Venue Detail
Minnesota Vikings
RSV Pro Facilities Report
February, 2016
Minnesota Vikings
9520 Viking Dr Minneapolis, MN 55344 Phone: 952-828-6500 Fax: 952-828-6542 URL: www.vikings.com Owner: Investment group led by Zygi Wilf League: National Football League, NFC North
Venue
U.S. Bank Stadium, , Minneapolis, MN Owner: Metropolitan Sports Facilities Authority Managed by: SMG Facility Management Built: 2016 Capacity: 66,200 Concessionaire: Aramark Soft drink:
Naming rights
Sold to: U.S. Bank Price: $220,000,000 Term: 25 years Expires: 2040
Ticket prices
Season tickets range from $250 to $1,230 Single tickets range from $15.00 to $143.00
Attendance
2013 average attendance: 64,019 2014 average attendance: 52,238
Suites
Quantity: 79 Terms begin at 4 years Price: $60,000 to $160,000 Seats: 12 to 16
Club seats
Quantity: 7,500 Price: $4,500 to $4,800
Financing
The team paid $477 million – just under half the total cost. The state invested $348 million and. Minneapolis provided $150 million.
Seat licenses
The stadium-builder licenses are required for 49,700 seats in the 66,200-seat stadium. License prices ranged from $500 to $9,500.
The licenses are one-time fees for the right to buy a certain season-ticket seat in the stadium. Once purchased, the seat licenses are valid for 30 years, but they apply only for Vikings games – not concerts and other events.
Initially the Vikings sold the licenses at 16 price points. The highest and lowest categories are sold out. Other categories include $2,000, $2,250 and $2,550.
The average seat license is about $2,500.
The team offered two financing options: one calls for equal payments, interest free, over three years, and the other offers an additional five years of financing at 8 percent interest.
Once a seat license has been purchased, the owner controls that seat as long as he or she continues to buy season tickets. After the first year, owners can sell their seat licenses if they no longer want to buy season tickets.
Ending a decade of turmoil, the Minnesota Senate gave final approval in May 2012 to a $975 million Vikings stadium meant to anchor the team in Minneapolis for a generation.
In a late development that secured the last handful of votes, legislative negotiators insisted on boosting the team’s share by another $50 million to lower the taxpayers’ share. The team will pay $477 million – just under half the total cost. Early plans had the public subsidy at more than 60 percent.
Negotiators retained a much-criticized expansion of charitable gambling to pay the state’s $348 million contribution. Minneapolis’ $150 million share is unchanged, but the city now can use excess sales tax money to renovate its aging Target Center.
Legislators also brought back a provision that gives the Vikings exclusive rights to recruit a professional soccer team to the state, a franchise that could help pay for a retractable roof.
The bill approved by legislators calls for building a 65,000-seat stadium that could be expanded to handle 72,000 fans. It would include 7,500 club seats, 150 luxury suites and space for gift shops, restaurants and an NFL team museum and Hall of Fame.
The stadium would have a fixed roof, but the team has an option of installing a retractable cover if it chooses.
Of the 62,000 non-suite seats, about 50,000 require the one-time purchase of a seat license – which the team refers to as a "stadium builder's license," or SBL – in order to buy a season ticket for that seat.
Fans have objected to paying a fee on top of paying for seats, particularly when about half the stadium cost is being paid with public money.
But team officials say the Vikings are the 18th NFL team to use seat licenses for a stadium. At $125 million, the Minnesota program falls in the middle of the pack using inflation-adjusted numbers.
The clubs are all on the 50-yard line, with the price rising the closer you are to the Vikings' bench and to the field.
One premium seating area that's not a club is called the "Ultimate Fan Zone." Directly behind the end zone, it's intended to be similar to the Hawk's Nest in Seattle or Dawg Pound in Cleveland. Tickets there are $110 per game, plus a one-time license fee of $2,550.
The lease agreement calls for the team to rent space for 30 years with an option to renew for up to an additional 20 years. The Vikings will pay the authority $8.5 million annually in rent and $1.5 million annually for capital improvements. They also will pay all gameday expenses, with the authority capturing advertising, rental and club space revenue from all non-NFL or team events.
The Vikings, meanwhile, will get revenue from stadium and plaza naming rights, sponsorships and advertisements, and concessions and ticket sales. Naming rights alone could generate more than $5 million annually.
The team can play up to three home games outside the United States in the first 15 years of the agreement and up to three more in the 15 years after that.
The agreements also call for the team to pick up a good chunk of the cost of an extensive legal and financial audit of team owners Zygi, Mark and Leonard Wilf that was ordered by the authority after a New Jersey judge ruled that the Wilfs had defrauded business partners in a real estate deal.
The team has agreed to pay $219,000 of a $377,000 bill. The rest will come from the stadium project as part of its normal "due diligence" of the owners.
The team plans to play its 2016 season in the new stadium, which will sit on the site of the old Metrodome, but on a considerably larger piece of land featuring a large sports plaza for tailgating. During construction, the Vikings will play at TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota.
Fantasy football players will have another new premium seat option available : Club Purple. These seats do not require licenses and will sell from about $250 to $800 per game with a four-year agreement required. These are all-inclusive seats akin to the Minnesota Twins' Champions Club at Target Field, with an endless supply of wine, beer and soda along with extensive buffets of food and preferred parking near the stadium.
Club Purple will offer unique content for mobile devices, 4k television displays, video gaming and media broadcast integration.
The new venue will be managed by SMG. After SMG pays the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Authority its guaranteed $6.75 million, the company takes the next $500,000. The next $1 million is evenly split. Above that, the MSFA receives 75 percent of the revenue to 25 percent for SMG. (Facilities, Football, NFL, Professional Sports, Venue)