Sid Hartman: Building a winning team, with stadium, is Wilf's goal

The Wilf family, owners of the Vikings, thinks it is very necessary to have a new stadium so the Vikings can compete with the other NFL teams.

The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commissioner submitted a plan last week whereby the Metrodome would be torn down and a new $954 million stadium built on that site surrounded by a big business development.

"We're looking to get a stadium so we can provide our fans and the people of the Twin Cities of Minnesota with an exciting and vibrant game day experience before and after the game, and as part of their development of downtown east Minneapolis and to provide the last piece of what I feel is the renaissance of downtown," Zygi Wilf said.

The Wilfs would pay one-third of the stadium's cost, plus develop all of the other parcels through their real estate company.

However, even though it is obvious a new stadium is needed so the Vikings can compete from a revenue standpoint, the Wilfs have never threatened to move the team like previous owner Red McCombs did, and they don't ever plan to do so even though the lease on the Metrodome ends in 2011.

And even though Wilf says the team has lost money the past two years, there isn't any thought of selling the team for a big profit like the previous owner did. Furthermore, Wilf says profit isn't the motive; rather, the goal is to have a stadium so they can take in the money to compete on the player market.

"We are enjoying every minute of owning this team, and it is not for sale under any circumstances," Wilf said.

Then even though the team is not profitable, the Wilfs have invested more than $5 million in improving Winter Park, home of the Vikings, and they have plans now to invest $5 million or more to do some more improving of the facility so that Wilf says it will be the best in the NFL.

A lot of the Vikings are unhappy with the team's record over the past few years, and Wilf can't find fault with their attitude.

"Oh, I can certainly see that we haven't as an organization -- the Vikings haven't won the Super Bowl in over 45 years [since the franchise began in 1961]. And a lot of our fans, after following us for all these years, are anxious to have a winning franchise," Wilf said. "We're doing our best to do that. And I think we'll see that sooner rather than later.

"But it needs to be built upon the good things that we have right now. And I think that as we mature, and as the coaching and the players mature and understand the systems, we'll be a championship-caliber team for the long haul. But I can understand the frustration, we're doing our best to get everybody's confidence back up."

Maybe I am one of the few optimists. But I look for a much-improved record by the Vikings this season with a coaching staff in its second year and in a division where they can have a good chance to compete and win.

I know that the Wilfs want to win, and they won't be satisfied until the Vikings dominate the NFL like they did in the 1970s.

Twins have prospects

Former Twins manager Tom Kelly was talking about a conversation he had with Billy Springman, the Twins' minor league hitting coordinator, about why spring training went so fast this year. Here is what Kelly said he told Springman: " 'Billy, I think because we have more players now in our system, and we have more people to work with -- that makes the day go by very, very fast,' and he agreed with me. I told Terry [Ryan, Twins general manager] and Jim [Rantz, farm director] that, just from working with the kids in the minor leagues and watching the games, I see more talent now than I've probably ever seen ever with the Twins. And there's just a whole bunch of [players who] I think have got real legitimate shots to be big-league players. So, again, our system is filled with some people, they're spread out -- whether it be A ball, AA, AAA -- but there's people there that are going to play in the big leagues. No question."

Kelly is a great observer, so this report is good news for the future of the Twins.

Mattingly admires Morneau

One of the big boosters of Twins first baseman Justin Morneau is Don Mattingly, the former Yankees Gold Glove first baseman and now the club's hitting coach. "As a hitter, he's dangerous, and I'd seen this kid play in Triple-A when I was doing some work with the Yankees, so I saw him play when they came through Columbus and you could see right away he could hit," Mattingly said. "He's dangerous against lefties and righties -- serious power all over the place.

"And at first base, he seems to hold his own. Obviously, you don't get to see him play that much, see him play a few games, but he seems solid in everything he does. [He's] a lot like these Twins -- they just play solid baseball, they know where to be on all the plays, and so he's solid."

One of Morneau's teammates, outfielder Michael Cuddyer, also keeps an eye on last season's American League MVP -- for another reason.

Cuddyer has a great collection of DVDs and movies. "I wouldn't say I'm an expert on them, but I enjoy watching movies," Cuddyer said. "... What I do is, I've got upwards of 700 DVDs, so I have like a library card system where, you know, [teammates] can check them out and put them on the index card -- who took it, how long they've had it. And you know, Morneau had to buy me a DVD two years ago because his late fees got too excessive."

Cuddyer said he likes all kinds of movies. "It depends on what type of genre we're talking about. If we go to a baseball movie, I've got to include 'The Natural.' 'The Natural' is probably my favorite."

Jottings

To those who are critical of how the Vikings are going about building the team for the 2007 season, here is their plan outlined by Rick Spielman, vice president of player personnel: "I think we're following our plan that we set in place. We set certain criteria of how we want to build this team going forward; the players that we went out and signed meet that criteria. We want to get ... guys coming out of their first year out of their rookie deal, and guys that we believe are up-and-comers when they get an opportunity. So I think we've accomplished everything that we set forth as an organization to get what we needed to get. And we'll still continue this process as it goes on, even before the draft, and it will continue even after the draft."

Rob Brzezinski, Vikings vice president of football operations, admits that the Vikings might be some $25 million under the salary cap, but he explains that number can be deceptive. "It's different accounting, because signing bonuses are pro-rated over the term of the contract. So only a portion of that is counting against the cap," Brzezinski said. "Where you may be paying, take $5 million on a five-year deal -- it only counts a million a year against the cap, where the $5 million, it counts as cash. So there could be a big difference between those two numbers."

Vikings coach Brad Childress described the situation when the Vikings had more than 20 draft candidates at Winter Park recently. "It went great -- I felt like I talked nonstop from 7:30 in the morning until 3:20 in the afternoon," Childress said. "But it's just good to get some face time with those guys because it's so fast at the combine. ... Plus what you get to do is, you get to physical those guys. If you've got another question, you check them with your docs. They get in front of all the position coaches, you really get a chance to feel them around your building a little bit and have them see your operation."

Timberwolves officials said they will stage their annual high school tournament at the Target Center next Jan 5. Among those invited are Hopkins, Minnetonka, Benilde-St. Margaret's, Princeton and Cass Lake from Minnesota, plus White Station (Memphis, Tenn.), Campbell Hall (Los Angeles) and Madison Memorial (Wis.).

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast twice a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com