News Highlights

Vikings, University agree on training camp contract extension

Through 2011

The Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota State Mankato have agreed on a contract extension that will keep the Vikings Training Camp at the university through 2011.

2007-09-17
By Tim Krohn, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 9/15/2007]

The Minnesota Vikings’ training camp contract extension with Minnesota State University will likely keep the team here at least four more years and will guarantee the added cost of field upgrades will be paid by the team.

Prior to the team breaking camp this summer, the Vikings agreed to a three-year exten­sion of their contract, which was set to expire next year.

Rick Straka, vice president of finance and administration at MSU, said that next year the Vikings will pay a $129,000 base fee to MSU. There is an annual inflationary cost, with the 2011 base fee being $148,611.

Much of that fee is to pay for rental of the MSU Gage dormitory rooms the Vikings use during camp. The rest cov­ers MSU employee time and incidental costs to the univer­sity, Straka said.

New to the contract is a requirement the Vikings pay $22,000 a year, for a total of $110,000, to cover costs for upgrades done this year to the practice field at MSU.

Straka said the figure repre­sents the cost beyond what MSU would have spent to improve the field for its own football team. The work mostly entailed better drainage and changing the grade of the field to make it safer for MSU’s players. The Vikings asked that additional grading be done, leading to the added costs.

The Vikings can get out of the contract any year so long as they notify MSU by Nov. 30, prior to the next camp. If they opt out of the contract, they are responsible for pay­ing any remaining balance for the field-upgrade costs, Straka said.

Unlike years past, the con­tract with MSU doesn’t include food service for the Vikings. The team now nego­tiates its own contract with the food service vendor at MSU to provide meals for the team during training camp.

Straka said the university doesn’t make much money from the camp.

“But it’s good for the econ­omy of the community, and we want to do our part to help that. And there are some intangibles of having our name out there on the news during camp that is of value.”

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