Ownership of the Minnesota Vikings

Last updated

The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. [1] The Vikings have been owned by Zygi Wilf and members of the Wilf family since 2005. He purchased the team from Red McCombs, who had owned it since 1998. Between 1960 and 1998, the Vikings were owned by various syndicates. From 1984 to 1991, control of the team was fought over by two ownership groups - one led by Carl Pohlad and Irwin L. Jacobs and the other by general manager Mike Lynn.

Contents

Boyer, Winter, and Skoglund

In 1959, Bill Boyer, Max Winter, and H. P. Skoglund were awarded the Minneapolis-St. Paul franchise in the new American Football League. [2] In an effort to fight back against the new league, Chicago Bears owner George Halas proposed adding Dallas and Houston to the NFL. [3] However, the ownership group for the proposed Houston franchise backed out after they were unable to find a suitable stadium, which led Boyer's group to withdraw from the AFL and apply for an NFL franchise. [4] On January 28, 1960, Minneapolis was awarded an expansion franchise that would begin playing in 1961. [5]

The Vikings first ownership group, Minnesota Pro Football, Inc. (later renamed Minnesota Vikings Football Club, Inc.), had three major shareholders (Bill Boyer, Max Winter, H. P. Skoglund) and two minor shareholders (Northwest Publications Inc. and Ole Haugsrud). In 1970, Boyer transferred his stock to a trust. When he died in 1973 his son-in-law, John Steele, succeeded him as an officer and director of the Vikings. [6]

In 1977 the NFL instituted a rule which barred publicly held corporations from having substantial ownership of a franchise. This forced Northwest Publications to sell its stock, which was purchased by Winter and Skoglund. This gave Winter and Skoglund 350 voting shares each, while the Boyer estate held 200 shares and Haugsrud's trustees held the remaining 100. [6]

In 1978, ownership was transferred to another corporation, Vikings II, Inc., for tax purposes. The shares held by Haugsrud's trustees were bought out and voting stock in the new corporation was equally divided between Winter, the Skoglund estate, and the Boyer trustees. Max Winter, John Steele Jr., John Skoglund, Sheldon Kaplan, and Mike Lynn were elected directors of Vikings II. Winter was elected president, Steele was vice president, Skoglund was treasurer, and Kaplan was the secretary. [6]

In 1984, Winter reached an agreement to sell his shares to PJ Acquisition Corp., a company formed by Carl Pohlad and Irwin L. Jacobs. The sale was challenged by the Skoglund and Boyer heirs, however, in 1986 Judge O. Harold Odland ruled that two right-of-first-refusal agreements were invalid because they were not properly ratified by trustees of the Boyer estate. [7] On July 17, 1986, the National Football League owners approved the sale of Winter's stock to Pohlad and Jacobs. [8] On September 7, 1986, Pohlad and Jacobs purchased 87 shares of nonvoting stock from David Weiner, which gave the pair a majority interest in the Vikings, but not control of the team. [9] On May 27, 1987, the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to rehear the case. [6]

On May 29, 1987, Lynn and Minnesota businessmen Wheelock Whitney Jr. and Jaye F. Dyer purchased the majority of voting stock owned by the Boyer estate. [10] On July 29, 1987, the team's board of directors was expanded from five to nine members. Jacobs, Pohlad, Whitney, Dyer were added to the board and Winter, Lynn, Kaplan, Skoglund, and Steele were reelected. [11] On September 4, 1987, the board of directors voted 6 to 3 to remove Winter as team president and replace him with Whitney. [12]

Sale by Pohlad and Jacobs

In 1989, Lynn and his partners bought out most of the stock owned by the Boyer and Skoglund estates, however Lynn and his group did not ask the NFL ownership to approve its purchase due to ongoing litigation from Pohlad and Jacobs. On July 26, 1991, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and the league finance committee informed Lynn that the league would not approve his group's ownership of the Vikings unless it had one general partner who owned 60% of the group's stock or 30% of all of the club's stock. [13] On December 16, 1991, Lynn, Whitney and Dyer's group purchased Pohlad and Jacobs' shares for $50 million. [14] Two months later, Lynn's stake in the team was purchased by the club's other partners. [15] The new ownership group consisted of

