Hastings in Vikings stadium mix
BY CHARLEY WALTERS
Pioneer Press
Add Hastings to communities interested in becoming the home of for a Vikings stadium.
A private developer the Vikings consider legitimate recently notified the team that his group is interested in having it play on a site on the Mississippi River in Hastings. Commercial retail would be part the development plan. As with some of the other proposed stadium sites, there is an infrastructure problem.
• Minneapolis City Council president Paul Ostrow, Minnesota Thunder general manager Jim Froslid and Thunder owner Bill George met with the Vikings Monday. The trio would be strong advocates of a Major League Soccer franchise sharing a new stadium with the National Football League team.
Major League Soccer, which consists of 10 teams that play 15 home games, had an average attendance of 14,899 this season. A feasibility study shows that the Twin Cities have favorable demographics for an MLS team. The Vikings would view soccer as part of a stadium solution.
• Running back Michael Bennett, asked Monday if the Vikings, who have lost five of their past six games, ever wonder if maybe they are not so good after all: "Never, never, never. We still believe in each other."
• Vikings vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski gets regular calls from out-of-work players looking for a job with Minnesota, but said the team believes there are no players available who can bail them out of their tailspin.
"We're just going to keep fighting with what we've got," he said Monday.
Said Vikings coach Mike Tice, embarrassed by Sunday's 48-17 loss in St. Louis, "Sometimes there are no changes to make."
• Vikings center Matt Birk, asked if the players remember last year's 48-23 humiliating loss to Seattle: "We've got too much going on here to worry about last year." The Seahawks play Sunday at the Metrodome.
• Former Minnesota Wild president Tod Leiweke is chief executive officer of the Seahawks, who have a 7-0 record at home this season but are 1-4 on the road.
• Fifth-year senior Ben Johnson, who scored 32 points in the Gophers' overtime basketball victory over Furman Sunday, received a scholarship worth $31,000 annually during his two years at Northwestern. Because of the Big Ten's transfer rule, Johnson cannot receive financial aid for basketball at Minnesota, meaning it has cost him approximately $12,500 annually for room, books and tuition for his three seasons with the Gophers.
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