Vikings increase many season ticket prices

The Vikings are following suit of many successful NFL teams and making a slight increase to many of their season-ticket packages. They are holding the line or decreasing 14 percent of their seats.

Part of having a successful team is that more people want to see them play, so it didn’t come as a huge surprise that, after freezing ticket prices in 2009 despite winning the NFC North title, the Vikings announced a modest increase in season ticket prices for 2010.

The cost of seeing the Vikings live at the Metrodome will go up an average of 3 percent per ticket. The cheapest seats will be $29 (up from $25 the last two years) and the most expensive will be $128 (up from $123 the last two seasons) per game.

On a per-seat average, the increase will be $2.40, with the highest increase for any of the seats being $5. However, not all seats will go up in price. A total of 14 percent of the seats will remain the same price or decrease – all of those in upper-deck seating. The Vikings will also create two more price levels of seats in the lower level.

The Vikings will announce the price of single-game tickets at some point after the 2010 schedule is released. Single-game seats won’t go on sale until June or July.

The team has sold out 126 straight games, dating back to the preseason of 1998, when then-owner Red McCombs made it his pledge to fill every seat in the stadium. It didn’t hurt that his pledge coincided with the arrival of Randy Moss, who became the face of the franchise for the next several years.

WEDNESDAY NOTES

All of the Vikings assistant coaches got contract offers over the weekend and have until today to sign them or they will technically become coaching free agents.

Buzz at the Combine is that soon-to-be-released running back Brian Westbrook wants to keep playing, but on his own terms. He has allegedly stated that he wants to practice and play on grass rather than artificial turf. That not only takes the Vikings out of the equation, but also top teams like the Saints, Colts and Cardinals, who all play indoors on artificial turf.

The Bears may find themselves in some hot water if local reports coming out of Chicago are true. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Bears officials met with Carl Carey, the agent for Julius Peppers, over the weekend at the combine. It will be difficult for the Bears to say the meeting didn’t involve Peppers, since he is Carey’s only NFL client at the moment. Since Peppers is technically under contract with Carolina until midnight tomorrow, that, almost by definition, smacks of tampering.

The NFL has announced that it considers playing the Pro Bowl the week before the Super Bowl a success, despite a record number of players backing out of the all-star game and neither of the teams in the Super Bowl having players competing. But the game drew bigger television ratings. Had the Vikings made the Super Bowl last month, the NFC would have needed to replace almost 25 percent of its entire roster above and beyond those who backed out due to injury or lack of interest. The Pro Bowl will remain the week before the Super Bowl (Jan. 30, 2011), but it will be moved back to Hawaii. The game will be carried on FOX.

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John Holler has been writing about the Vikings for more than a decade for Viking Update. Follow Viking Update on Twitter and discuss this topic on our message boards. To become a subscriber to the Viking Update web site or magazine, click here.

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