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The art of celebrating prematurely often comes with painful consequences. Fans of the storied Minnesota Vikings franchise know that timeless lesson better than most.
Fresh off a win over the New York Jets in London this past Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings are 5-0 headed into this weekend’s bye week. That early season achievement warrants a cautious but subtle tip of the hat.
The Kansas City Chiefs, 4-0, who were to play the New Orleans Saints on Monday night, were the only other undefeated team in the 2024 National Football League season after Sunday. We‘ll know by Tuesday (but not as of this writing) whether the Vikings stand alone.
We’ve been here before. That’s why so many Vikings fans now allow superstition to govern their gameday behavior as they also studiously avoid anything that might summon a jinx. But here is another reality well worth celebrating: A winning football team is good for more than a pleasant start to each new week. Such a franchise also appears to be good for the economy and the branding of a metropolitan region.
It’s more than anecdotal. Here’s one way of looking at a winning Vikings’ trickle-down effect:
Approximately 40% of Vikings season-ticket holders are people outside of the metropolitan region, according to figures the team has shared with Meet Minneapolis. That means that tens of thousands of people who come to Vikings home games are descending on the Twin Cities for the game but are also in search of hospitality, including restaurants, bars, hotel rooms and other forms of entertainment. That’s a lot of money creating lots of jobs for lots of families.
