The view of the new stadium with downtown Minneapolis in the background. Courtesy the University of Minnesota and HOK Sport.

03/28/2008 11:54 AM - Scheduled opening: September 12, 2009
Capacity: 50,200 (with ability to expand to perhaps 80,000)
Suites: 39
Cost: $288,000,000
Owner: University of Minnesota
Architect: HOK Sport
Website: http://www1.umn.edu/stadium/tcf.php
Written by: Dave Wright

Give the University of Minnesota credit for admitting they made a mistake. Too bad it took them almost 30 years and will cost nearly $300 million to make up for it. On September 12, 2009, the Golden Gophers are schedule  to return to outdoor football when they kick off their new on-campus facility, TCF Bank Stadium, with a game against Air Force. Ironically, the new stadium is located only a couple of blocks from the team’s last on-campus site – Memorial Stadium – used to stand.

From the looks of it, TCF Bank Stadium will be everything the team’s current home – the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome – isn’t: traditional, airy, and open. (It also be a little cozier than the Metrodome. Although current plans call for just 50,200 seats, it is being constructed in such a way as it could be expanded if required.)  It is as if HOK Sport took a hard look at the Metrodome and decided to go in the opposite direction.

Located on Huron Street near University Avenue, the stadium will have an open bowl, horseshoe look that reminds a person of Memorial Stadium, which served as the team’s home turf from 1924-81. The horseshoe look may be old, but it is rarely done these days. In this case, old turns out to be new because there is a whole generation of Minnesota football fans knowing only indoor football.

And make no mistake about it: the new home is a significant improvement on the old ones. Memorial may have been beloved by locals but it could be very uncomfortable to sit in. That’s because it was mainly bleachers with no elevators and long rows of seats. TCF has added all the modern amenities, including seats with backs on them, shorter rows, 39 suites, 59 loge boxes and 300 indoor club seats.

HOK Sport, the architect, has added some neat details such as a student entrance that will feature an arch with the words "Hats off To Thee" (they are part of the school’s fight song). It’s appropriate this is a student entrance because a $12.50 fee per semester is currently being assessed to all of the school’s 50,000 students.

The view of the stadium facade is designed to be reminiscent of Memorial Stadium. Courtesy the University of Minnesota and HOK Sport.

The open end of the two-tiered stadium will be basically across the street from Williams Arena, the school’s basketball home for the past eight decades. The specialty seating will all be on the same side of the stadium (the south) and will be located on top of the second deck. The specialty seating will have the normal amenities in concessions as well as flat-screen TVs for watching the action.

In addition to the usual fancy scoreboard (currently scheduled to be 48 x 108 and complete with replays, etc.), there will be a smaller visual board on the east end of the stadium.

The stadium is also trying to be green-conscious, aiming to become LEED certified – the current gold standard for environmentally responsible stadiums. For example, the stadium frame is being built mainly out of recyclable steel. There are also plans to use as many environmentally friendly concession items as possible.

There are a few potential difficulties with the new home. There has been some mutterings about the fact the new stadium will be uncovered and November games could be nippy. As frequently happens with stadiums built in the middle of a city, traffic is expected to be a major bugaboo. A University Avenue light rail line being proposed that will pass directly by the stadium will help but isn’t expected to be ready for the first couple years of existence. Although there will be plenty of room for bicycles and the university is planning on extensive bus service from the nearby State Fairgrounds (where there is room for roughly 17,000 cars to park), there is still a great need for more on-site parking. This was a problem during Memorial Stadium’s lifetime and has continued to be so when athletic events are held across the street at Williams or Mariucci Arena. There are plans to add a couple of thousand parking spaces (one building two blocks away is being knocked down for that purpose) but this issue – plus the fact the freeways are a couple of miles away) figure to be the stadium’s biggest drawback.

Still, TCF Bank Stadium will be a considerable improvement over life at the Metrodome. Although it was only located a couple of miles away from campus, it might as well been in another country.  The concept was that people would like having football downtown in a perfect setting that would allow night games. But it seemed college football ranked third in importance on the Metrodome totem pole behind baseball’s Twins and the NFL Vikings. Although the Golden Gophers have had a few solid teams since moving downtown in 1982 and attendance figures are comparable to the last days of Memorial Stadium, overall statewide interest in the team has fallen considerably. (It doesn’t help that Minnesota hasn’t won a Big Ten title since tying for one in 1967. Last year’s team didn’t win a conference game.) For nearly a decade, there has been a constant drumbeat in the media and beyond to return football to campus. After years of negotiations, the state of Minnesota and the university are roughly splitting the cost of the stadium with TCF Bank paying $35 million over 25 years for naming rights.

As a result, people seem willing to live with a few problems to see the Golden Gophers play outside again. Check back with us around Thanksgiving 2009 to see if that is still the case.