The Vikings will increase season-ticket prices an average of 3 percent for 2010 after freezing them last year.

Season-ticket prices in the Metrodome will range from $128 to $29 per game, according to chief marketing officer Steve LaCroix. For the past two years, the Vikings' top price for a season ticket was $123 per game and the lowest was $25. The average per-seat increase will be $2.40 with the maximum increase at $5. LaCroix pointed out that 14 percent of the team's tickets will remain the same or be decreased. All of those are in the upper deck. The Vikings have created two additional price levels for next season. Obviously, the Vikings' efforts to sell tickets will be helped in a big way if quarterback Brett Favre returns for a second season in Minnesota. Favre, who helped lead the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game this past season, will make his first public comments since after the loss at New Orleans on Thursday night when he is scheduled to be a guest on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. "While we could not realistically duplicate the flat pricing structure of last season, we wanted to make the increase as minimal as possible to acknowledge the commitment of our season-ticket owners," LaCroix said. "We wanted to continue one of the NFL's lowest priced season-ticket offerings at $29 per game, while keeping nearly 9,000 tickets priced the same or less." For comparison's sake, the Packers have increased their ticket prices by an average of $9 for 2010 and the Bears increased prices by $2 to $17 a seat. Chicago has the smallest capacity in the NFL at Soldier Field (61,500) and the Vikings (63,700) are second. One issue the Vikings face is they are the highest-taxed team in the NFL on tickets at 16.9 percent. The Vikings' single-game ticket prices have yet to be set and those won't go on sale until this summer. On their website, the Vikings note that season-ticket prices reflect a savings of up to 20 percent off single-game prices. The Vikings will continue to offer a $99 season ticket in the upper deck that is considered a "limited view" seat and the franchise again will offer a layaway plan for purchasing season tickets through the noncredit-based payment option of eLayawaySPORTS. The Vikings have sent out their season-ticket renewal packets and the first payment is due on March 12. The franchise has a streak of 126 consecutive sellouts. The dates and times for the team's entire 2010 schedule will be announced next month.