Minnesota Vikings Ticket Revenue Dropped In 2010

by Christopher Gates on Feb 19, 2011 11:22 AM CST in Minnesota Vikings

What a surprise. . .a team has to play one of its "home" games 700 miles away and another one at a college stadium that is unable to sell alcohol, and they lose money. Go figure.

According to the National Football Post, the Minnesota Vikings had significantly less revenue come in during the 2010 season than they did in 2009, which simply re-emphasizes the fact that the team needs a new stadium.

(Well, then, I suppose it's a good thing they're going to get one.)

In 2009, according to the Post article, the Vikings had $57.5 million in ticket revenue. Some of that came from having a playoff game mixed in there as well, but even without the money from the playoff game, the Vikings still cleared $50 million in ticket revenue.

In 2010, thanks to the circumstances mentioned above, the Vikings' ticket revenues dropped to $41.4 million. So, just in ticket revenue, the Vikings lost about $9 million because of the relocation of those two December games, not to mention what they would have lost in any other form of revenue that's directly connected to having a game at the Metrodome.

I'm not sure what the other NFL teams made as far as ticket revenue and so forth, but I'd be willing to wager that it's significantly more than the Vikings made in 2010. . .or in 2009, for that matter. The Vikings' new stadium will definitely level that playing field, to be sure.

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NFP must be bored

Or else they’re REALLY trying to take shots at the Vikings/Dome this offseason.

What’s next? The Minnesota Vikings end a disappointin 6-10 season ???
What a bunch of weirdos.

by DM_Purp on Feb 19, 2011 12:56 PM CST reply actions

Well, as the kids today like to say

Haters gonna hate, I guess.

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by Christopher Gates on Feb 19, 2011 1:06 PM CST up reply actions

That is a good reason why ticket sales dropped, if that is really true…considering we had no blackouts, which means that they sold out every game.

by Chris3 on Feb 20, 2011 6:41 PM CST up reply actions

I bet the Raiders had less ticket revenue

They had one home game that wasn’t blacked out this year, and it never looked like they were all that close to selling out in the games I saw the stands.

13.

by Wiedmann on Feb 19, 2011 10:40 PM CST reply actions

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/30/football-valuations-10_Oakland-Raiders_300874.html

$34 million in gate receipts.

by Chris3 on Feb 20, 2011 6:04 PM CST up reply actions

Sounds weird

That the drop in ticket revenue means they need a new stadium. Perhaps if they had a decent on field showing this year, the ticket sales would have been fine. Particularly in the first 4 games, which because of the Vikings lack of showing up, means that those who were going to pay for later games decided not to go. However, I don’t really understand the idea that ticket sales were down….I mean, we didn’t have a black out all season, and the NFL policy states that if the stadium isn’t 100% sold out, then the local market would experience a black out. So, that means that the ticket sales were all sold out….of course with the state looking to cut social services in order to get out of debt, I doubt increasing the capacity of the stadium is a good idea. Less people going, more open seats means black outs and no media fees.

As a comparison,

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/30/football-valuations-10_Dallas-Cowboys_300988.html
The Cowboys made $142 Million in gate receipts. Their stadium has the capacity is 100,000 people. The average ticket price was $160. This is the top franchise according to Forbes.

According to Forbes, the Vikings place #30,
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/30/football-valuations-10_Minnesota-Vikings_309201.html
and they list Minnesota’s gate receipts as $45 million, despite having a capacity of only 63,720 people. Average ticket price was $75.

To compare the two, Cowboys stadium is 157% of the capacity of the Dome and average ticket prices for the Cowboys stadium is 213% of average ticket prices in Minnesota. Despite all this, gate receipts in Dallas was 315% of gate receipts in Minnesota.

As part of the Forbe’s listings, most franchises had gate receipts in between $50-$60 million range. The Packer’s for example had gate receipts of $48 million.

