MANKATO — Speculating on whether Vikings training camp will return to Mankato is as common as predicting whether the team will make the playoffs next year.
Rumors about the camp's future are circulating again following the recent announcement the Greater Mankato Training Camp Limited Liability Corp. is dissolving. Mankato business leaders started the group two years ago to take over operation of the camp for the team.
Vikings officials told the Minneapolis Star Tribune this week they will hold camp in Mankato this summer but are unsure of its future beyond then.
Steve LaCroix, vice president of sales and marketing, told the newspaper it is too late to consider a change for 2006 but added, "We haven't had a chance to look any further ahead than that.
"Right now we're working with (Minnesota State) university to get things finalized for this summer," LaCroix said. "I didn't think we'd be back into running camp on a day-today basis, but we're quickly getting things rallied and addressed for this summer."
The LLC was formed after then- Vikings owner Red McCombs sought proposals from other communities to host the camp, which has been in Mankato for 40 years. McCombs wanted the camp to at least break even, if not make money for the team.
The local training camp group solicited money from area businesses, sold sponsorship rights and developed a training camp with many more amenities and events for fans.
Mankato City Manager Pat Hentges said the group had a difficult job. "We've pretty well tapped out the local sources."
One of the big problems in getting sponsorship funding was that the LLC was forbidden by its contract with the team from soliciting any of the Vikings' existing sponsors.
Also, one of major local sponsors for training camp has been Mankato-based Midwest Wireless, but the company is being sold to Alltel.
Hentges said that when the group was set up, the hope and plan was that the LLC, Minnesota State University and the Vikings would all have a role in raising funds and absorbing any loses. But MSU found it could not legally donate use of facilities because it's a state entity, and the Vikings chose not to participate.
"For the camp to be successful in the long term, there needed to be a three-way partnership sharing in the risks and rewards."
As for the future of training camp in Mankato, Hentges said the decision is in the Vikings' hands, although he doubts the team would find better summer practice facilities anywhere else.
"Between the university and the community, they have made this a premier training camp site around the country," Hentges said. "If the Vikings want to move, I don't think they'll find anything close to this. But if they want to open it up for bids again, that's their decision."
He said the future of summer camp in Mankato is likely numbered, no matter what, as the team seeks to build a new stadium.
"With their new ownership and the interest in having a stadium and major entertainment center up in Blaine, they would almost certainly move camp up there."
The Vikings this week hired one of the premier public relations companies in the country to promote and lobby for a new stadium complex. Even if the team got state approval and assistance this legislative session, it would likely be four or five years before a new stadium complex was open.
In spite of uncertainty by Vikings officials, new owner Zygi Wilf last summer gave the camp glowing reviews and voiced confidence it would remain the Vikings summer home.
"When it comes to training camp, there has never been any intent in moving if from where it's been the last 40 years. I don't foresee that changing," Wilf said while attending camp last July.
Hentges said that while the LLC wasn't able to financially carry the entire cost of camp, what the group did accomplish was significant.
"The LLC was very successful in gathering outside money and making camp more successful and more feasible for the Vikings to be here."
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