I've been in sports journalism so long that I can't remember the feeling of zealous fandom. I know it was there in my teens for the football Gophers, the Twins of the early '60s and the Edgerton Flying Dutchmen.

With another line of work, maybe I would have caught Vikings fever during the seasons of regular Super Bowl appearances, and the willingness to pay exorbitant prices to watch the Purple in the new stadium would be understandable.

First off, I've been a part-timer at the Star Tribune for the past several years, and generally have no obligation to produce copy for an event held on a Sunday.

A senior citizen sportswriter could not ask for more. No need on Vikings gameday to park downtown, no need to walk the crowded streets and corridors, no need to fight for quotes that almost never write the column for you.

Instead, I can sit in the den, click between the Vikings and NFL Red Zone on a nice-sized TV and see much more than I would being at the contest.

Longtime Vikings ticketholders have said this: The financial sting for the Taj Ma Zygi isn't so much the $7,500 (or more) per-seat license required to maintain good locations. It's the fact individual tickets were going from a previous $150 to $325 or $350, and with the Vikings making clear the right to increase the price of each ticket by 10 percent in all of the next three years.

Many of these people are big hitters, yes, but I've been to enough Metrodome games and team hotels to know the Vikings also have an amazing number of Everyday Joes and Joans who buy season tickets as a primary social outing.

One of those fun-seekers forwarded an e-mail with the Vikings offer for tailgating within several blocks of the Taj Ma Zygi. If interested, the "application'' for a season pass was due by last Friday.

The 10-game passes to tailgate ranged from $535.50 to $690. One vehicle.

I don't know how you can love the Vikings enough to get gouged like this, folks, but you have my admiration.

Or sympathy.

PLUS THREE FROM PATRICK

Sports events where TV is way better than being there:

Golf: Following on the course is hard work and, if there's a large gallery (think Ryder Cup), you can't see diddly.

Pro football: At home, you get replays, can flip channels and control noise. In the stadium, you might get puked on.

Indianapolis 500: At the track, you see blurs of color on a snippet of the oval. At home, you see the race.

Read Patrick Reusse's blog at startribune.com/patrick. E-mail him at preusse@startribune.com.