A new artificial playing surface, Sportexe, will be in place at Mall of America Field when the Vikings play their first preseason game at home on August 28. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission paid $475,000 for the turf which replaces a six-year-old playing surface, according to commission executive director Bill Lester.
Lester also said the commission has spent $700,000 for the new Gridiron Club and $100,000 to relocate the Vikings’ ticket operations. The club is a hospitality area available for a fee to Vikings’ season ticket holders and is located in the space formerly occupied by the Twins’ offices at the stadium. The club will include an outdoor deck overlooking the stadium’s plaza and provides views of downtown. The facility will be open for the August 28 game.
The new ticketing operation, now located on Chicago Avenue in the Twins’ former ticket locale, will provide the Vikings about “four times” the space the NFL team had on the stadium’s east side, Lester said.
The Vikings will also continue to play rent free in the stadium which became Mall of America Field last year, Lester said. The commission’s budgets for 2010 and 2011 include no revenues from Vikings rent, a policy that dates back to the late 1990’s after the debt on the Metrodome was retired.
The Vikings will continue to pay a 10 percent admissions tax to the commission. The team’s lease at the stadium expires after the 2011 season.
The Twins’ move to Target Field eliminated 81 playing dates for baseball at the dome. Lester said, however, that since January 1 the dome has hosted more than 400 amateur baseball games including a full schedule played by the Gophers.