So, the Vikings having gate receipts of $3 million less than the Super Bowl winners, despite having to refund some ticket sales for a few games and having less space at one home game, is not really that bad.

Sorry, but I don’t buy the idea that lower ticket sales this season means they NEED a new stadium….to be paid for by the taxpayers. If they want to build one with their own money, go ahead.

by Chris3 on Feb 20, 2011 6:04 PM CST reply actions

I forgot to mention that Gate Receipts is not the same as total ticket sales….total ticket sales would be higher, particularly if not everyone who bought a ticket ended up going through the gates.

by Chris3 on Feb 20, 2011 6:05 PM CST up reply actions

So to claim that the Vikings ticket sales aren’t giving them enough money to be competitive is an outright lie. Sure, more seats mean more revenue….however, not filling those seats mean black outs and less revenue due to lost media rights, especially for games that weren’t going to be shown nation wide anyhow. So, why should the tax payers pay as much for Texas Stadium (who’s pre over run price was at $900 million, post over run at $1.5 billion) for a stadium as big as Texas Stadium?

Capacity of the proposed stadium is 65,000 people (only 1280 people greater), proposed cost of the new stadium (not including land purchase, infrastructure relocation/rebuilding) is $870 Million, though revised figures put it at $781 million (but what’s $89 million between friends, right?)
http://www.stadiumsofprofootball.com/future/VikingsStadium.htm

In other words, the proposed Vikings Stadium will not be a dramatic windfall of profits and ticket sales for the Vikings as they try to make us believe. At current ticket prices (avg $75), the increase in ticket revenue per game is $96,000….or for 8 home games (a full season), $768,000. Even if they are all Sky Box seats that cost $200 per game, the gate receipts will only increase by roughly $2 million per year.

It seems the Vikings organization is being dishonest with suggesting that they are a sinking ship without a taxpayer funded stadium.

by Chris3 on Feb 20, 2011 6:29 PM CST up reply actions

Wrong cost for Cowboys Stadium

Sorry, wrong figure for Cowboys Stadium, Cost to build was $1.25 Billion, not $1.5 Billion. Before Cost over runs, Cowboys Stadium was estimated at $650 million in 2004

http://stadiumblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/04/the-cost-of-cowboys-stadium-ha.html

In other words, the proposed Vikings Stadium is expected to cost more than the original figures of Cowboys Stadium, though is expected to seat 35,000 people less. I would not be surprised if the completed price would be more than that of Cowboys Stadium.

As another comparison, New Meadowlands Stadium cost $1.6 Billion and is open air, though the cost is split between two teams and the taxpayers of New York and New Jersey. It also has a capacity of 82,500….which is 17,500 more than the Vikings proposed stadium.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/30/football-valuations-10_New-York-Giants_304328.html

So, it just doesn’t make sense to spend this kind of money on a building that will not bring in comparable incomes to those stadiums with comparable prices.

by Chris3 on Feb 20, 2011 6:40 PM CST up reply actions

Those are gate receipts for the 2009 season

13.

by Wiedmann on Feb 21, 2011 3:04 AM CST up reply actions

soooo right you are

Yes, you are right…..the income figures are from 2009. Looks like I missed the fine print on that right hand side of the page. The point is, however, that the Vikings organization is overstating the profit that will come from only 1280 additional seats. They are also underestimating the cost of any new stadium. And they are understating their income from ticket sales in 2010 and overstating any reduction in revenue (These are not losses, as it was money they never had, revenue they anticipated and never got. I anticipated an income of $5 million last year, but only received about $40k…I didn’t ‘lose’ $4.960 million) in addition to misplacing the cause of the reduction of income. They blame the stadium, but that accounted for only 2 home games of reduced revenue…at the end of the season, some of which was made up at TCF Bank Stadium (no, not all of it, but it wasn’t a total loss, either—-and the NFL chipped in).

by Chris3 on Feb 21, 2011 4:53 PM CST reply actions