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Saturday, July 04, 1998
For Vikings' new ownership, it's not San Antonio or bust
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO -- This city's residents want it, and Minnesotans dread the prospect, but the new Vikings' owner says the football team won't be moved to Texas.
"I don't see that as even an issue," auto baron Red McCombs said Friday. "The team is a Minnesota institution. It has a very firm lease until 2012. I don't see that as an issue."
McCombs and team officials Thursday announced a more than $200 million deal for McCombs to become the owner. NFL officials are expected to approve the deal later this month. Approval is expected to be contingent on the team remaining in Minnesota.
Some San Antonio residents said McCombs could easily buy out the team's lease or find some other way to bring the Vikings to the San Antonio Alamodome.
McCombs said breaking the lease isn't on the table.
"You can't break a lease just because you have some money," he said. "Sports franchises are very emotional -- very emotional -- entities that the fans in every market realistically feel belongs to the fans. I've been very straightforward in saying I don't see that as an issue in any way."
McCombs, the former owner of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets, said he understands how fellow San Antonio residents feel about getting a professional team.
He said he remains committed to finding a team for San Antonio, but that it won't be the Vikings.
The city's mostly blue-collar residents and the relatively small number of large corporations in San Antonio would not keep a team from being successful in the Alamodome, McCombs said.
"I think any NFL team in the Austin-San Antonio-South Texas area located here using the Alamodome would be enormously successful," he said.
McCombs made his fortune from automobile sales, cattle, energy and television and radio stations. He said he's happy to be back in the sports business, adding that San Antonio residents seem happy as well.
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