Vikings organization buys $2M worth of tickets to Lions game to bring "the Purple" to Ford Field
MINNEAPOLIS — "The Purple" showed up to the showdown in Detroit on Sunday night thanks to some unexpected generosity.
Thousands of dedicated Vikings fans made their way to the NFC matchup of the year against the Lions for a reasonable cost.
"Ta-da! We made it!" said Brandie Mitchell-Kielpinski from her Detroit hotel ahead of the Sunday night game.
She's was one of many season ticket holders offered an affordable ticket to this game by the team via email.
"At first I didn't believe that it was real. I had to check to make sure it wasn't a fake email," said Mitchell-Kielpinski.
The team offered up tickets to certain fans for as cheap as $200. The Vikings organization bought up some 1,900 tickets on the secondary market for about $1,000 each to bring more Viking fans to Detroit, according to a Sports Illustrated report. This was a reported $2 million investment by the team.
"Given the uniqueness of this game, we wanted to offer our stakeholders—staff, family, season ticket members and team partners—an opportunity to attend," said team spokesperson Jeff Anderson in a statement to WCCO.
"I've never heard of a team's owners [buying tickets] at these outrageous prices and selling them back to the fans. It's beautiful, my mind is blown. I still can't comprehend it happened," said Karl Heinrichs, a longtime Vikings fan and tailgate organizer, who got his hands on one of these tickets.
Heinrichs says he didn't think it would be possible to be at Sunday's game in person, as standing room-only tickets at Ford Field were selling for $700 on average.
"I wasn't planning on going. Christmas was expensive, I'm on a budget, I couldn't afford it," said Heinrichs.
The team also offered some of these affordable tickets to organized fan groups across the country. It's why brothers Scott and Spencer Fluegel from Cincinatti, Ohio, got to be at this game.
"I started tearing up because I kind of settled in on the fact that we aren't going, and for that to be able to happen, and the Vikings take care of the fans like that, is pretty special," said Spencer Fluegel.
Sources tell Sports Illustrated, who first reported this, that the Lions organization reached out to the NFL concerned this was a violation, but the league came back and said the Vikings did not break any rules.
