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Univ. Of Minnesota Stadium Naming-Rights
Deal In Jeopardy With Proposed Bill
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Minnesota state Senate leaders have introduced a bill that would prohibit the
Univ. of Minnesota (UM) from using private money for a new $248M on-campus football
stadium “if the donors are allowed to determine the stadium’s name, a move that
could unravel the stadium’s financing,” according to Mike Kaszuba of the Minneapolis
STAR TRIBUNE. UM officials last year announced a 25-year, $35M deal with TCF Financial
Corp for naming rights to the stadium, but state Sen. Larry Pogemiller said that
legislators “were privately uncomfortable with the TCF agreement and that the
stadium ought to be entirely funded with public money.” Pogemiller is joined by
state Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson on the bill. However, state Rep. Ron
Abrams, who sponsored UM’s stadium proposal, noted the UM School of Management
is named after Carlson Companies Founder Curt Carlson and said, “Who do you think
that was named after, or which companies were involved there?” UM CFO Richard
Pfutzenreuter said that the school is “concerned that the proposal would not only
jeopardize financing for the stadium but also would have a chilling affect on
other attempts to obtain corporate and philanthropic contributions.” TCF spokesperson
Jason Korstange said that the company “will not get involved in the debate,” and
added that there is “no indication it is being driven by political opposition
to” TCF Chair Bill Cooper, a former Minnesota Republican Party Chair (
Minneapolis
STAR TRIBUNE, 3/16).
