It's been something of a rags-to-riches story for the Minnesota Vikings this month.
Once whispered about as a team that might flee west for Los Angeles, the Vikings are now a day removed from the Minnesota State Legislature approving funding for a new $975 million stadium, scheduled to open in time for the 2016 season.
The upshot: Amid a heavy list of stadium planning to-dos, Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf are considering a bid to host Super Bowl LI in 2017.
"I know the Super Bowl process typically happens in the spring, so potentially as soon as a year from now we could be a bidder," Mark Wilf told Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. "We haven't talked to officials about it yet, but we see no reason why we wouldn't be ripe to put in a bid for a Super Bowl, and we're hopeful and we'll do everything we can as owners to persuade our partners that it's a great community, and have a Super Bowl here hopefully as early as 2017."
It wouldn't be the city's first Super Bowl after Minneapolis played host to XXVI in 1992, but it would punctuate this comeback story.
Don't be scared off by the Minnesota winter. We learned this year that cold-weather Super Bowls can work wonderfully if a city has its act together. Indianapolis did, in every possible way, giving Minneapolis a blueprint to work from if they're ultimately chosen.
