad? It would just be another ghetto trash team just like the Raiders and an embarrassment to the league!!! Leave the Dome Alone!!!!!!!!!!!
The “LA Hippies?” More like the “LA Yuppies, LA Socialites,” etc.
I am not a Vikings fan but the team has a solid history in Minnesota. I lived in Seattle when the Sonics were stolen and seeing a team ripped from a community that loves and supports them is a serious mistake that unfortunately is made worse by the league officials that allow it.
The NFL needs to work to keep the Vikings in Minnesota and forget about LA for now. The city has proven time and time again that they can not support an NFL team and how many times has a team been on the verge of moving to LA only to fall through in one way or another?
The L.A. market for football is a lot like when private business looks at China and thinks that it’s a vast, untapped market, just waiting for flannel PJs and electric toothbrushes.
They are both mirages. In China, they pretty much already have whatever it is that they want from some homegrown vendors. Even if you have something they want, there will be layers upon layers of local representation (and even bribery) that suck a margin practically down to nothing once you’ve finally got your channel working actual sales, if you’re lucky.
In LA, Even with what appears to be a lot of money and almost 13 million people, the truth of it is that it is very hard to find a big enough number of area natives for anyone to care about a local football team. So many people there are from somewhere else, and bring their football loyalties with them, if they have any at all. There’s no way that the NFL becomes the most popular professional sport in the US without the #2 metro area in the country supporting it. it’s just become a fact that they support it in an unconventional way that doesn’t allow for easy “build-me-a-stadium” kind of support.
With that kind of population dynamic, plus the fact that there are so many other interests that focus local attentions, it is fool’s gold to believe that somehow it’s “necessary” for the NFL to move or create a team there. The league simply can’t just accept the fact that they are already sucking out the maximum number of dollars for their sport in that area. A new team (or moving an old one) will represent a huge investment that just is not going to improve the league’s bottom line on an ongoing basis over time.
It’s been fifteen years since a team was in LA, and five new teams have been created (or re-created) in that time, and none of them located there. Nobody is driving any urgency for an LA team except the league office and whoever would be the super-rich owner looking for a feather in his cap.
They’re better off figuring out how to keep and maintain the loyalties they do have, and improving the product in those cities. Is attendance lagging for your team? Winning pretty much fixes everything; moving to LA does not.
SoCal is better off keeping the Lakers and the L.A. Riots BASEketball team.