September 04, 2004
Block that headline!
Sometimes mainstream media reports have all the information you need to understand a situation, but they just fail to connect the dots. Let's try playing this game with today's St. Paul Pioneer Press article, "McCombs says no one wants to buy Vikings." Excerpts from that story:
Despite rumors of an imminent sale, Vikings owner Red McCombs said Friday there are no serious suitors for his football team.
"We're playing football. If someone can show me a reasonable chance to build a stadium, then I would take that into serious consideration about selling this team," the Texas car dealer and communications industry investor said.
McCombs is said to want $600 million for the team, a number [Timberwolves owner Glen] Taylor contends is much too high without a new stadium to boost revenues.
"I don't set the price," McCombs said matter-of-factly. "The market sets the price. There's no question that NFL franchises have become more valuable, and they'll continue to increase in value. It's a good business model."
Okay, so the upshot is that someone does want to buy the Vikings, but McCombs needs a new stadium - which would cost the public something on the order of $350 million - so that he can get more money when he sells the team. Me, I'd think a headline would be in order of, oh, something like "McCombs says stadium needed to boost sale price." Or "McCombs to taxpayers: Line my pockets." But I guess that's the sort of reporting that these days can get you challenged to pistols at ten paces.
