Capital Idea: Vikings' Wilf Seeks Funds From Investment Partners
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Vikings Owner Issues $20M Capital
Call Following Trade For Jared Allen |
To "ensure cash flow" in light of newly acquired DE Jared Allen's $74M contract, Vikings Owner Zygi Wilf "issued a capital call for just under $20[M] to his investment partners," according to sources cited by Kevin Seifert of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. Without the capital call, the Vikings would have been "unable to pay the $16.25[M] Allen will earn this season." Allen's contract "almost certainly will result in a similar request in March 2009; if so, it would mark the Vikings' fourth capital call in four years." The Vikings have operated from a "negative cashflow position" since Wilf and his partners paid $600M for the franchise in '05. The team was "within their 2008 budget" until the Allen deal (Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE, 4/24). In a separate piece, Seifert reported Allen's arrival "marks the end of an aggressive free agent period in which the Vikings added 12 players at an expense of $65[M] in guaranteed money alone." Allen's deal was the biggest in Vikings history and "called for the fourth-highest total of guaranteed money -- $31,000,069 -- in NFL history." The Vikings also sent the Chiefs three draft choices and "swapped positions for a fourth" (Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE, 4/24). In Minneapolis, Patrick Reusse wrote the money paid to Allen "shouldn't rattle us, since it belongs to owner Zygi Wilf and the entire Wilf family" (Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE, 4/24).
PAST PROTECTION: In St. Paul, Sean Jensen writes the Vikings "recognized the risk" with Allen, as his two DUI arrests in five months "could threaten the team's emphasis on character." Yet the Vikings "paid Allen the ultimate respect: a contract devoid of special protection against future transgressions." Vikings VP/Football Operations Rob Brzezinski: "If we had any reservations about this kid -- because of what the Wilfs are about and what we're trying to create here -- we wouldn't have done the deal. ... There is no Jared Allen special, in-case-he-screws-up protection contract" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 4/24).
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