Pioneer Press article on Gophers/Twins stadiums and the recession

[GoAUpher]

Here's a link to a Pioneer Press article from yesterday that talks about the TCF and Target Field stadium projects and how they are being affected by the economy: http://www.twincities.com/gophersfootball/ci_11807400. It also reflects on the good timing both projects had in being approved prior to the current downturn and how they compare to other stadium projects success (or lack thereof).

Some quotes/info related to TCF that I found interesting:
- "Crum, the associate athletics director, said they are about $81 million toward their initial fundraising goal of $86 million. The most generous donations were easier to secure than the final 5-10 percent, which means "we just have to work a little smarter and harder to get there."

- "All 54 loge boxes have been sold, along with 30 of 37 luxury suites. There still are premium seats available, including 150 of the $3,000 all-inclusive indoor club, and about 200 of the $1,800 outdoor club. Those customers sign three-, five- or 10-year contracts while anyone purchasing $275 season tickets between the 20-yard lines is required to make a tax-deductible scholarship donation between $100 and $500. The Gophers had a Metrodome season-ticket base of 10,000 accounts, with 34,000 of the 50,000 seats at TCF Bank Stadium available for selection starting in April. If current season-ticket account holders opt to transition to the new stadium, Crum said the team would sell out its allotment, with 1,000 more fans on a waiting list."

I'm very glad that TCF was approved when it was and my hat is off to everyone who is working to bring the project home on time and on budget (no small feat!).

 

[mnboiler]

Ironically right now would be the best time to build new stadia. Basically it provides jobs for roughly 300-500 people on site everyday plus office personal that would otherwise be unemployed. You cant expect that a 300 million dollar building won't affect the economy. Even if the economic multiplier is quite low say .65 that would have a huge affect. It multiplies very quickly basically it would mean that if you had a $100 million(for easy figuring) $65 million would be spent then $42.25 million would be spent then just keep going on down until your down to basically nothing so after just 2 "generations" after the intial investment you have a $207.25 million boost the economy. So the impact is quite large.

The problem is that you have a hard time telling people with bad road and lowering test scores a stadium is a good idea-roads and education need to come before stadium in no way am I implying the opposite. Right now the state and the Queens need to come up with a good package where the Vikings get there new retactable roof stadium and Zygi gets his delovepment. And at the end of this thing the stadiums aren't going to be any cheap with inflation. There is a way to do this people need to be creative.

 

[Schnoodler]

As it so often happens, the best time is now to do it, but the worst time to gain support and momentum for such projects is also now. whaddaya do. I'm thankful we got these projects ok'd at the height of economic times and will recieve the benefit at the optimal time. we really lucked out.