ESPN Poll Ruin Vikings

In ESPN the Magazine's issue coming out this Friday, a survey was conducted in order to rank the 122 pro franchises in the four major sports. In this poll, the Vikings were rated 109th out of 122. That's absolutely terrible. To make matters much worse, their arch rival, the Green Bay Packers was rated the best franchise of all four major sports.

According to the Startribune "The rankings are determined by a multi-tiered analysis that examines a team’s efficiency in spending fan money as compared to its on-field performance. It also factors in feedback in 21 categories from more than 70,000 fans nationwide, both online at ESPN.com and in polling conducted by both independent third parties."

I haven't read the article since it's not out yet, but let me take a stab at why our rating is so bad. Reason number one has to be the Metrodome. Although it makes for a fun game day experience, it is a terrible value for the price your paying to go watch the game. It's a horrible stadium. That part of it makes sense. The one thing I don't understand is that we shouldn't be rated this low because we have an owner who is committed to spending whatever it takes to win a super bowl. Zygi is a willing spending and the team has been far more competitive since he bought the team. The rating also could be low because of how many times this team has disappointed us. I'm not sure what the answer is to why our ratings are so low, but I know the Metrodome is a huge part of it.

Also, last year was a huge disaster for the team. The Favre scandal, the high expectations that led to a horrible season, and the roof of the dome collapsing all could have factored into the decision.