Many of you were able to attend the Gameday Preview on Saturday and saw The Vault for the first time. Last week, MN Business did an article on Minnesota businesses who contributed to the stadium. Obviously TCF Bank contributed something to the project ($35 million). The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community came in second with their $10 million donation. And Dairy Queen has their own room in the facility after giving $2.5 million.
But it was much more than that. $91million was donated from local companies and alumni. $47.5 came from those mentioned above and the remaining came from all over the place. It is interesting too, how the construction impacted so many local business.
Golden Valley-based M.A. Mortenson Co. was the general contractor. Paul Kitching, who led Mortenson’s construction team, estimated that about 250 firms directly worked on the project and several hundred more subcontractors and suppliers played some role. "I bet it could be upwards of 700, maybe even approaching 1,000, when you add in all the different vendors."
More than 2,200 tradespeople worked a total of 1.25 million labor hours during construction. At the project’s peak, there were 750 workers on site.
In a time when so many communities and businesses are struggling, this must have been a welcome project for so many business owners and workers.
- The good folks over at Gopher Illustrated have picked Illinois to win the Big Ten. That pick shocked me but it is preseason and nobody is wrong yet.
- Dr. Saturday is making the case for Cal to be this year's Pac-10 Champs. Let's hope when the stroll into TCF they will be looking ahead to their next two games against Oregon and USC which will define their Pac-10 season.
- Steve Ashburner over at SI has his most memorable Metrodome Moments. Some good (Twins World Series) and some bad (0-55). After this September the Vikings will be the only remaining tenant.
- The good people over at the Golden Gopher Football blog caught some heat for their WHO HATES IOWA? post. It was a little over the top and did elicit an apology. But on the surface I tend to agree with them. Iowa fans are my least favorite fanbase in college football. No hate involved, but they get under my skin more than anybody else. Maybe it is the fact that there really is nothing else as far as major sports to cheer for so they naturally are overzealous, oversensitive, entitled and more delusional than most. I'm not sure but I'll take a Badger fan over a Hawkeye fan any day of the week. Packer fans are THE worst, but Iowa isn't far behind. (awaiting PantherHawk's comments in 3...2...1...)