Failed sale to Tom Clancy and purchase by McCombs

On October 28, 1997, vice chairman and part owner Philip Maas announced that the team was up for sale. [18] The bidders for the team were reported to be team president Roger Headrick, former owner Carl Pohlad, San Antonio businessman Red McCombs, and Philadelphia Flyers chairman Ed Snider. [19] On February 3, 1998, co-owner James Jundt announced that author Tom Clancy would purchase the team for $200 million. [20] On May 20, 1998, Clancy withdrew his offer to buy the team to better position himself in his divorce proceedings. [21] On July 2, 1998, Red McCombs agreed to purchase the Vikings for $250 million - beating out a $220 million bid from Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor. [22]

Failed sale to Reggie Fowler and purchase by Zygi Wilf

In February 2005, Vikings owner Red McCombs agreed to sell the team to Arizona-based entrepreneur Reggie Fowler. However, Fowler was unable to prove his finances were sound enough to complete the purchase and his application to buy the team was rejected by the league. He brought in various partners, including New York-based real estate developer Zygi Wilf, who took over as the lead owner, with Fowler as one of the minor partners. The deal to install Wilf as owner was concluded in May 2005. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minnesota Vikings</span> National Football League franchise in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion team, the team began play the following year. They are named after the Vikings of medieval Scandinavia, reflecting the prominent Scandinavian American culture of Minnesota. The team plays its home games at U.S. Bank Stadium in the Downtown East section of Minneapolis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bud Grant</span> American football player and coach (1927–2023)

Harry Peter "Bud" Grant Jr. was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). Grant was head coach of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings for 18 seasons; he was the team's second (1967–83) and fourth (1985) head coach, leading them to four Super Bowl appearances, 11 division titles, one league championship and three National Football Conference championships. Before coaching the Vikings, he was the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for 10 seasons, winning the Grey Cup four times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Pohlad</span> American financier (1915–2009)

Carl Ray Pohlad was an American financier from Minnesota. Pohlad is best known as the owner of the Minnesota Twins baseball franchise from 1984 until his death in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sid Hartman</span> American sports journalist (1920–2020)

Sidney Hartman was an American sports journalist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the WCCO 830 AM radio station. For 20 years, he was also a panelist on the weekly television program Sports Show with Mike Max, which aired Sunday nights at 9:30 p.m. on WUCW 23 in the Twin Cities metro area. He continued writing for the Star Tribune until his death in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zygi Wilf</span> American billionaire and sports franchise owner (born 1950)

Zygmunt "Zygi" Wilf is an American billionaire businessman and real estate developer. He is the chairman and co-owner of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and the majority owner of Major League Soccer's Orlando City SC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Winter</span>

Max Winter was a Minneapolis businessman and sport executive who helped found the Minnesota Vikings.

Oluf Roy Haugsrud was an American sports executive. Haugsrud was born in Superior, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minnesota United FC</span> American professional soccer club

Minnesota United Football Club, often shortened to MNUFC, is an American professional soccer club based in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The club began play in 2017 as the league's 22nd club, and replaced the North American Soccer League (NASL) franchise of the same name.

The Minnesota Vikings are an American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After initially committing to become one of the founding members of the American Football League (AFL) in 1959, the team joined the National Football League (NFL) as an expansion franchise and played their first game in 1961, as part of the Western Conference. In 1967, they were placed into the new Central division, which became part of the National Football Conference following the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. The divisions were reorganized again in 2002, with the Vikings as part of the NFC North, in which they have played ever since. The Vikings have won their division 20 times and appeared in the playoffs 30 times, leading to four conference championships and one NFL title in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Bank Stadium</span> Multi-purpose stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.

U.S. Bank Stadium is an enclosed stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. Built on the former site of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the indoor stadium opened in 2016 and is the home of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL); it also hosts early season college baseball games of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Kohl</span> American football player, coach, and scout (1923–1997)

Ralph Anson Kohl was an American football player, coach and scout. He played at the tackle position on the University of Michigan's undefeated 1947 and 1948 football teams. He signed to play with the Baltimore Colts, but a knee injury prevented him from playing in the NFL. He was an assistant football coach at Eastern Michigan University (1952–1954) and a head coach at Franklin College (1955–1956) and Eastern Illinois University (1957–1964). From 1964 until his retirement in 1993, Kohl worked as a professional football scout. He was considered the top scout in the BLESTO NFL scouting combine in the 1960s and 1970s and served as the head scout for the Minnesota Vikings for two decades.

Irwin L. Jacobs was an American businessman. He was the CEO of several large corporations, including the boat-building company Genmar Holdings. He earned the nickname "Irv the Liquidator" for his aggressive business practices in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1973, Jacobs founded COMB, a catalog-based mail-order retailer. In 1986, COMB and several cable television operators created the Cable Value Network (CVN), a pioneering television shopping channel which was later purchased by Joseph Segel's QVC. Jacobs, based in Minneapolis, became wealthy by taking big stakes in Fortune 500 conglomerates, usually to unlock value by breaking them up.

