Brett Lorenzo Favre

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. The Vikings have sold more than 3,200 season tickets since news broke Brett Favre was coming to Minnesota. That’s in approximately a 24-hour span. Chief marketing officer Steve LaCroix said the team has sold about 11,000 single-game tickets during that time as fans clamor over the arrival of the veteran quarterback. There are roughly 6,000 season tickets remaining. The Vikings had to race to beat the blackout deadline (couldn’t fill the stadium) for several games last season, including needing two extensions from the NFL for the first-round playoff game against Philadelphia.

Merchandise is also moving. LaCroix said hundreds of pre-orders for Favre jerseys were placed online Tuesday. The purple No. 4s were to show up in stores on Wednesday. “It’s fun to be part of this and have the fans react the way that they have. To see them outside lining the streets (waving and trying to catch a glimpse as the car carrying Farvre made its way from the airport to the stadium) was something unexpected, but obviously pretty cool,” LaCroix said.

As soon as Vikings coach Brad Childress picked up Favre from the airport, the Vikings were on the phone with Reebok to get an order of No. 4 jerseys with his name on the back. The apparel company sent a truckload from its factory in Indianapolis to stock stores at malls in the Twin Cities, and more are on the way. LaCroix said that more than 200,000 people bought Favre’s Jets jersey last year, and the demand for the Vikings version figures to be even higher. “He was right up there at the top of jersey sales and so we’re ready,” he said.

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Now there are some sportswriters who wonder why all of the excitement? What were the Vikings thinking in begging Favre to return to football? Doesn’t Favre realize he is over the hill and too old to play the game? They don’t talk about his turning the Jets program around last season, selling out season tickets in New York for the first time in years, or moving the Jets from a win/loss record of 4 and 12 to 9 and 7. Some sportswriters just scratch their head and don’t understand.

And then there are some sportswriters who do understand. When legendary sportswriter Burt Sugar was asked why should any team want an old player like Brett Favre he threw his hands into the air and said, “Would anyone tell Babe Ruth he was too old to play?”