Written by Andy | 15 June 2011

Joe Bielawa/FlickrA sports and entertainment group leading the charge to get the city of Los Angeles back into the NFL has made some headway this week with the Minnesota Vikings by agreeing to build the team a new stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

"Our aim in this entire process was to once again identify the city of Los Angeles with the NFL," said CEO Tim Leiweke of the Anschultz Entertainment Group (AEG). "And we are just one small step away from doing that by way of constructing a $1 billion, 72,000-seat stadium in the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota."

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, though he would not fully commit to the proposal, said he is very intrigued by the possibility of staying put, while having a stadium built for free.

"They must be really desperate to get involved with an NFL team," said the Vikings owner, still not entirely sure why a group in L.A would pay for and deal with all of the headaches of stadium construction. "I guess it is the best of both worlds—we don't have to move or spend any money—but if they want us to change our name to something stupid like the Los Angeles Orange County Minnesota Vikings or the Los Angeles Vikings of Minneapolis, Minnesota, then we're out."

AEG has also had discussions with 4 other teams—the Chargers, Raiders, Rams and Jaguars—in case the deal with the Vikings should somehow fall through.

"We're willing to build new stadiums for all five of these franchises in their current cities if necessary," asserted Leiweke. "Odds are in forty to fifty years when those stadiums need replacing, at least one of those teams would remember how nice we were and consider a permanent move to Los Angeles."

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