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Before joining our Access Vikings team, Dan Wiederer covered Atlantic Coast Conference basketball for the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer and was named North Carolina's top sports columnist in 2010. His previous reporting experience includes covering the Chicago Bears. Follow him on Twitter @StribDW.


Mark Craig has covered football and the NFL the past 20 years, including the Browns from 1991-95 and the Vikings and the NFL since 2003. Since 2008, Craig has served as one of the 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors. He can be followed on Twitter at @markcraignfl.


Wilf glad to have Childress' contract complete

Posted by: under Vikings, Brad Childress, Vikings off the field, Brad Childress Updated: November 22, 2009 - 12:01 PM

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Owner Zygi Wilf said before the Vikings' game against Seattle today that he did not think about waiting until after the season to give coach Brad Childress a contract extension that will run through the 2013 season. Childress, who was in the second-to-last season of his original five-year contract, was rewarded with an extension and a raise last week.

"We have had a great relationship working together and we feel very comfortable with Brad and there was never that type of thought," Wilf said standing on the sideline as the Vikings went through warmups. Wilf said he was happy he was able to get Childress' contract completed.

"It bring the necessary continuity for our team and for our long-term goals and that's to be a consistent winner, Wilf said."

Not all the news surrounding the 8-1 Vikings was positive this past week. The Vikings were told by their landlord, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, that if the team did not extend its lease through the 2013 season that they would be charged $4 million a year in rent. The concession from the MSFC was that the Vikings could keep playoff revenues but the team was not pleased with the development.

Here are Wilf's thoughts on the topic.

Q. What are your views on the stadium developments this past week:
A. “We’re working very hard to try to get everybody engaged. We all know it’s a very, very important issue for everyone in Minnesota and for our fans throughout the country. We need to step up, get engaged and find solutions and not sit back and be afraid to tackle this issue which is so important to everybody here in Minnesota.”
Q. MSFC chair Roy Terwillger said his group needs to go back to the Vikings and talk. Would you be willing to discuss this issue? 
A. “I think on the the stadium issue, we need to get people in the state legislature and the governor and everyone involved. We’ve seen every indication that they want to move forward and at least sit down and discuss the issues and try to find a solution. To try to avoid the issue, which is so important to everybody here, like the commission did, is really punting when they should be really engaged in trying to find the way to solve this issue.”
Q. Waiting three years is not going to work?
A. “We need to deal with it now. Waiting is just a way for everyone to procrastinate, especially the commission, to procrastinate on the issue. When everybody should be really engaged. That’s why we’re going to look … we have been looking, we have been talking with people on the legislature and the governor’s office who feel that this issue is as important as we do.”
Q. When you bought the team in 2005 did you figure this would be settled by now?
A. “Well, as you know in the first year, we were engaged with the legislature, both on our stadium and the Gophers and the Twins. We were asked at that time, maybe because we were new to the field or for whatever reason, that we should sit back and wait our turn. As you know we were the ones who actually advocated getting the Gophers stadium built and the Twins stadium built. We supported them in every which way because we knew that was what was necessary for a thriving metropolis that we have here to really bring the economy back. To have people come to this state because of what those services provide. They’ve gotten their ballparks, we are very proud of that and I think everybody looking back realizes that was the right thing to do and nobody is politicizing that decision, which is done. I’m sure that the same thing will happen once we build our stadium. Everybody looking back will say, ‘Boy, it was the right thing to do.’ We just have to get over this hump right now and get everybody engaged so that we can really find a solution to getting the stadium built.”

 

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