If you want to see the Vikings play in person Sunday, and you don't have any secret friends in high places or a fresh pact with the devil, it will cost you a minimum of around $300 and an average of about $800 to get in the door of the Superdome.

Let's say you pack 4 people into a car, you leave the Twin Cities Saturday afternoon, drive 1,300 miles straight through the night and get to New Orleans on Sunday around noon. You watch the game and head straight back, arriving in Minneapolis sometime in the early evening Monday. The second leg of the drive will either feel like 7 or 70 hours depending on how the game goes. This is about as cheap as it's going to get, and gas will be about $65 per person. You are avoiding lodging costs by taking turns sleeping in the car, but this also means you will be fried when you get home. Still, no cost. Food is a personal choice. You can buy two of whatever is rotating on a gas station hot dog cooker for $1, you can "splurge" on fast food or you can blow $100 on a feast once you get to New Orleans. Still, let's say that with all combined ticket and travel costs (including gameday parking), you will have to spend at least $400 to see the purple this weekend in person.

Realistically, if you fly nonstop you're looking at $300 minimum, which actually is a nice price for short notice. But then you're also looking at two nights in a hotel. If you want a better ticket, you're looking at a minimum of $500 or so. The realistic price for a comfortable trip to see the game Sunday is $1,000-$1,200. You could easily drop 2 grand or more depending on your tastes.

So we ask:

If you had a completely free Saturday-Monday, how strongly would you consider making the trip?

And which route would you take: the bare bones route, the moderate route, or the all-out route?

And does your attitude and answer change if the purple are able to claim a victory Sunday, thus giving you the chance to attend you-know-what (for an even higher price)?

And is there a point in your life when the answer would have been different?