"With a Feb. 15 relocation deadline looming and the Vikings without a stadium agreement, the NFL on Wednesday declared the Los Angeles market dead for 2012.

That decision preserves the team in Minnesota next season as it negotiates with Minneapolis and the state to fund a replacement for the Metrodome.

Competing developers have yet to offer terms conducive to lure an NFL team to the country's second-largest city and there is not enough time for owners to approve relocation, said Eric Grubman, the league's executive vice president of business ventures. "