The Wilfs have owned the Vikings for 21 years. They don’t plan to end their tenure any time soon.
Earlier this year, local speculation emerged that the Wilfs could sell based on a massive drop in spending from 2025 to 2026. The team quickly got the word out that it’s not, and won’t be, for sale.
“The business side of it is not what got us into the Minnesota Vikings,” co-owner Mark Wilf told reporters on Thursday. “We love football. We’re honored and privileged to be stewards of an incredible franchise, and our ultimate goal is to bring championships to the fans of the Minnesota Vikings, who really deserve it. And that’s what we’re about, and that’s the excitement, and we’re long term, we’re a family that is going to hopefully be part of the Minnesota Vikings for a very, very long time.”
Wilf also said that the Vikings “aren’t focused on” the possibility of selling a piece of the team to any of the approved private-equity funds.
The Wilfs have successfully built a new stadium, one that has hosted a Super Bowl. By all indications, the Vikings continue to make plenty of money, each and every year.
The on-field success has been limited, to say the least. Since the Wilfs bought the team from the late Red McCombs in 2005, the Vikings have won only three playoff games: one in 2009, one in 2017, and one in 2019. The Vikings have made it to the playoffs only eight times in the 21 seasons that the Wilfs have owned the team, with back-to-back playoff years only once (2008 and 2009).
“Ultimately, it’s about not just playoff wins, but championships,” Wilf said. “And that is the ultimate measure. We know that. We try to be patient as an ownership, and that’s what our — that we know is the ultimate success. But, of course, patience isn’t infinite. We understand that, but I feel really good about the direction of this football club, and we’re going to get those benchmarks checked off here.”
The biggest benchmark — winning a Super Bowl — has never been checked off by the Vikings. Since the team’s last Super Bowl appearance 50 years ago, the Vikings have gone 0-6 in the NFC Championship.
While the Wilfs aren’t cheap, talk is. Yes, Mark Wilf said the right things on Thursday. It all comes down to whether the organization can find a way to consistently contend, and whether it can ever get back to a Super Bowl and finally win one.
For most Vikings fans who lived (and died) with a team that did very well, but not well enough, in the 1970s, the dream has been to witness the confetti fall of purple helmets just once in their lifetimes. For those who are still alive, the realization has begun to creep in that it’s not going to happen before they’re blowing the great Gjallarhorn in the sky.
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