MINNEAPOLIS -- From the time the Minnesota Vikings unveiled plans for their new practice facility in Eagan, Minnesota -- complete with a 6,500-seat stadium -- there seemed to be a clock ticking down toward the day when the team would announce it would no longer head to Minnesota State University for training camp.
That day came Tuesday, as the Vikings confirmed this year's training camp will be their last in Mankato. They will join a long-established trend of teams moving camp to their own facilities, and the same market forces that shrunk the number of off-site camps from 26 in 2001 to 11 this year are in play for the Vikings, too.