MPR’s Annie Baxter reports on the public image damage done to Minnesota Vikings football team after allegations that some Vikings players engaged in lewd behavior aboard charter boats on Lake Minnetonka.
Baxter has a look at what the team's track record on and off the field is doing to its public image.
Awarded:
2005 NBNA Eric Sevareid Award, Sports - Large Market Radio category
2005 Minnesota AP Award, Sports - Radio Division, Class Three category
ANNIE BAXTER: It's difficult to assess the extent to which support for the Vikings has dwindled since news broke about some players alleged engagement in sex parties. Tickets to the games are sold out for the rest of the season, so you won't see sales go down. But scalpers outside the metrodome provide some measure of whether fans are sticking with the team. Ernie Brown was selling tickets before Sunday's game, and he said sales were going great. But he said it wasn't Vikings fans who were snatching up the tickets.
ERNIE BROWN: There's quite a demand. A lot of Green Bay packer fans today.
ANNIE BAXTER: Another scalper, who wouldn't talk on tape, shook his head woefully when asked if his tickets were selling. Trust me, it's bad, he said. Against that backdrop, the announcement echoing outside the stadium, which is meant to amp up the fans, sounded oddly plaintive.
SPEAKER 1: Viking fans, we need you. It's up to you to continue to be the loudest fans in the NFL. Give us the home field advantage we've grown accustomed to.
ANNIE BAXTER: But the fans did pack the stadium at Sunday's game. Many were decked out in purple Vikings jerseys, and some even sported Vikings helmets. Vikings fan Doug Perkal says the talk of the team's sex scandals would never prevent him from attending a game. But he says he's disgusted by the alleged behavior, and says any guilty parties should be punished.
DOUG PERKAL: They had to be held accountable for what they do. Should they be fined? Maybe 30 grand? Yeah.
SPEAKER 2: Or in my day.
ANNIE BAXTER: Some people watching the Vikings game at O'Gara's Bar in Saint Paul, took a harsher view of the team's recent public relations problems.
AMY HUTH: I'm actually rooting against them.
ANNIE BAXTER: Amy Huth was cheering for the Packers as she watched the game. She said reports of the Vikings players misconduct are snuffing out her loyalty to the team.
AMY HUTH: I think it's ridiculous that they're representing the state of Minnesota and that that kind of thing is carrying on off the field. It's ridiculous.
MARK GANIS: The recurring nature of the problems and the escalating offensiveness of them has reached a tipping point that could cause serious problems for the Vikings fan base.
ANNIE BAXTER: That's Mark Ganis, president of Sportscorp, a sports business consulting firm in Chicago. He says the Vikings have had lots of problems in recent years. Those include allegations against some players of sexual assault committed at a charity event running back Ontario Smith's substance abuse problems, and defensive tackle Kevin Williams alleged abuse of his wife. Ganis says all those problems have dug the Vikings a deep PR hole, and he says the team could get swallowed by that hole. He says it happened to the Phoenix suns in the late 80s. The team was getting a lot of negative publicity around drug use and bad behavior.
MARK GANIS: The result was that fans stayed away from the team in droves. Ownership had to sell the team at what was then $44 million. Obviously not a very high purchase price, and it took about five or six years of cleaning house and tremendous community outreach by the new ownership to bring the fans back, and to get public support for a new arena for them.
ANNIE BAXTER: Ganis says the Vikings could face a similar demise if owner Zygi Wilf doesn't rein the players in. He says until that happens, the Vikings chances of getting a new stadium in Anoka County will likely not win much public support. Wilf has been trying to get legislators to support a $790 million stadium deal. $280 million would come from Wilf himself, and the rest would come from sales tax and state money. Mark Ganis says, in order to get that deal through, the Vikings might also try another strategy, winning more games.
MARK GANIS: Winning is really the great deodorant as it relates to sports. If you win, there are many aspects of questionable behavior that simply are considered youthful indiscretions. But when you're losing and you're behaving badly, it's a terrible combination.
ANNIE BAXTER: But since the team did win, it might be able to hold on to more support. I'm Annie Baxter, Minnesota Public Radio News.
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