Well it’s Christmas and I’m finding time to discuss our team – I have a great holiday schedule and holiday in general, (unlike some of you with hectic schedules and travel plans). So hopefully my Christmas cheer can give you a quiet moment to yourselves while reading this.

Jared Allen has come to life of late with 9 ½ sacks so far and truthfully speaking I think there’s only been a half dozen players in the league that have actually played equal to or better than Jared (on defense). I’m saying this looking at total game – tackles, effort, big picture stuff; not just sacks. Jared has two games to play to increase his standings – although Vick is tomorrow you might think this will be a large test for our D-Line, well Michael Vick has been sacked more than Brett Favre this season. Vick is getting a lot of attention this year; but he also is getting hit a lot this year. We’ll get to Vick – he may run and do the things he does, but we should be able to hit him a few times.

As far as the nine losses goes; I think it comes down to turnovers. I know everyone of you would like to see perfect special teams tackling, perfect offensive runs, blocks and passes; as well as perfect defensive stops. As much as the lack of perfection hurts when you’re having a losing season – the turnover ratio is what has hurt us the most. As a team we are last in the league in this area – a team with a different quality defense would not have the wins we have with this dubious honor. Keep an eye on the turnover ratio in the last two games – we win this battle, we win the games.

Which brings me to Adrian Peterson – who has zero fumbles this year, (although he did say it was his problem one of the handoffs got fumbled). Adrian showed in training camp he wasn’t going to put the ball on the ground and he hasn’t. The fact that he wanted to be accountable for one fumble is another reason I think he’s still the best back in the league. (If you think the other backs in the league haven’t muffed a handoff that was accounted to the quarterback of their team – you would be wrong.) He’s eighth in the league so far in rushing and that’s after missing a couple of games and playing on a team that’s been behind most of the time and needed to play catch-up. Had our team scored early and often (as in last year) he would be first or second; even with the missing games.

So what does this really bring me to: I guess I’m really surprised by this year, I didn’t think our team was going to be one of the teams to drop from the top. I watch enough of this game to know every year teams go from the bottom of their division to the top and teams go from the top to the middle or the bottom. I’m just surprised it happened to our team this year. Without digging into the numbers – I do believe it comes down to my earlier point, the turnover ratio. But, as I reflected on our team this holiday I came to this conclusion – I would still rather watch two more games of our team, than start the "non-football" season and not be able to watch this team. Even with a losing season – I look forward to watching our team. The football season is the greatest time of the year. I know football continues after they stop playing, but, watching the games is what I look forward to – the rest of the time I pay attention, I don’t look forward to it – I just don’t disconnect.

I want to have a California dinner discussion with all of you. Right now I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do, but I’m not sure that it’s gone either. I believe the dinner is a valued part of our club’s identity and the risk of losing that identity is important to me and our board. So, here’s the real situation – our income is down 64% from last year. (I’m not going to get into numbers in this letter – I post this newsletter on the website and I don’t want all the details out there.) What I will do is bring detailed information to the remaining games and will discuss our finances (and show the details) with any member who’s interested. As a club we want to stay as open with our membership as possible.

There are a few possible reasons for our revenue decline. My first thought is the economy – a lot of folks were hurt by the economy. I’m sure every one of you knows someone who lost their job for a period of time or still is without work today. And for those of you in this position – we understand your pain and are praying for you, things will get better.

A second reason is our season. Some folks out there have a difficult time sharing loses with a group – especially a group with a code of conduct that’s enforced. There’s also a segment of fans who just participate more when the team is winning. I don’t want to label this group as front-runners. A better description is folks that don’t have the same passion for this game as me (us) – they’re fans who won’t block out time every week to watch a losing team when they have chores to accomplish on the weekend, they have different priorities.

Another reason is direct TV’s NFL package. Every year we lose loyal fans to folks who purchase the NFL package and watch at home. I would do this if I were to move from California (and not to the Minnesota region) and couldn’t find a club like ours – I wouldn’t go without watching our team.

And what I think is the primary reason – the Vikings have been on basic television out here 70% of the time. By default the Vikings became California’s team. (The conspiracy theorists have already been asking the question: Has there been an ulterior reason for all the Vikings play in California this year?).

With that said what I started doing is looking for venues that are smaller and more intimate in nature to try and save the dinner – basically cut costs while staying within our clubs charter, along with looking at ways to increase revenues. I do have one option that I’ll be discussing with the board, but it will have ramifications with other things we do as a club – basically we’d have tradeoffs that could affect next year’s potential revenue. Anyway – at this time I would like to encourage all of you to send me your thoughts. Whatever we do will be a balancing act; I can’t guarantee anything at this time, but at this point we need all the ideas we can. Who knows one of you may have the idea that helps us not only this year, but every year.

Anyway – maybe this wasn’t what you wanted to here on Christmas, but at least it’s honest. Here’s hoping you had a wonderful Christmas and hoping you have a wonderful new year.

Go Vikes and see all of you Sunday.

Best wishes to you and your family,

Wm. R. Martin

President