My county spent $1.6 million on TCF Bank Stadium, and all we got was our name on a wall

For $35 million, TCF Financial Corp. will have its name writ large in lights at the University of Minnesota’s new $288 million TCF Bank Stadium, as well as on tickets, menus, staff uniforms, maintenance vehicles, and on and on. Dairy Queen donated $2.5 million and will get scoreboard sign space as well as the narrow strip called “ribbon board.” The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community gave a record $10 million toward the stadium and will get to name the stadium’s main plaza.

So what do taxpayers, who came up with a bigger chunk of funding for the stadium than corporate or other donors, get in return? Lettered slabs of cast stone.

Last week the university unveiled how the stadium will honor the public’s investment of $137.2 million: Set in the stadium’s wall will be a cast-stone sign for each of Minnesota’s 87 counties, bearing the name of the county. If the Minnesota taxpayers’ contribution were divided equally among the counties, that would make each county’s portion $1,577,012. Of course, county tax bases aren’t equal, so their contributions aren’t either, but every county’s sign will be 16 feet long. It was notable that the first five unveiled last week had short names: Pope, Ramsey, Red Lake, Redwood and Renville (visible at this webcam). It’ll be interesting to see how 17-character (including spaces) Lake of the Woods plays out over 16 feet. Legislative districts names (16, 59B, etc.) would have been a more compact and efficient way of mainlining payback to the source of the money, but maybe less classy. Meanwhile, the ‘U’ has embarked on a new campaign visiting every county of the state to raise the last $10 million of stadium funding from individual donors.