Brought to you by Mr. Cheer or Die and the Vikes Geek, welcome to the
Views and Personal Photos on the Vikes from the Inaugural Hall of Fame fan.
Brought to you by Mr. Cheer or Die and the Vikes Geek, welcome to the
$825,000 or $750,000? One of those figures is former Vikings offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan's 2005 salary with the Miami Dolphins. The other is Vikings head coach Mike Tice's 2004 salary.
As of yesterday, Linehan is officially making more than his former boss. By $75,000. Ouch! Just how valuable did the Dolphins think Linehan was? Consider that the average NFL salary for an NFL offensive coordinator in 2004 was $466,000. Not too shabby Scotty!
Linehan also wanted to take current Vikings offensive line coach Steve Loney with him. Tice slammed the door shut on that deal and is keeping Loney here...for now. Why?
If you'll recall from earlier this season, Tice's contract is set to expire after this season as only the option year was picked up by owner Red McCombs. Do you think Tice and the Vikings can get anyone of value (Norm Chow!!!!) by selling them on a one-year contract with no assurance of employment after 2005?
Therefore, it seems to be even money that Loney will be promoted to offensive coordinator. That's got to have Daunte Culpepper and Randy Moss excited.
But back to Linehan's new three-year contract worth $2.55 million. What speaks volumes here? That McCombs is a skin-flint who throws nickels around like manhole covers? While that is true, McCombs is trying to run a business and prep for a sale of the team. He's doing what any other former owner has done. Lower overhead and make the sale palpable while increasing net profit.
So who's to blame for this one? Without a doubt, the Minnesota State Legislature. Without a new stadium to produce the revenue necessary to compete, the Vikings are totally handcuffed.
In 1999 the Vikings fell $11 million below the league average in total revenues. But team operating costs remained above that. Without a new stadium that can provide the same (and additional) revenue sources other teams such as the Dolphins enjoy, that gap has gotten wider every year.
In 2004, the Minnesota franchise ranked 31 out of 32 teams (just ahead of San Diego) in local revenue. The team fell $27 million behind average league revenues and simply can't compete at the dome under current conditions. Soon, the Vikings will no be able to generate the revenues needed to operate the team.
Take a gander at these NFL Rankings for the Vikings (Source: NFL CFO's office):
Net Gate Receipts: 25th
Concessions: 26th
Suites: 27th
Parking: 31st (duh!)
Club Seats/Stadium Club: 31st
Advertising: 31st
Total Revenue: 30th
So Purple Brothers & Sisters, I'm afraid until the State Legislature gets off their collective fat keisters and stops debating inane subjects such as Cosmetology and barbering regs merger under one examiners board, Methamphetamine manufacturing, and Mourning dove hunting season for example, and begins a stadium debate in earnest, there will be more departures from Winter Park for greener pastures.
There will be no significant free agent signings in 2005 and beyond. There will be no moving up to a Top 10 draft pick on Draft Day. Because there is no money to throw around.
There will be, instead, free agent signings that will be voiced as "significant" when in fact, the free agent is an oft-injured retread that the team wants to take a chance on because the guy signed a low-ball contract.
There will be, instead, the Vikes looking to trade out of their first round selection every year because they simply cannot afford to sign a first round rookie stud.
There will be, instead, unhappy coaches at Winter Park that are so below the league average on terms of salary that they need to pick up a second job.
Oh, and one more to watch. Vice President of Football Operations for the Vikings is Rob Brzezinski. In 2004 the Vikings were more than $19 million below the $80.6 million cap largely due to Brzezinski. The Vikings are projected to have at least $25 million in cap room this coming season. Brzezinski accomplished this by signing players to contracts that evenly distributed the cap hit over the life of the deal. Consider the seven-year, $30.83 million contract center Matt Birk signed prior to the 2001 season. Brzezinski has put the Vikings in position with the current salary cap restraints to have a great run for the foreseeable future.
Oh, and Brzezinski has a contract that expires after the 2005 season. Bye-bye Rob. It's been fun.
Links and Tidbits
If you haven't yet seen this parody of Brett Favre, DO IT!
Interesting Moss Trade Rumor Out of D.C.
Interesting Moss Trade Rumor Out of Oakland
Interesting Moss Trade Rumor Out of Arizona
Funny link on Favre. The trade with AZ would never happen. Green has 2 good WR in Bolden and Fitzgerald, he has no reason to trade for Moss. The Washington one is intriguing. However Arrington is known for freelancing on defense and that may end up being as problematic as EJ not knowing what he is doing.
Posted by: Cheesehead Craig at January 20, 2005 09:59 AMSo much for "Oh, and Brzezinski has a contract that expires after the 2005 season. Bye-bye Rob. It's been fun.".....see if you can make another ass of yourself 3 years from now.
Posted by: JB at January 2, 2006 11:40 PM