New Owner Won't Move Vikings

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 2, 1998 / 6:56 PM EDT / CBS Sportsline

The city's residents want it and Minnesotans dread the prospect, but the new Vikings owner says the football team won't be moved to Texas.

"I don't see that as even an issue," auto baron Red McCombs said Friday. "The team is a Minnesota institution. It has a very firm lease until 2012. I don't see that as an issue."

McCombs and team officials on Thursday announced a more than $200 million deal for McCombs to become the new owner. NFL officials are expected to approve the deal later this month. Approval is expected to be contingent on the team remaining in Minnesota.

Some San Antonio residents, including Raphael Torres, said McCombs could easily buy out the team's lease or find some other way to bring the Vikings to the San Antonio Alamodome.

McCombs said breaking the lease isn't even on the table.

"You can't break a lease just because you have some money," he said. "Sports franchises are very emotional - very emotional - entities that the fans in every market realistically feel like belongs to the fans. I've been very straightforward in saying I don't see that as an issue in any way."

McCombs, former owner of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets, said he understands how fellow San Antonio residents feel about getting a professional team.

He said he remains committed to finding a team for San Antonio, but that it won't be the Minnesota Vikings.

The city's mostly blue-collar residents and the relatively small number of large corporations in San Antonio would not keep a team from being successful in the Alamodome, said McCombs.

"I think any NFL team in the Austin-San Antonio-South Texas area located here using the Alamodome would be enormously successful," he said.

McCombs made his fortune from automobile sales, cattle, energy and television and radio stations. He said he's happy to be back in the sports business, adding that San Antonio residents see happy as well.

He said workers at his car dealerships couldn't find Minnesota Vikings T-shirts and caps Friday.

"If that's any indicator, I think they (San Antonio residents) will have an interest," he said.