This week’s announcement that the 2018 Super Bowl will be played in Minneapolis makes it even more likely the new downtown multipurpose stadium opening in 2016 will attract major events ranging from Final Fours to concerts to perhaps national political conventions, sources told Sports Headliners.
Todd Klingel, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the new stadium’s image is now enhanced because the “biggest event” is coming here. Dave Mona, the local public relations executive who was involved with the successful bid to bring the 1992 Super Bowl to the Metrodome, said concert promoters are attracted to the “hottest places” when booking tours. Bill Lester, former executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission that ran the Metrodome, said the 2018 announcement will be a “catalyst” for world-class events—possibly the Democratic National Convention.
“With the exception of the Olympics, nothing exceeds the Super Bowl in terms of eyeballs to watch it on TV and impact, and (the) buy-in you get from the corporate community and the public sector,” Lester said. “There’s nothing quite like the Super Bowl.”
Lester said the Democratic party likes stadium venues for its conventions and former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak was interested in bringing the big event to the dome. Varied events could come to the new stadium with Lester recalling the dome even hosted the Alcoholics Anonymous convention.
Earlier this year the NCAA announced Minneapolis as one of eight cities who are finalists to host the men’s basketball Final Four between 2017-2020. The Metrodome hosted two Final Fours, plus regional tournaments—with the city and its boosters receiving considerable approval by NCAA officials.
The new stadium, with the Vikings as the anchor tenant, is expected to be among the best covered facilities in the country and will meet the NCAA Final Four requirement for 60,000 seats or more. With an attractive downtown, and a region able to provide the NCAA-required 10,000 or more full-service hotel rooms, Minneapolis looks like a lock to have one or more Final Fours in the next 10 years.
The Big Ten Football Championship Game started in 2011 and has been played each year at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Minneapolis promoters are expected to make a determined pitch to have the game played here, perhaps in alternate years with Indianapolis. “I’d be very surprised if that didn’t also come our way,” Klingel said.
Lester is optimistic, too, and remembered inquiring about the football game and also the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament for the Metrodome. The new stadium also might consider a made-for-TV basketball game involving the Gophers and an opponent like Louisville matching Richard Pitino against his father Rick Pitino—a potential box office hit.
Another high profile event target for the new stadium is expected to be the national championship college football game. The game has never been hosted by a northern city and that could give Minneapolis an edge in eventually winning a bid.
The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority is close to choosing a stadium operator from a small candidates list of private management companies. Klingel expects an announcement “within 30 days.”
Among the operator’s responsibilities will be staffing, security, marketing and booking events for the new facility. “I don’t think there’s any question the operator will bid for everything that is biddable,” Mona said.
Mona, though, joked not to expect another Super Bowl soon. He predicted the big game could return in 2044, noting it will be 26 years from the 1992 Minneapolis Super Bowl to the 2018 game.
Klingel said there isn’t a precise figure regarding the economic impact to Minneapolis and region for the 2018 game. Indianapolis and New Orleans, the two cities that finished behind Minneapolis in the 2018 bidding for the Super Bowl, were using figures of over $300 and $400 million respectively, he said.
“Maybe it’s worth $75 million,” Klingel said, trying to be conservative. “Who doesn’t want it? It more than pays for itself.”
Super Bowl Notes
New Orleans, 10 times the Super Bowl host, had never lost in the bidding process before this week. The 2018 game was to help celebrate the 300th anniversary of the city. Rod West, a New Orleans Super Bowl presenter to the NFL in Atlanta, said he was “shocked” in a Times-Picayune online story by Larry Holder posted on Tuesday.
Holder wrote that since 2004 eight cities with new stadiums, including Minneapolis, have all been successful in being rewarded with a Super Bowl in voting by NFL owners. Among those stadiums is Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis, site of the 2012 game.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay talked about the competition of Minnesota’s new stadium in a Wednesday online story by Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star. “It’s always tough when you’re going up against someone that is building a new stadium,” Irsay said. “It’s not by rule but by tradition that they get awarded one. Minnesota, like us, received that kind of unwritten award of the game. It was tough competition, particularly with that factor in play.”
Don’t count on the Vikings playing in the 2018 game. Not only will the Vikings have to improve a lot, but since the first Super Bowl in 1967 only one team has played in its hometown area. In 1985 the San Francisco 49ers played the Miami Dolphins in Palo Alto, California.
Retired coach Bud Grant, who turned 87 on Tuesday, led the Vikings to four Super Bowls including the last one in 1977 against the Oakland Raiders in Pasadena, California.
Grant has been holding a three-day garage sale that ends at noon today at his Bloomington home, according to the website Gsalr.com. The website refers to “Vikings stuff” but also describes hunting and fishing items.