20 Years of Excellent Ownership with the Wilf Family
Twin Cities sports fans have always had a love/hate relationship with their teams. They can be very successful, racking up wins and pushing towards championships, or they can break your heart severely.
The team, with its coaches and players, isn’t the only deciding factor in a team’s success. It all starts at the very top with the ownership, and if you don’t have the right type of owners, you could see your team wallow at the bottom of the team rankings and be perpetually at the top of the draft order. Minnesota sports fans have been pretty lucky in that arena through the decades, although lately a few franchises have felt the sting of fans wanting a change in the highest part of the regime.
20 Years of Excellent Ownership with the Wilf Family
For those who don’t remember, the Lakers were originally from Minnesota before they were sold and moved to Los Angeles. The Twins were originally the Senators, brought in from Washington, D.C., in 1961. Interestingly enough, that was the same year the Vikings started their franchise from the ground up. While these teams have changed venues, states, and ownership over the years, they have been pretty steady and successful during the regular season, even if championships have been reserved for the Twins with two in 1987 and 1991.
Ownership has to be the first part in guiding a team to success, or else you face dwindling attendance and a lack of revenue. The Timberwolves are a great example of a team that was on the verge of getting moved out of state until Glen Taylor jumped in and saved them while the opposite of that is the North Stars, and well, …. let’s put it this way, “NORM GREEN SUCKS!”
The Wolves have had great success these last few years thanks to star Anthony Edwards and his supporting cast. But just as they were getting good, Taylor felt it was time to sell the team to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore.
People have been mostly happy with Taylor and him trying to find the right general manager and coach to have a winning team, and fans hope that the new owners don’t try to move the team and keep things going in a positive direction. Twins fans, on the other hand, have had it with the Pohlad family and what feels like a cheaply run organization that doesn’t pay its good players and barely spends any money to bring in free agents.
Screams to sell the team by the fanbase have become deafening, and the Pohlads have been actively trying to find a buyer who gets a decent team with one of the best stadiums in the league. Vikings fans have had the good mixed with the bad over 65 years, with moments of frustration and even threats of moving the team if a new stadium wasn’t built. Twenty years ago, fans were worried that the team might finally leave for more purple pastures.
The team was one of the most well-known and successful teams in the league after their Super Bowl runs in the 60s and 70s, but ownership was at the base of some terrible decisions. First, they decided to move into the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis after being an outdoor team that other teams hated to play in the cold and snow.
That took away a weather advantage and the vast parking lots of premier tailgating. They also had some trouble selling out, so the games would be blacked out locally. They resolved this by allowing Pillsbury to buy out the remaining seats to ensure the team would be seen in the Twin Cities. After a while, the company stopped doing that, and games couldn’t be seen unless you went to the Dome.
Regarding ownership, things were the worst in the 90s when the ownership group consisted of 10 different people or board members. Commonly referred to as “The Gang of Ten,” it was both a truth and a bit of a backhanded nickname from media members. They didn’t always see things the same, and the division in the boardroom sometimes spilled onto the team. Winter Park, the former training facility, was somewhere the players hated to be due to its poor upkeep and design, and the aging Metrodome has started to become a topic of discussion for replacement.
The Vikings were finally sold to Red McCombs in 1998, and it seemed the team took a huge turn as Randy Moss hit the scene that same year, and selling out has never been an issue since.
It seemed with Red McCombs taking over, things were not only positive in the field but also in the ownership, as shouts of “Purple Pride!” echoed through the state. Red was the person who started that cheer. Unfortunately, one thing that Red also shouted was that he needed a new stadium or he was going to move the team. A new reason to dislike ownership had reared its ugly head again.
Red was also known to be a bit on the cheap side and not wanting to upgrade much around the team. He bought the team for $250 million and, in seven years, sold it for $600 million without any updated facilities or a new stadium. There were even rumors that he traded Randy Moss away as a slight to the state and that the new owners were none too happy about it. The family that bought the team was from New York, and their name is Wilf.
Twenty years ago, today, fans had to sit and worry and wonder if the team would stay put or be on the move with another out-of-state owner sitting in the chair. Had the previous owners all put the team in a position to leave because they couldn’t work with the state leaders to find a stadium solution? Why would a family from New York want to keep them in Minnesota, where they have no roots? How can we trust a guy named Zygi? They were self-proclaimed Giants fans!
Fans were once again suspicious of how the team would survive. Zygi and his brother Mark said all the right things when they transitioned the ownership, trying to assuage the entire state that the team would remain here. They would spend money to improve the team and even build on properties within the community. Many felt they were saying that to placate the fans, and some thought they would just make land grabs once the team was gone and the stadium torn down.
We all knew the stadium was still hanging over everything with the lease running out in 2011, and one false move by the Wilfs or state leaders could have the team loading up the long boats for different shores. A wonderful thing happened instead: they kept their word.
