Reversing a current trend featuring NFL teams embracing the opportunity to rake in a little easy money via partnerships with state lottery commissions, the Vikings won’t be involved with such revenue-generators in Minnesota this year.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune (via SportsBusiness Daily), Vikings V.P. of sales and marketing Steve LaCroix said that there won’t be a lottery deal in 2009.
But LaCroix also says that there could be a deal in 2010, when the Vikings will be celebrating their 50th NFL season.
The decision to wait at least a year might have something to do with the tenuous efforts of the team to land a new stadium and/or to sell tickets to its current home. As to the former, the general local reluctance to devote public funds to help finance a successor to the Metrodome might get even stronger if/when the Vikings are getting a piece of the Minnesota lottery pie.
As to the latter, the franchise currently is behind last season’s 55,000-member season-ticket base. So maybe the Vikes prefer that any discretionary fan income be devoted not to buying lottery tickets, but to buying game tickets.