Vikings to Arden Hills? VIII -- The Larger Game

Roger Goodell spends a lot of time in Minneapolis these days. And that might be a factor in what happens with the Vikings. The Star Tribune reports that the NFL commissioner will meet with Gov. Dayton and some of the lawmakers who are trying to get a stadium proposal done in this legislative session:

Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, the chief House author of the stadium legislation, said he has been invited to the meeting at the governor's mansion and wants to ask Goodell "what the NFL is prepared to do or not do" to help build a new stadium.

Lanning said he also hopes that Goodell might address having the Vikings and the league contribute more money to the project. "We would hope that would be a possibility, too," he said of the meeting.

You have to wonder about that -- it is my understanding that the Vikings are already leveraging any money that might be available from the NFL as part of the proposal as it is currently written. Goodell is taking this meeting as a courtesy, but I suspect not much will come of it, at least now.

The larger issue for the NFL is the ongoing lockout and related labor issues. Goodell came to town yesterday for another negotiation session with the NFL Players Association. The action has been here because the federal court proceedings involving the NFL always seem to take place in Minneapolis. And that might be the one factor that may save the Vikings for Minnesota.

As a practical matter, judges, especially federal judges, shouldn't take local considerations into account when rendering their decisions, but that's rarely been the case. Major League Baseball learned that in no uncertain terms when a local judge put the kibosh on actions that might have led to the departure of the Minnesota Twins. Legal maneuvering in the case of Kevin and Pat Williams kept the two Viking behemoths from serving a drug-related suspension for over 3 seasons. The judge who has ruled on many NFL-related cases over the years, David Doty, has been a thorn in the side of Goodell's two predecessors, just as Judge Susan Nelson has been in the current dispute. As long as the larger business of the league is contingent on what happens in a courtroom in Minnesota, the NFL will have to tread lightly.