“I always said I was committed to football in Minnesota”, was what Zygi said. One of the first things he did was fix up the old Viking ship in front of Winter Park, which looked like a local high school shop class had put together. He also upgraded the air conditioning in the buildings. The community, the players, and the staff took notice.
Zygi and his family would always say that they wanted the Vikings to be a “first-class organization” from top to bottom, and doing those small things showed it. “The things we did were only natural by an owner that cares the team gets the best they can,” he went on to say. While small, they were a start to ingratiate themselves into the community. The product on the field also showed promise as the Wilfs tried to hire the best people for the job.
Every year, it seemed they were trying their best with some potholes along the way. If coaches didn’t perform, they weren’t in a general manager’s ear to make a change, and were never out in the public making it all about them. The team always came first, and they ensured they were owners who existed in the background, watching the staff live up to their expectations without a media circus surrounding them. In 2009, they even went so far as to fly some of their top players in their private jet to coerce Brett Favre into unretiring for a run at the Super Bowl that almost worked out.
But still, the stadium issue loomed over everything. How many years would this honeymoon last?
Through many local debates and articles, people were kept abreast of the ongoing stadium fight. Not to bore you with every detail on that battlefront, the Wilf family got the deal done by working with the city and state government to finance a new stadium on the same site as where the Metrodome stood.
While some complained about taxpayers footing some of the bill, the Wilfs put in a significant amount of money and even upped their share when some unforeseen building costs arose. While going through this process, they still tried to put a competitive team on the field and stay involved with the community. They didn’t get cheap, and they didn’t demand more. While the Vikings played at the home of the Minnesota Gophers for two years, TCF Bank Stadium, the Vikings organization even paid for upgrades there as well.
They added heating under the artificial turf, winterized the stadium, and added temporary seating to increase capacity — things they didn’t necessarily have to do or pay for. When the new Vikings stadium plans were revealed, most fans were ecstatic over the design and improvements over the Metrodome.
They could see that the Wilf family didn’t just put down the cheapest building that could be designed and tell them to pay their money and like it. It looked like first class, and US Bank has been listed as one of the best venues in the league, even after other newer stadiums have been built. The Nordic heritage in the state has always held a skeptical nature, and it took seven years and a new stadium to resolidify the team’s roots in The North Star State and a fanbase that trusts they are here for the long haul.
It has been 20 years since the Wilf family bought the team and made it a first-class organization as promised. From top to bottom, with a new stadium and training facility sponsored by TCO in Eagan, a great destination for fans and their family with a team museum.
Over those 20 years, there have been many changes with the team. When the team faltered, Zygi and Mark have been open about wanting the team to improve and encouraging change without blustering about it with the media. Rarely do you see them hanging around the sidelines, and it’s never with their arms crossed, waiting to demoralize the coaches as they exit the field.
When there are big celebrations in the locker room, you may catch a quick glimpse of them in the wings, never taking credit for the team’s on-field success or giving a speech other than when they may feel that the coach needs individual praise. The Wilf family has been what they wanted this team to be, and that is class.
Occasionally, you may see a cranky fan blame them for the team having a bad game or year before the smarter masses rain down on them to remind them that they are the best owners we have ever had. Sure, there were most likely some very nice people and families that owned the team in the past, and McCombs was a breath of fresh air with his positive attitude and rah-rah spirit. However, he sometimes failed the team with poor decisions and bickering inside the organization and outside the community. They weren’t monsters or overbearing egomaniacs like some owners are, where you know more about them than the team.
When other teams keep having losing seasons or their “Super Bowl” is simply having a record over .500, getting to the playoffs, or picking the best top 10 draft pick for the umpteenth year in a row, the Vikings have been successful.
Yes, the ultimate trophy still eludes their grasp, but for most years, hope has existed to get to the top of the NFL mountain. A large amount of that hope is due to the Wilfs not shorting the organization and trying to find the best people to run it. They made the improvements in a short amount of time, while others let things fall apart and point fingers. They worked with communities to build a new stadium and invested more of their own money in community development around the stadium and the stadium itself without asking for more.
After they got that new stadium, they didn’t stop paying for the players they had and were willing to spend on free agents that could improve the team. The Wilf family doesn’t need to be shown on TV every game because you can see their family playing on the field and in the stands in the spirit of what they brought to Minnesota.
These 20 years have been some of the best ownership fans could have, even if some don’t see it unless they are the owners when a Lombardi Trophy is displayed in the trophy case. The stability they’ve brought to the entire Vikings organization without trying to be the focal point of improvement while bringing class has been impressive. Fans should say “Thank You” to the Wilfs for what they did 20 years ago to the day.
Editor’s note: Information from The New York Times was used for this article.
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