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Randall getting better with age


Crushed Cardinals hope to come back from loss to Vikings


Hoard, Smith provide Vikings with flash, dash



  Sunday, Jan. 10 10:50pm ET
Getting to Miami could be rough for Viking fans
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS -- Anyone thinking of following the Vikings to Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami Jan. 31 had better start planning their trip soon.

Hotel rooms, flights from the Twin Cities to Miami and game tickets are quickly being depleted.

Tickets are only available to the general public through ticket brokers. The Vikings, who will be allotted 11,000 tickets by the NFL if the team beats the Atlanta Falcons next Sunday, held a lottery for season-ticket holders for some of those.

The remainder will be distributed to players, owners, sponsors and others affiliated with the team.

Face value of a Super Bowl ticket is $325, but brokers are getting significantly higher prices. According to the current retail price sheet of Ticket Exchange, a broker in Phoenix, an upper end-zone seat at Miami's Pro Player Stadium will cost you $1,900, and seats between the 30-yard-line markers on the lower level will go for $4,000.

Scalping won't be allowed on the day of the game, said detective Pat Brickman of the Metro-Dade Police Department in Miami.

"We are going to have police out there in sufficient numbers to prevent scalping," he said.

Fans who buy a charter package to Miami should make sure the deal comes with a game ticket.

If the Vikings go to the Super Bowl, MLT Vacations will offer a round-trip flight from Minneapolis to Fort Myers, Fla., Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 for $355.90, plus $97 for a two-door economy car from Alamo, said Diane Banks, MLT's ad manager.

Game tickets aren't included in the deal, and the drive to Miami is about 160 miles.

Sports King, a Boston travel agency, expects to offer two charter flights out of the Twin Cities if the Vikes are in the Super Bowl. With hotel rooms and shuttles to the game -- but no ticket -- prices will range from $1,100 to $1,400.

Northwest Airlines has four flights daily from the Twin Cities to Miami. As of Friday, two flights were already sold out, said a Northwest spokesman, but more seats might become available.

A round trip -- leaving Jan. 30 and returning Feb. 2 -- was available for $302 as of Friday evening, according to a Northwest reservationist.

Hotel rooms will be difficult to come by.

"If you are even thinking about coming, go ahead and make a reservation immediately," said Jane Wooldridge, assistant features editor at the Miami Herald, who supervises its travel section. "This is high season in south Florida, and we are pretty much booked up here anyway."

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