Wilf won't say whether he really would have moved team

The Vikings owner said the team would play at least one season at TCF Bank Stadium, and was noncommittal about whether the new stadium will have a retractable roof.

By Dennis McGrath

May 11, 2012 at 7:55PM
Vikings owners Zygi Wilf, right, and brother Mark Wilf.
Zygi Wilf and his brother Mark Wilf were all smiles as they talked about the business behind the Viking Stadium bill at Winter Park in Eden Prairie, MN, Friday, May 11, 2012. (ELIZABETH FLORES/STAR TRIBUNE) ELIZABETH FLORES � eflores@startribune.com (Star Tribune file/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

On the day after securing a new stadium, Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said Friday it was "Monday morning quarterbacking" to say whether he would have sold or moved the team had the project not been approved.

"I don't like Monday morning quarterbacking. Since the question is moot, I have no thoughts about it," said Wilf, sitting in his office at the team's practice facility in Eden Prairie.

Wilf and his brother, Mark Wilf, the team's president, declined to say Friday how much new revenue the stadium would bring the team, or how much of the Viking's $477 million stadium contribution would come from their own money.

"I can't say for sure," Zygi Wilf said of the stadium's new revenue projections. "I don't really get into those numbers."

The Wilfs spoke to reporters a day after the Legislature approved a large public subsidy package for the nearly $1 billion stadium, with $348 million coming from the state, and $150 million coming from Minneapolis.

Mark Wilf insisted that the team had decided only in the past few days to increase its stadium share by $50 million in order to finalize the agreement. He said that "$427 (million) was the number, but things changed, circumstances changed as we got to he end."

Mark Wilf also said the team would play "one season for sure" at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium, and that the team could make a bid next year to have the 2017 Super Bowl at the new stadium.

"We see no reason why we wouldn't be ripe," he said.

While Zygi Wilf talked Friday of the possibility that the new stadium could have a retractable roof, he did not commit to one. "I don't know" if there will be one, he said.

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Dennis McGrath

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