The Vikings are about to be sold again for the second time in eight years. Back in 1998 the rumored potential buyers were Shruti Misra, Carl Pohlad, Roger Headrick, Tom Clancy, Glen Taylor, J. Bruce Llewellyn, and eventual winner Red McCombs.

Back in 1998 I recall being in Phoenix on business. One evening as I flipped through the various channels available at my resort hotel, I came across an all-time movie classic, Patton. Early in the movie, George C. Scott, as the volatile World War II commander, directs his driver to a deserted battlefield, littered with shards and stones from a millennia-old massacre of Carthaginians by Roman legions.

"Two thousand years ago, I was here," muses Patton. In the background, unobtrusively, though hauntingly rendered, is a somber, scintillating ghostly piece of music marked by soft trumpet flourishes and the steady throb of a bass drum. And the musical score put me in deep thought.

Yes, here we are again as in a time before.

Again, we must battle through another ownership bidding war, possibly just as hard on us, the troops, as it was in 1998. Which general will emerge to take the Viking legions to the ultimate victory? Unlike 1998 there are only two leaders emerging to take over the reigns of the Minnesota Vikings Football Club.

Reggie Fowler: Last time I checked, a person still couldn’t make a snowball in Hell, and that’s about the odds of this bid being accepted. Fowler may have a lot of rich friends, but it's become pretty apparent he doesn't have the net worth to qualify as a majority owner, and it doesn't sound like his buddies want the role. Oh, and his buddies are New York and New Jersey investors who could give a rats ass whether the Vikings stay here or not.

And Fowler doesn't have a Minneapolis area code yet. I haven't seen his East Coast buddies start digging on the proposed Anoka sight. What if the stiffs over at the Minnesota State Legislature tune out the stadium talk again and the lure of big money elsewhere drives Fowler's group to LA or elsewhere like McCombs threatened?

We will start to read more and more comments coming from NFL HQ's that states the next owner of the Vikings won’t go to the highest bid, but the one they feel is best for the team and community. This isn’t it.

Glen Taylor: Yes, I have saved the best for last. Does Taylor have the money? Taylor is was reported to be worth over $1.9 billion. Since 1998, Wall Street's love of printing companies, whic h is Taylor's claim to fame, has grown stronger, and Taylor's company has become even more valuable. Using the estimates of DeWese, who consults on printing company deals nationally with Compass Capital Advisors in Radnor, Pa., and a revenue figure of $900 million, Taylor Corp. could be worth $2 billion later this year, after subtracting its relatively modest corporate debt.

That would value Taylor's ownership interest at $1.78 billion, making him the richest Minnesotan. Already a saint in the Twin Cities for saving the Timberwolves franchise from moving to New Orleans, Taylor would most assuredly keep the team in Minnesota. No question about it.

There just is more information that Fowler about how Taylor runs a sports franchise. The Timberwolves are debt free, and only lose money based on how the leagues Collective Bargaining Agreement, and television contract are divided. If the situation warrants where some public funding is needed for a stadium, fellow Minnesotan Taylor is clearly better positioned to get it. Who is going to pay for the roads to and from the new stadium afterall? I also like the idea of both teams getting a better bargining rights with local vendors, radio contracts, and advertising.

And Taylor would be the perfect owner. He just signs the pay checks and hands over the operations to those nearest the game. With the Timberwolves, Taylor hired Duluth native and Boston Celtic great Kevin McHale to run the show. Rest assured that Taylor would bring in a football-minded person, very close to the game, to be the Viking GM.

But back to the all-important stadium issue. In 1998, Taylor talked with, and had the endorsement of, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. Both parties were on friendly terms. Jump ahead to 2005 and we see that Minnesota Majority leaders Steve Sviggum of the House and Dean Johnson of the Senate favor a Taylor-owned Vikings in order to get a new stadium built or the Metrodome renovated.

And you just know that Taylor’s marketing department is ready to move in and sell the Vikings to a community hungry for next season to start.

So what’s my reservation about Taylor? I'd like to know just who are Taylor's partners. Should Taylor, God forbid, meet an untimely death or sell his share of the team, a non-local could feasibly become majority owner by just purchasing the necessary amount to put him or her over the required thirty percent.

Then it would be a matter of time for a rare Vikings losing season to come along and dwindle the ticket base, giving the new owner the impetus to move the team to Los Angeles, for example.

But Taylor receives my endorsement, albeit not a ringing one. And he is certainly capable of being the General Patton we need to go toe-to-toe with the State Legislature and the Minnesota public to get a Vikings stadium resolution completed.

Meet Glen "The Tank" Taylor, new majority owner of the Minnesota Vikings.

Links and Tidbits

Patrick Reusse, of the Star Tribune has posted a story on Taylor's hope to eventually own the team.

Reusse also has another post about the current stadium hierarchy in Minnesota.

A Future Father - Son Talk at the Maas'

A young man was about to finish his first year of college. Like so many others his age he considered himself to be a very liberal Democrat and was for
distribution of all wealth. He felt deeply ashamed that his father was a rather staunch Republican which he expressed openly.

One day he was challenging his father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich & more welfare programs. In the middle of his heart felt
diatribe based upon the lectures he had heard from his far left professors at his school, his father stopped him and asked him point blank, how he was doing in school.

He answered rather haughtily that he had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That he had to study all the time, never had time to go
out and party like other people he knew. He didn't even have time for a girlfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending all his time studying. That he was taking a more difficult curriculum.

His father listened and then asked, "How is your friend John?"

The son replied, "John is barely getting by", he continued, "all he has is barely a 2.0 GPA", adding "and all he takes are easy classes and he never studies." But to explain further he continued emotionally, "John is so very popular on campus, college for him is a blast, he goes to all the parties all the time and very often doesn't even show up for classes because he is too hung over."

His father then asked his son, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to your friend who only had a
2.0?" He continued, "That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair equal distribution of GPA."

The son visibly shocked by the fathers suggestion angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and John has done
little or nothing, he played while I worked real hard!"

The father slowly smiled and said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Posted by maasx003 at February 11, 2005 10:42 AM | TrackBack