DTE: Wells Fargo, Radisson Red, Edition Apts & Millwright Building

[Didier]

Closing off a few local streets to allow for tailgating sounds like a perfectly reasonably compromise to me.

We're talking about a few hours, eight times a year (all on a day when little else is going on downtown), and streets that no reasonable person would be driving on at the time anyway.


The reality is that the Vikings preferred to build in Arden Hills, but many people (including state legislators, the city council and many of us here) preferred a downtown location. There are plenty of benefits that go with a downtown stadium — it keeps a major entertainment center in Minneapolis, maximizes current infrastructure and hopefully is a catalyst for future development in downtown east — but by definition there are negative aspects of having an NFL stadium downtown. One, obviously, is that we now have a massive structure that is unused or under-used for much of the year. Another is that we have to accommodate tailgating. The bill would not have passed without that understanding.

I give the city credit for how its gone forward so far. Supply for tailgating will for sure go down with the planned loss of surface lots, and creative ideas like railgating will hopefully reduce the demand, but we can't just snap our fingers and get rid of tailgating because it's not urban.

We chose this plan.

Honestly, closing of a few local streets seven or eight Sundays a year in exchange for not maintaining surface parking lots is about as reasonable a compromise as I can imagine.

[twincitizen]

We are told that stadiums downtown mean customers at restaurants and bars downtown. We are also told that thousands need space dedicated to drinking and eating their own food outside. Pick one.

QFT!

[Gregory]

Lots of people jump off bridges, even some of my friends. That doesn't mean we should dedicate vast swaths of valuable downtown real estate to bridges that end in midair to facilitate the desires of a tiny minority.

It's a FOOTBALL stadium, not a department store. They tailgate at football games. Get over it.

[Snelbian]

Precedent isn't a convincing argument for poor decisions.

[mulad]

Tailgating is a side-effect of football stadiums being built out in the middle of nowhere, without restaurants nearby. Its an adaptation, and people will adapt back.

[Rich]

There's absolutely nothing in the stadium law about tailgating. The law calls for 2,000 parking spots within a block of the stadium, connected by skyway or tunnel, and 500 spots within two blocks with a dedicated walkway. That's it. Those requirements will be met with existing ramps coupled with the new Ryan-built ramps.

Tailgating isn't Zygi's top priority. He'd much prefer it if people bought food and drink from a Zygi-owned facility. My hunch is that they're just trying to find a way to capture parking revenue from any downtown east facilities that heretofore haven't been in play, and that's what this recent story is all about.

[mattaudio]

Yeah, I really don't understand why this tailgating topic has taken off. I can't see it being in play that much. They should just charge an extra $20 for a parking spot on top of parking ramps and call it good. Nothing says Merica like tailgaiting on top of the Gateway ramp.

Edit: Maybe we can have an UrbanMSP ramp rooftop tailgate sometime?

[MNdible]

My sense is that the Vikings don't really care much about it, but they want to appear to care for their fans who are really riled up about it.

I agree that there should be a way to make tailgating work in some of the ramps.

[Tyler]

Turning a few blocks of street into high priced tailgating lots seems like a good idea. Is there a good reason to be against that?

[MNdible]

Makes sense to me. I'm not sure how many spots they could actually create this way, though.

[Didier]

Tailgating isn't Zygi's top priority. He'd much prefer it if people bought food and drink from a Zygi-owned facility. My hunch is that they're just trying to find a way to capture parking revenue from any downtown east facilities that heretofore haven't been in play, and that's what this recent story is all about.

That's naive. Attendance is quietly creeping up as an issue in the NFL since the experience at home is cheaper, easier and increasingly better thanks to HDTVs and the focus on fantasy football.

When the Vikings are good they will never have trouble selling tickets, but it's when they are bad that they need the die-hard fans. Many of these die-hard fans spend thousands of dollars on season tickets each year so that they can spend their entire Sunday hanging out at/around the game. When the game starts, these are the fans who provide much of the atmosphere that everybody else feeds off. The team is already going to risk losing blue collar fans when it raises ticket prices for the new stadium, and suddenly changing the entire game-day experience would be a monumental risk for short-term gain.

I know it's trendy to paint Zygi as a soulless capitalist who will burn every bridge for a dollar, but it's far more likely that the team earnestly wants to maintain this decades-old tradition in order to ensure that its most passionate fans continue to come to games.

[Wedgeguy]

Other than emergency vehicles that have to be rerouted, Hospital, firehouse within striking distance of the DOME, fill the streets, But the CITY NOT ZYGI get the revenues for closing streets!!

PS Good luck with getting past gridlock with the streets filled with parked vehicles.

[Rich]

It does seem like the Vikings have some empathy with tailgaters who'll soon have no place to go. But I don't think accommodating them is a very high priority. And I think it's curious that Bagley's one concrete idea is "a village concept" which uses their stadium plaza and their stadium concessionaire to provide "tailgating without cars”. To me that suggests they want options that generate revenue for Zygi.

http://blogs.mprnews.org/stadium-watch/ ... w-stadium/

[JMS9]

Christ, they're not talking about shutting down streets at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon. It's a few streets AROUND the stadium (like they've been doing for what, 10-12 years now already?) for a football game. Who the fuck is downtown on a Sunday morning other than tailgaters for a Vikings game anyways? I live downtown. There's not shit going on until mid-day, if even then, unless there is a Vikings game. Get a grip. This will inconvenience practically nobody. Two Sundays a month. Maybe three. Oh, the horror.

[Minneboy]

I understand peoples passions but the swearing really is unnecessary and vulgar.

There are a few hundred people who work downtown but they are ONLY government employees and no one cares about them. Well only when they need them to help save a life. You know like 911 and HCMC to name a few. Not to mention all the people who come downtown to visit their loved ones in jail.

So just saying.

[Gregory]

I understand peoples passions but the swearing really is unnecessary and vulgar.

There are a few hundred people who work downtown but they are ONLY government employees and no one cares about them. Well only when they need them to help save a life. You know like 911 and HCMC to name a few. Not to mention all the people who come downtown to visit their loved ones in jail.

So just saying.

I guess I don't care about jail visits. JM makes a great point, live with the language.....why? Because the anti tailgating comments are ridiculous.

It's a football game, move to Alaska if that offends you so much.

[spearson]

Tailgating is a side-effect of football stadiums being built out in the middle of nowhere, without restaurants nearby. Its an adaptation, and people will adapt back.

Couldn't agree more. Take Milwaukee's Miller Park, that place is away from the downtown core surrounded by parking lots, and people tailgate for baseball games. Here in Minnesota, Target Field has no room for tailgating, but the bars surrounding it are packed on game days. People will find a way to drink, tailgating need not be required.

Only problem I see is if there are no parking lots and no bars/restaurants near by.



What's with the unnecessary vulgarity? Grow up people.

[Tyler]

I guess I don't care about jail visits. JM makes a great point, live with the language.....why? Because the anti tailgating comments are ridiculous.

It's a football game, move to Alaska if that offends you so much.

What comments do you find ridiculous? No one is offended by tailgating. What we are offended by is the idea that we need to retain x amount of surface parking downtown just to satisfy the desire for it.

It's downtown, build the stadium in Arden Hills if that offends you so much.

[Gregory]

People (fans) tailgate AT EVERY stadium. The tailgating haters knew this, why would that offend you? Arden Hills was the better spot, no doubt, but it's dwtn. Deal with the realities, not the wish.

[FISHMANPET]

But nobody tailgates at Target Field?

Are there any other urban NFL stadiums we can compare ours to?