Favre Remains Sidelined as Vikings Ponder New Stadium

By Jon E. Dougherty at 30 Dec 2010

(Newsroom America) -- It's been one of those years for the Minnesota Vikings and not in a good way: they've lost a former star quarterback, a head coach, any shot at the post-season and, perhaps worst of all, maybe even their stadium.

Future Hall of Famer Brett Favre remains a question mark for the team's final game of the season this Sunday against the Detroit Lions, having failed another concussion test on Thursday. He was just fined $50,000 by the NFL for sending suggestive, lewd texts and pictures to former New York Jets gameday hostess Jen Sterger. Barring a miracle or even a favorable twist of luck, Favre has played his last down in a league he helped define and dominate for two decades.

Favre's fall seems at once tied to the overall fate of the Vikings, who began the year as Super Bowl favorites but who will end it with a sub-par record and no stadium after the collapse of the Metrodome's roof earlier this month during a record snowfall.

But it's the NFL, after all, and players - as well as head coaches - can be replaced much easier than an entire stadium. Just ask the New Orleans Saints, who struggled during the 2005 season after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the roof of the Superdome and put the team on the road for all of their 16 games.

So it was no surprise that new digs for the Vikings was top of the list of things to discuss when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell met with Minnesota Gov.-elect Mark Dayton last week.

"I think there’s a recognition that we need to find a long-term solution for the Vikings here and get a new stadium built," Goodell told a news conference Dec. 20. "We are all going to be working hard to develop these solutions and keep the Vikings here in Minnesota."

Vikings officials have said they aren't going to renew their lease on the Metrodome, which opened in 1982, when it expires in 2011. So the team is not only looking for a new place to play, it could also be looking for a new home altogether.

The team has said it wants a new building, noting that the Metrodome doesn't make enough money. Lester Bagley, a Vikings spokesman on stadium issues, said in a statement to Bloomberg News that the discussion for a new stadium shouldn't be undertaken in light of the roof collapse, however.

Local Minnesota media have reported that the Metrodome is likely to be closed until next September, the first month of the 2011 regular season. Barring that, Los Angeles - the nation's second-largest TV market - has competing bids open to build a new NFL stadium, but league officials have said that so far there are no plans to move a team there. The last NFL team in LA was the Los Angeles Raiders (the Los Angeles Rams moved to Annaheim in 1980 and played there for 15 seasons before moving to St. Louis).

Moves are afoot to keep the Vikings in Minnesota, however. On the statewide level, Republican state Sen. Julie Rosen says she plans to introduce legislation next month to finance a new stadium using other than taxpayer funds at a time when the state is cutting its budget to address a $6.2 billion shortfall.

Contact Jon E. Dougherty