Vikes Sign SMG, Up Spending

Rising steel prices and ever-upward construction expense revisions have left the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings with little choice but to kick in another $19.7 million to fund its new stadium while ensuring the building will have all the bells and whistles the team wants.

The new home of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, shown in an artists rendering, is getting a $19.7 million cash infusion from the team to ensure it gets the features they want after construction estimates went up.

It was also announced that SMG has signed a 10-year deal to market and operate the stadium.

SMG already runs NFL stadiums Chicago, New Orleans, Houston and Jacksonville, Fla. The new Minnesota stadium is expected to be completed in 2016 and is to host the Super Bowl in 2018. For now, the Vikings are playing their games outdoors at the University of Minnesota.

Vikings’ CFO Steve Poppen said scaling back stadium design was “never an option” and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority approved the spending increase Aug. 22. Facilities authority chairwoman Michelle Kelm-Helgen said much of the cost increase was caused by incomplete estimates on some features, such as an internal system that will deliver beer kegs to concession stands throughout the stadium.

Combined with tapping a $26.4 million contingency fund and previous additions for larger video boards and more televisions and escalators, the Vikes have added $49 million to the project over the past year.

Their contribution now stands at $525.6 million, a little more than half the $1.023 billion project.

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