A reliable source who requested anonymity predicted to Sports Headliners that the Vikings’ likelihood of gaining approval for a new stadium during the coming legislative session appears “very, very bleak.”

Optimism was tempered even earlier in the year when the economy was slowing and construction costs were increasing but a fourth quarter headlined with more bad news such as unemployment and furthering of the mortgage crisis has put the state and country in a worse funk.  In Minnesota we have a $426 million state budget deficit for the current biennium (with forecasts for about $5 billion by 2010) and possible unemployment of seven percent or more next year.

The source, who has local stadium expertise, predicted that the Vikings and their legislative supporters might not even offer up a stadium bill in 2009.  Instead, a progress report on development of a stadium on the Metrodome site could be a focus, along with potential planning for a do-or-die effort in 2010, one year before the Vikings’ lease at the Metrodome expires.

Sources don’t believe owner Zygi Wilf and his family will move the Vikings even if the community doesn’t help fund a new stadium.  However, it’s believed the Wilfs might sell the franchise to an ownership group willing to take it elsewhere.

Billionaire developer Ed Roski announced plans to build a privately funded stadium in the Los Angeles area earlier this year but hasn’t broken ground.  In today’s fragile economic environment one wonders about the future of even that project.

The San Diego Chargers’ stadium lease runs through this season but don’t expect them to move to Los Angeles, according to Jeff Dotseth.  He’s a talk show host in San Diego and reported via e-mail to Sports Headliners that franchise prospects for staying there have improved because of a change in city leadership and team president Dean Spanos has long been committed to the area.

As for the Vikings and Los Angeles, Dotseth wrote:  “…If you talk to people up there, they don’t want the Vikes, Chargers, Jags etc…They are fine without an NFL team, but if a team was to go there, they want an expansion team. The other problem is where to play. The Coliseum is 100 years old and, like the Rose Bowl, does not have luxury boxes. …”

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The 13^th annual Gatorade-Timberwolves Shootout will offer six games involving teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota on Saturday, January 3 at Target Center.  In the past, 18 future NBA players have participated in the Shootout, including Timberwolves’ point guard Sebastian Telfair and forward Kevin Love, in addition to more than 180 Division I college athletes.  This year’s Shootout offers more than 15 players expected to play in Division I basketball programs.

Among the players to watch is Cloquet’s Chad Calcaterra, who was being recruited by the Gophers last season as a sophomore.  After the opening Cloquet-Pelican Rapids game (start time 10 a.m.), Osseo, featuring Sam Dower, a Gonzaga signee, plays Sioux Falls Roosevelt and Cody Larson, committed to Iowa.

Henry Sibley, with Wisconsin signee Mike Bruesewitz, plays Madison Memorial who has last season’s Wisconsin Associated Press Player of the Year, Jeronne Maymon.  Another Wisconsin team, Lake Geneva Badger, plays Hopkins, ranked No. 22 nationally in the USA Today preseason rankings. The Royals have four future Division I players, Royce White (Minnesota), Trent Lockett (Arizona State), Mike Broghammer (Notre Dame) and Raymond Cowles (Santa Clara).

White is a big name in the 2009 Gopher recruiting class and so, too, is Rodney Williams whose Robbinsdale Cooper team plays Eden Prairie, led by 6-6 senior forward Ethan Wragge, who has signed with Creighton.

The last game (8 p.m. start) has St. Cloud Tech, third place in Class 4A last season with four starters returning, playing Wisconsin powerhouse Manitowoc Roncall, 23-2 last season and 96-6 the last four years.

More on the Shootout at www.timberwolves.com

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The Gopher basketball team survived some of the strangest officiating seen in awhile to beat No. 9 Louisville in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday.  The Gophers, led by Al Nolen’s 18 points, are 10-0 for the first time since 1976-77 and figure to be nationally ranked when the latest polls are released today.

Vikings place-kicker Ryan Longwell is a neighbor of Tiger Woods in Orlando.  He has played golf with Woods and also shared conversation with him at the golf range inside their gated community.  While there’s speculation that Woods may not be sufficiently recovered from his left knee operation to resume play next year, Longwell sees it differently.

“Yeah, I would be shocked if that were true,” Longwell told Sports Headliners.  “I know that he’s hitting irons and putting and hitting up to 100 yards right now.  So he’s still got a lot of time.  April is the Masters so he still has almost two and a half full months before he has to start getting in tournament mode where he has to start hitting more balls and stuff. …”

Longwell doesn’t think the left knee will be 100 percent until 2010.  He also said Woods, whom he talked to earlier this fall when the Vikings played in Tampa, won’t play in 2009 unless he’s ready to perform at a high level.

Nothing has developed but there was conversation earlier this fall about a Pete Sampras–Andre Agassi exhibition match in Minnesota.

Thunder general manager Djorn Buchholz said first team all-leaguer Stephen deRouex has signed with Montreal but that second teamer Ricardo Sanchez will be back for next season.  Typically seven to nine players on the 26 player roster don’t return from one season to the next.

The local USL soccer team has started its season ticket drive for 2009 with prices ranging from $65 to $375, and offers a $20 season pass to youth 20 and under.   More at www.mnthunder.com 

Clyde Turner’s eighth annual Kwanzaa, Christmas, Holiday Basketball Camp for youngsters starts today at Fairview Park in north Minneapolis.  The camp, which runs each day this week except on Christmas Day, teaches basketball skills and sportsmanship, and discusses Kwanzaa. Turner was the leading scorer on the Gophers’ 1972 Big Ten championship team.

Former Gopher national championship coach Murray Warmath, who turns 96 on Friday, will be hosted at a luncheon by former players and other friends on December 30.

Ron Stolksi, who has been coaching high school football for almost 50 years, will be back as Brainerd’s head coach next year.  Stolski is also the first full time executive director of the Minnesota High School Football Coaches Association.

Canterbury Park will host Claiming Crown for the ninth time in the event’s 11-year history on Saturday, July 25, 2009.  Patterned after the Breeders’ Cup, the $600,000 Claiming Crown consists of seven races offered at varying distances on both dirt and turf.

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