New University of Minnesota Football Stadium

[Cheesesteak]

Conferees agree to state financing for Gophers stadium

GOPHERS: The $248 million stadium would seat 50,000 fans not far from the old Memorial Stadium. Opening is set for '09.

Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune -- May 20, 2006

State financing of a campus football stadium for the University of Minnesota, a dream of Gophers boosters since a few years after the team decamped to the Metrodome, was agreed to late Friday by House-Senate conferees.
The bipartisan compromise sets up likely final passage by the Legislature today and delivery to a supportive Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Under the deal, the state would make 25 annual payments of $10.25 million each beginning in 2007 to help cover the university's debt service on a 50,000-seat open-air stadium costing an estimated $248 million.

The facility, to be named "TCF Bank Stadium" under a $35 million naming-rights deal with the Twin Cities-based financial firm, is expected to open in 2009. It would be located near Williams Arena.

The new stadium would be a short distance from the site of Memorial Stadium, the red-brick landmark that opened in 1924 and was demolished in '92.

A final compromise by the conferees would cut student fees to support the project to $25 a year; the university originally had proposed $100 a year. To fill the resulting money gap, the annual state contribution went up from $7 million in the university's first request to $10.25 million from the state's $15 billion-a-year general fund.

Chief Senate negotiator Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, complained that the increased state share was left without dedicated funding after the governor and a majority of conferees rejected Pogemiller's plan for a 13 percent tax on licensed sports items at the wholesale level.

"The bill is simply not paid for," Pogemiller said, shortly before joining eight other conferees in voting for the compromise. The lone opposing vote was from Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul.

She said the imposition of the fee on students who might never attend a football game would send them the wrong message about the university's priorities at a time when it is struggling to fund its academic mission.

But university President Robert Bruininks said student government leaders have endorsed the fee. "I do not think it is unreasonable for students to pay some modest fee as a contribution to the stadium initiative," he said. "They did back in the 1920s when Memorial Stadium was built."

Pogemiller said the stadium "will benefit our university, an institution that deals with the full person -- mind, body and spirit."

Chief House negotiator Ron Abrams, R-Minnetonka, fought back tears as he hailed the agreement that he said came at his last meeting in a House hearing room that he has frequented since he took office in 1989. He is leaving the Legislature, having been appointed a Hennepin County district judge by Pawlenty.

"This last vote is something I'm doing for my kids and kids throughout Minnesota," Abrams said. "This stadium will build community pride in one of the finest land-grant institutions in the nation."

University leaders also emphasized that a Gophers stadium would boost the school's football receipts by at least $3 million a year, helping to subsidize nonrevenue sports for men and women. That could be increased further if the university ever expands the stadium to up to 80,000 seats, which the current plans allow for.

As part of the deal, Senate conferees also dropped their opposition to the university's proposed transfer to the state of 2,840 undeveloped acres in Dakota County. When that incentive was announced in late April, it revived legislative momentum for a stadium proposal that had been stalled after two years at the State Capitol.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[mr. pony]

So

[mr. pony]

What?

[Danny Noonan]

Not sure what we were supposed to get from it, but what I saw was that a school was doing something different than most schools. They're building a smaller, more intimate stadium. Going to 50,000, rather than 100,000.

Strange move for a school in the Big 10, with one of the top 5 enrollments in the nation.

[Cheesesteak]

Some reasons why the new UM stadium is interesting -

The excitement of building an on-campus stadium (currently Minnesota is the only Big 10 school without an on-campus stadium). I attended a Golden Gopher game in the H.H.H. Metrodome and the gameday atmosphere outside and inside was lacking. Only a few years back (September 2000) SMU opened Ford Stadium on the Hilltop with much excitement.

Back in the SWC days, most of SMU's conference mates had on-campus stadiums. I believed our competitors' on-campus stadiums were an advantage for them, especially after SMU stopped drawing decent crowds to the aging Cotton Bowl.

On-campus stadiums: Rice, Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech and Arkansas (the Hogs also used and still do use War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock for one or two games per season)

Near-campus stadium: Baylor

Off-campus stadiums: Houston (now back on-campus) and SMU

Although Minnesota is not currently especially active in Texas football recruiting, they were a decade ago (ex. when former TCU coach Jim Wacker was the Golden Gopher HC).

With a new on-campus "collegiate" stadium UM will have more impressive recruiting tools and could again focus more energy on Texas recruits.

Costs - Ford Stadium opened in 2000 with 32K seats (including 24 suites and about 600 club level suites) and cost $43M (excludes costs of Loyd ASC). To reduce construction and materials costs and reduce its impact on the surrounding neighborhood Ford Stadium was built with the playing field 25 feet below street level.

The new on-campus UM stadium will cost $248M for 50K seats (unknown number of suites)...$205M for 18K more seats than Ford Stadium has.

The drive to host college football games on-campus (don't pay rent, collegiate atmosphere and related gameday events in campus buildings, etc.) is strong.

[McClown27]

I am from Minnesota and my Dad is a Viking season ticket holder. The Metrodome is the worst professional sport venue in the business. The Vikings, Twins, and Gophers have all suffered because of it. The Twins also just got a new stadium.

With Glen Mason, the Gophers currently recruit Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas/Missouri really hard. They have gotten a lot of players from St. Louis (notably Maroney), as Mason knows all of the coaches from his time at Kansas. Minnesota only produces 10-15 Division 1 players every year. As for the attendance, Minnesota is a hockeytown and people do not care about football as much.