MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Vikings have submitted a bid to host the 2028 NFL Draft, multiple city and team stakeholders confirmed Wednesday. The team is working in conjunction with Minnesota Sports and Events, the regional sports commission that helped secure Super Bowl LII after the 2017 season.

“Minnesota is in contention,” Matt Meunier, the bid director for Minnesota Sports and Events, said. “We’re in the game. We’re actively pursuing the right to bring a future NFL draft to our community.”

Traditionally, the NFL awards future host cities during one of the league’s annual spring or summer ownership meetings. The owners are scheduled to meet on March 29 in Phoenix and on May 19 in Orlando, Fla.

The Vikings began their pursuit in 2019. Team executives have attended previous drafts. They have also visited the league office to reiterate their interest.

“We have basically been staying in their face for multiple years,” said Lester Bagley, the Vikings’ executive vice president of public affairs.

Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf has wanted to bring the event to Minnesota for years. Last fall, speaking at the team’s practice facility in Eagan, Minn., he said that the subject remained a focus. In conversations with the NFL, league executives mentioned U.S. Bank Stadium as an intriguing location. Minnesota Sports and Events proposed multiple options, but many of them centered around U.S. Bank Stadium.

Experience helps in this regard, too. The Vikings and Minnesota Sports and Events collaborated on the winning bid for the Super Bowl in early 2018. Bagley and Wendy Blackshaw, the president and CEO of Minnesota Sports and Events, said the league came away pleased with the result.

The Vikings plan to commit financial and staff support to help with the bid. The team and Minnesota Sports and Events have also obtained resources from executives from three local companies: Christophe Beck of Ecolab, Gunjan Kedia of U.S. Bank and Geoff Martha of Medtronic.

Blackshaw wouldn’t divulge the specifics on the investments, but she did suggest that Minnesota Sports and Events estimates an economic impact of more than $100 million.

“There is a significant interest in this event,” Blackshaw said, “especially an event of this scale. It would be amazing.”

Typically, host cities must submit bids for multiple years before they are selected by the NFL. Pittsburgh will host the 2026 NFL Draft in less than a month, and Washington, D.C., is scheduled to host the 2027 NFL Draft.

Last year, The Buffalo News reported that the Bills were throwing their hats in the ring for 2028 to coincide with the opening of the new Highmark Stadium.

“Certainly, if 2028 doesn’t work out, we’d need to pivot to a future year,” Meunier said.

Both the team and Minnesota Sports and Events said Wednesday that they intend to pursue the event annually until it is held in Minnesota.

A Twin Cities mom got a big scare this weekend when her 8-year-old son wandered far away from home.

Sarah Curfman’s son, Felix, who has Down syndrome, was playing with his bigger sister Sunday morning, when his mom said he suddenly went missing from his Shakopee, Minnesota, home.

“The panic was very real,” said Curfman.

After Curfman and her husband shouted Felix’s name with no luck, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office was called.

“Luckily the sheriff’s department had way better tools than the two of us to try and find him,” said Curfman.

The sheriff’s office took the search to the air with the help of a heat-detecting drone. Roughly 40 minutes later, Felix was found walking on a frozen creek bed.

“If he had gotten kind of farther up, there was much more open water,” said Curfman.

Thankfully, Felix was fine, returning home after his half-mile trek with just a wet sock and shoe.

The Scott County Sheriff’s Office has been using drones for six years, thanks to donations from local banks and rotary clubs, said Scott County Sheriff Luke Hennen.

The technology was key in significantly cutting down on search time, he said.

“I think easily in a case like this, it could have turned into an hour or two, right, just to get enough fire personnel walking, you know, sweeping through the different areas,” said Hennen.

Curfman is now taking extra precautions with Felix.

“We ordered a ton of air tags in the short term. I ordered a shoe insert that can go in his shoe, a little pin that we’re going to put a sheriff’s badge on that he’ll wear on his body,” said Curfman.  

All as Felix gets a better gasp of boundaries.

“He’s an 8-year-old boy that is probably going to go on more adventures, so we just have to figure out how to keep him safe,” said Curfman.