Minnesota to spend $40m on park that will be reserved for Vikings during football season

If you stopped counting the exact amount of public subsidy that was going toward the new Minnesota Vikings stadium once it passed $1.1 billion, yeah, pretty much so did I. But Minneapolis City Pages has uncovered an additional subsidy that’s worth reporting on if only because it’s exceptionally sneaky.

Here’s the way it works: The state legislature is to vote on a bill to allow both Minneapolis and St. Paul to implement parking surcharges in certain parts of town. The revenue from the surcharges would be used to build “public plazas… designed to promote enjoyment of the city for Minnesotans and tourists of all ages.” In this case, that means Downtown East Commons Park, a planned public park next to the new Vikings stadium. Looks nice, doesn’t it?

home-imageAnd Minnesotans had better hope that it’s perpetual springtime in the park, as in this photo, because they’re not going to be able to enjoy the park in the fall without a ticket:

Part of the stadium giveaway brokered by those representing the people gives the Vikings and other VIPs exclusive use of the park for almost a third of a year.

Is this a huge deal? No, it’s not — the park will cost maybe $40 million to acquire and build, plus whatever it takes to maintain the place (pretty sure Vikings owner Zygi Wilf isn’t chipping in for that), and it’ll at least be available to the public part of the year. Still, it’s one of the growing list of examples of ways that team owners tack on additional costs that often don’t show up in the official figures — at least, not until after it’s too late to do anything about them.

And speaking of the Vikings stadium, it’s not only going to be a huge presence on the skyline, it’s going to have a huge U.S. Bank ad at the top, something that University of Minnesota design professor Tom Fisher calls “corporate graffiti,” though he adds that it may be “the only way to afford such expensive buildings.” Of course, that would be a better argument if the naming-rights fees from the bank were going to either the taxpayers who are putting up virtually all the money for the stadium or the residents whose eyeballs will be afflicted with this ad — but who can truly put a price on humans’ visual surroundings?

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9 comments on “Minnesota to spend $40m on park that will be reserved for Vikings during football season

  1. How exactly would they keep the park shut off to the public? That picture shows no fences or any other way to keep people out. If nothing else pedestrians would be constantly cutting threw there to keep from having to walk all the say down to the corner and up the other street. They’ll have police there 24/7? A full team of private security around the perimeter?

  2. Maybe I’m naive, but I’d assume “exclusive use of the park” would mean that on game days they’d set up a fanzone type experience. And while they could charge for it, if it was free (or very cheap) it would be a nice way to bring in the kind of people that are usually priced out of going to games. At least that’s what I would do but who knows what Wilf has in mind.

  3. “On event days, the Commons will be open to the public while VIP tents, beer gardens or other ticketed space may be used exclusively by the Vikings or MFSA.”

    http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-hosts-first-public-forum-on-downtown-east-park-design/293866001/

    So part of it will be fenced off with temporary barricades, presumably? Also not clear on who’ll be providing security. Anyone have a copy of the stadium agreement handy and some time to do a search?

  4. “…that it may be ‘the only way to afford such expensive buildings.’”

    Other than the gazillions of dollars that teams pull down via TV contracts that would make it easy to build their own stadia if they chose to do so? Sheesh.

  5. Joe, the pictures are always fantasies; for example, the stadiums never have cars or parking lots. They are propaganda for city hall.

  6. I’m also not entirely sure whether there’s ever a time you’d have half the trees in full leaf and the other half with blossoms on them, but I’ll allow them some leeway there.

  7. They had to come up with some alternative to the overused fireworks and random spotlights scanning the sky that are usually in stadium renderings.

  8. I’m going to hire stormtroopers on game days to keep the commoners out of my park.

    And if I want to uglify my stadium with giant light up bank logos, well, you can pound sand if you don’t like it, because I’m richer than you and I own half the pols in Minnesota now. Pffffffft!

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