MN sport management prof: Wilfs would have put in more stadium cash if asked

This just in from the Department of Wait, Now You Tell Us?:

Stephen Ross, associate professor of sport management at the University of Minnesota, said that at the time the deal was reached, “the Vikings and NFL were kind of strong-arming” legislators by implying that the franchise could be sold or moved.

“From the bottom of their hearts from a business perspective, the Wilfs and NFL did not want to move the Vikings,” Ross said. “It’s just too big of a market and rivalry in history that goes along with it. They didn’t want to do it. And I think if the state really pushed back and said ‘no, no, no, we’re not going to contribute any more than $200 million,’ I think the Wilfs would have put more money in.”

That’s from a long recap of the Minnesota Vikings stadium mess in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, bearing the epically NYTimesian passive-voice headline, “Doubts, controversy persist over $975 million Vikings stadium deal.” Not all that much new there other than that some observers are now admitting that the state of Minnesota got rolled, but if you’re tuning in late, it’s a decent way to catch up on “previously on As The Subsidy Turns.”