How Much Are the Minnesota Vikings Worth to Minnesotans Today?

Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency

Quite a bit more than on Saturday, to be sure — which is when the Wall Street Journal published this article about the psychic value of the Vikings to its fans. The tally: $530.65 per year.
The article, by Conor Dougherty, includes a nice discussion, pro and con, of “contingent valuation methodology,” the mode by which economists try to value the emotional benefits of something like a pro sports team. Such studies should be taken with a grain of salt but are hardly uninteresting; also worth considering in this realm is the Basking in Reflected Glory work of Robert Cialdini.
The Vikings were recently the subject of another interesting Journal article. It concerned their aggressive recruitment of free agents, which relies on a combination of guile, unconventional thinking, an open wallet, and clever contract maneuvers. I am not convinced that the Vikes are such an outlier in this regard, but it’s still a very good read.
(Hat tip: John De Palma)