The 1961 NFL expansion draft was a National Football League (NFL) draft in which a new expansion team, named the Minnesota Vikings, selected its first players. That selection was provided by the expansion draft, held on January 26, 1961.

James Pohlad is an American businessman who is the chairman and part-owner of the Minnesota Twins of the American League. He is the son of Eloise O'Rourke Pohlad and businessman Carl Pohlad, who made the family's fortune and originally purchased the Minnesota Twins in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minnesota Timberwolves failed relocation to New Orleans</span> Attempt at relocating the Minnesota Timberwolves to New Orleans

In 1994, several groups were involved in an attempt to relocate the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from Minneapolis, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana. The proposed relocation would have been the second involving a Minneapolis-based franchise in the span of two years, as Minneapolis had lost its National Hockey League (NHL) franchise to Dallas in 1993. Timberwolves owners Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner were considering selling the team due to problems with the mortgage on the Target Center, the team's arena that had been built only four years earlier as part of Minneapolis' 1989 entry into the NBA. The events of the attempted relocation resulted in Glen Taylor, businessman and former Minnesota State Senator, purchasing the team and keeping it in Minneapolis.

Michael Lynn III was an American football general manager and executive. He served as the general manager of the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings from 1975 to 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Warren</span> American attorney and sports executive (born 1963)

Kevin Fulbright Warren is an American attorney and sports executive. He is the team president and chief executive officer (CEO) for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference from 2020 to 2023, overseeing negotiations for expansion of the conference.

E. William Boyer was an American businessman who was a founder of the Minnesota Vikings.

Roger Lewis Headrick is an American business executive who served as president of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League from 1991 to 1998.

References

  1. ↑ "Franchise Encyclopedias". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  2. ↑ "New Pro Football League Formed With Six Members, Including New York". The New York Times. August 15, 1959.
  3. ↑ "Halas Bids N.F.L. Add Texas Cities". The New York Times. August 30, 1959.
  4. ↑ Sainsbury, Ed (November 24, 1959). "Minneapolis May Withdraw From AFL". Daily Defender.
  5. ↑ "NFL Gives Two New Franchises: Dallas This Year, Twin Cities in '61". The Boston Globe. January 29, 1960.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Winter v. Skoglund". Justia US Law. Justia. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Sansevere, Robert (April 9, 1986). "Judge says Winter can sell". Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
  8. ↑ Hartman, Sid (July 18, 1986). "NFL owners approve sale of Winter's Vikings stock". Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
  9. ↑ Hartman, Sid; Sansevere, Robert (September 8, 1986). "Jacobs get majority interest in Vikings, but not control". Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
  10. ↑ Hartman, Sid (May 30, 1987). "Lynn, allies buy share of Vikings". Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
  11. ↑ "Vikes put Jacobs, Pohlad on board". Minneapolis Star and Tribune. July 30, 1987.
  12. ↑ Sansevere, Robert; Hartman, Sid (September 4, 1987). "Whitney replaces Winter as president of Vikings". Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
  13. ↑ Hartman, Sid (July 27, 1991). "NFL tells Lynn group it must restructure". Star Tribune.
  14. ↑ Souhan, Jim; Hartman, Sid (December 17, 1991). "$50 million deal gives Lynn group total Viking control". Star Tribune.
  15. ↑ "Lynn, Vikings Part Company". Ludington Daily News. February 27, 1992. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  16. ↑ "Vikings Name New Boss". The Washington Times. October 30, 1990.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Brown, Curt (January 29, 1995). "Vikings owners: 10 fans with ties to powerful businesses". Star Tribune.
  18. ↑ Banks, Don (October 29, 1997). "Vikings now for sale, too". Star Tribune.
  19. ↑ Banks, Don (February 2, 1988). "Vikings bids due today". Star Tribune.
  20. ↑ Lesko, Ron (February 3, 1998). "Author Tom Clancy Buys Vikings". Associated Press.
  21. ↑ Banks, Don (May 21, 1998). "Close the book". Star Tribune.
  22. ↑ "McCombs Bids $250 Million to Become Vikings' Owner". Los Angeles Times. July 3, 1998. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  23. ↑ Williams, Brandt (May 25, 2005). "NFL owners approve Vikings sale to Wilf". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.