Can you say LA Vikings with the new stadium there building Mccombs will end up there im guessing
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AP NEWS
McCombs says he's considering sale, relocation of Vikings
by Brian Bakst
Associated Press
Published May 21, 2002
Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs raised the possibility Monday of selling or moving the team because he again failed to get financing for a new stadium from the Legislature.
McCombs shares a laugh with former Viking Robert Griffith.
Jerry Holt
Star Tribune
In a statement, McCombs expressed disappointment that he saw ``no commitment to solve the football stadium problem in Minnesota.''
``Given that the Vikings must remain competitive in the NFL, I have engaged J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. to assist me in evaluating all possible options,'' the statement read. ``These options will include but not be limited to relocation or a sale.''
The Vikings are under lease to play in the Metrodome for nine more seasons. But for the last two years, the team has come to the Legislature seeking state help toward a stadium costing as much as $500 million that would be built on the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus. McCombs has offered to put up $100 million and the NFL would throw in another $51.5 million.
The Twins ballpark bill includes $500,000 toward predesign of a joint Vikings-Gophers stadium with the assumption that a financing plan will be approved by next March, when the NFL loan program expires.
Vikings officials at Winter Park declined comment, saying McCombs wanted the statement to speak for itself.
Team officials have said the franchise is losing ground to other NFL teams because the 64,121-seat Metrodome doesn't provide them enough revenue from concessions, luxury seating and parking.
When news surfaced a month ago that McCombs was working with J.P. Morgan, a New York brokerage house, he downplayed it as routine and said he had no intentions of selling the team.
Monday's announcement hit like a thud at the Capitol.
Gov. Jesse Ventura said if McCombs attempts to move the team he will fight to stop him, enlisting the help of the state attorney general. He said McCombs knew the Vikings' lease ran through 2011 when he bought the team in 1998.
``If these leases aren't worth the paper they're printed on then what good are they?'' Ventura asked in an interview on KFAN radio.
``I don't think he's in a do-or-die situation,'' Ventura said. ``He saw baseball with their contraction put a gun to our heads and he saw some results, so he's just attempting to do the same thing right now.''
Sen. Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said McCombs' statement is the kind that only infuriates the public and turns them against public aid for stadiums.
``We did what the Vikings asked us to do in view of the political climate,'' said Johnson, co-chairman of the stadium conference committee. ``Privately and publicly, they asked us to get a placeholder into the Twins bill, which we did.''
House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, a Republican running for governor, said approving two stadiums was too much to ask of the Legislature this year.
``He should hang in there,'' Pawlenty said of McCombs.
When legislation to build the Metrodome was approved in 1977, then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle wrote a letter to state officials promising to keep a team in Minnesota as long as there was a lease in place. It's the same type of promise the state is now seeking from major league baseball
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AP NEWS
McCombs says he's considering sale, relocation of Vikings
by Brian Bakst
Associated Press
Published May 21, 2002
Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs raised the possibility Monday of selling or moving the team because he again failed to get financing for a new stadium from the Legislature.
McCombs shares a laugh with former Viking Robert Griffith.
Jerry Holt
Star Tribune
In a statement, McCombs expressed disappointment that he saw ``no commitment to solve the football stadium problem in Minnesota.''
``Given that the Vikings must remain competitive in the NFL, I have engaged J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. to assist me in evaluating all possible options,'' the statement read. ``These options will include but not be limited to relocation or a sale.''
The Vikings are under lease to play in the Metrodome for nine more seasons. But for the last two years, the team has come to the Legislature seeking state help toward a stadium costing as much as $500 million that would be built on the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus. McCombs has offered to put up $100 million and the NFL would throw in another $51.5 million.
The Twins ballpark bill includes $500,000 toward predesign of a joint Vikings-Gophers stadium with the assumption that a financing plan will be approved by next March, when the NFL loan program expires.
Vikings officials at Winter Park declined comment, saying McCombs wanted the statement to speak for itself.
Team officials have said the franchise is losing ground to other NFL teams because the 64,121-seat Metrodome doesn't provide them enough revenue from concessions, luxury seating and parking.
When news surfaced a month ago that McCombs was working with J.P. Morgan, a New York brokerage house, he downplayed it as routine and said he had no intentions of selling the team.
Monday's announcement hit like a thud at the Capitol.
Gov. Jesse Ventura said if McCombs attempts to move the team he will fight to stop him, enlisting the help of the state attorney general. He said McCombs knew the Vikings' lease ran through 2011 when he bought the team in 1998.
``If these leases aren't worth the paper they're printed on then what good are they?'' Ventura asked in an interview on KFAN radio.
``I don't think he's in a do-or-die situation,'' Ventura said. ``He saw baseball with their contraction put a gun to our heads and he saw some results, so he's just attempting to do the same thing right now.''
Sen. Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said McCombs' statement is the kind that only infuriates the public and turns them against public aid for stadiums.
``We did what the Vikings asked us to do in view of the political climate,'' said Johnson, co-chairman of the stadium conference committee. ``Privately and publicly, they asked us to get a placeholder into the Twins bill, which we did.''
House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, a Republican running for governor, said approving two stadiums was too much to ask of the Legislature this year.
``He should hang in there,'' Pawlenty said of McCombs.
When legislation to build the Metrodome was approved in 1977, then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle wrote a letter to state officials promising to keep a team in Minnesota as long as there was a lease in place. It's the same type of promise the state is now seeking from major league baseball
