I'm a little surprised, even saddened, by the number of teams that now hold their training camps at their own facilities. About half of the teams now host their own camps. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. I'm sure that it's much more cost effective. The football traditionalist in me prefers packing up the team and moving off to some secluded college campus. I loved reading about Lombardi's Packers at St. Norbert College. Plimpton's Lions at Cranbrook. Those tales of getting away were terrific. Hijinks in the dorms. It's awesome stuff. Sure, 300lb football players may not enjoy jamming themselves into dorm room bunks after a long, hot day of practice. It's just something that they had to do. Consider it part of the team bonding experience. Now teams are moving away from that. Both the Packers and the Lions are at spiffy new facilities. Nothing stays the same. I hear that the Minnesota Vikings players hate the spartan accomodations at Gage Hall on the campus of Mankato St. Apparently Gage is going to be demolished in the coming year as the players cheer. The Vikings tried to go the spiffy new facility route. In their quest for a new stadium they initially had an agreement with the city of Arden Hills to build a huge Vikings playground. It didn't work out that way as the new stadium was volleyed back to downtown Minneapolis. Some things stay the same. Mankato will likely remain the Vikings training camp home.
Currently half of the NFL teams host their own training camp. I'd imagine that number will only increase over the next few years. It's cheaper to stay at home and training camps have become a huge money maker. Fans are jumping at the chance to see their team train. Keeping everything at home means that the team doesn't have to share the profits. Traveling to a far away college campus just isn't economically wise. It really never was but it sure was fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment