New Vikings Stadium May Be Delayed

((ht: star-tribune.com))

Perhaps the Minnesota Vikings won't be moving into a new stadium so fast.

A controversy of sorts seems to be popping up in Minnesota as the Sports Facility Authority says the Vikings owners, the Wilf family may not be able to pay their share of the teams new facility.

Zygi and Mark Wilf are in the midst of legal action in the state of New Jersey where they are accused among other things, of defrauding partners on a real estate investment. Thus far, they've lost the proceedings and the potential exists for a rather large settlement they'll be paying out.

For their part, the Facility Authority has been asking for a statement indicating the Wilf's can pay their $477 million share of the teams proposed $975 million brand spanking new stadium. They claim the Wilf's and/or their representatives are not handing over the financial information.

Read the entire, well-detailed story by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune RIGHT HERE

The story indicates this may or not be a significant delay. But it raises a lot of questions:

--If the Wilf's lose and are liable in the New Jersey suit, how big a hit will it take on their personal finances.

--Would that loss affect their ability to fund their share of the stadium (Doubtful, the NFL and others would step up to help with this)

--Will it affect their ability to own the team?

There are some questions here the NFL should be asking themselves as well. The Wilf's legal issues are the second instance of a team owner getting in trouble for questionable decisions. They pride themselves on having only the best rich people own teams, but that is beginning to look like it may not be true.

Perhaps someone needs to tell the NFL they might want to work on their image. But then again, all the league has to do is point to the fact the season starts in just two weeks and fans will fall all over themselves to consume their product.

That trumps just about everything else....

KARE-11 TV in Minneapolis has more: