urbanMSP

Random Thought: We are lucky in that none of the realistic options for this stadium are terribly tacky, like Qwicken Loans Arena. Even U.S. Bank, for being a bank, is so sterile that it doesn't sound weird. That said, it could be cool if General Mills bought the rights but named the stadium after its Pillsbury brand. Besides having its roots in Minneapolis, Pillsbury is a major national brand and also the name of an influential family in state history. So, in theory, it could be a win-win-win.

I doubt it's realistic, unfortunately. I can't think of another stadium named after a brand rather than the parent company, and General Mills would get more "bang for the buck" just putting its own name on the stadium. A General Mills Field wouldn't be terrible, and we could call it the Cheerio, but I kind of like the idea of Pillsbury since it would be like naming the stadium after a dignitary, even though it's actually a brand. We would have just a tiny slice of dignity over our friends like the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Busch Stadium in Saint Louis is technically named in memorial of August A Busch III if I remember correctly, but note that the Busches wanted to name it Budweiser stadium and were told it couldn't be a product so they named it after Auggie and then introduced a new "Busch Beer" as a way around the ban. The company was named "Anheuser-Busch" but they didn't want it to be named that, they wanted it after a product. And given that like Pillsbury it's actually a person's name, it's kind of a nice example. So while it's a weird precedent, there is certainly a precedent.

It could be Charles Alfred Pillsbury Memorial Field, which would be kind of nice. And yeah, I have no idea whether Pillsbury was a jerk, but likely any captain of industry who essentially owned a city in the late 1800s was some kind of jerk.

They could paint the roof blue and do up the Pillsbury logo on it; too bad it won't be round.

One small problem though is that when General Mills bought Pillsbury (sorry, "merged" like how Norwest "merged" with WF by buying all its stock), they sold off a few divisions of the company to Smucker and sold them the right to use the name in marketing for those products. So in using the Pillsbury name they would inadvertently be giving free advertising to some Smucker products; they might prefer to push brands that are fully under their tent instead.

US Bank Arena is Cincinnati's hockey and basketball arena. Not that that doesn't mean they wouldn't go after a stadium here. But just wanted to clarify that they do have naming rights currently.
http://www.usbankarena.com/

I made a point of specifying that U.S. Bank does not have naming rights on a major stadium, and I don't consider the one in Cincinnati to be major. I'm not 100 percent, but I seem to remember some random arena in Cedar Rapids, Iowa carrying the US Bank name as well.

Great point on Busch Stadium. It's pretty much exactly the precedent I was thinking out but actually in practice. That said, I think the example in St. Louis makes more sense to go that way than the example here.

On the offshoot topic of potential stadium names, I just have to say it's a real shame that our railway got absorbed into BNSF, because how damn cool of a name would Great Northern Field be? That Pillsbury idea would be phenomenal though.

And yes, I think we should be worried about tacky names, even though most of our major companies are tastefully branded. SuperValuDome, anyone?

Luckily, SuperValu operates stores under so many different names (Cub, Jewel, Albertson's, Save-A-Lot, etc.) that having a stadium named SuperValu wouldn't do much for their brand.

Even though it is characterized an an outlier, I would not mind "3M Stadium." At least it's a reference to Minnesota and it's history of Mining and Manufacturing.

Land O Lakes.... Or LOL stadium would be fitting at times.

C'mon, you don't think Target's gonna try and go for the trifecta?

I'm really pushing for 3M because then we'd get some cool (albeit small) features thrown in for the wow factor. I took a tour of their Innovation Center within the last year and it was pretty slick. And there'd be no floating AP on the western peak if it wasn't for its technology.

http://m.startribune.com/?id=235105181

Public cost for stadium-area skyways: $10.3 million

In the spirit of a poll, if you could make one design tweak to the stadium - something minor (i.e. not too expensive, not requiring major structural changes) that would have a noticeable positive impact, what would it be?

Complete exterior LED lighting, so this puppy could be lit up and colored like an Easter Egg.

Artwork depicting Norse mythology EVERYWHERE. The Vikings could really run wild with the team's identity and come up with some borderline frightening imagery. Read up on the Ragnarok (Norse apocalypse) if you haven't before- it's pretty insane. At least they've managed to work the Gjallarhorn into games. And the new stadium kind of looks vaguely like a Viking ship.

I agree with being able to light it up would be cool. I've always thought this design is supposed to look like an iceberg or glacier. Goes well with MN and Vikings.

It really would be great to hold more events and celebrations in front of the stadium and across the two block park… maybe also then bring in some of the activity into the stadium. For Vikings and for other scheduled stadium events. It would be great to feel like there is an outdoor space downtown. The Nicollet Mall no longer has the quantity and density to really feel like I just want to hang out on it… back in the 70's and much of the 80's there were literally hundreds of places to go and things to do… but we don't shop that way anymore and I am not sure it will ever attain the levels that it did in it's first two decades.

Artwork depicting Norse mythology EVERYWHERE. The Vikings could really run wild with the team's identity and come up with some borderline frightening imagery. Read up on the Ragnarok (Norse apocalypse) if you haven't before- it's pretty insane. At least they've managed to work the Gjallarhorn into games. And the new stadium kind of looks vaguely like a Viking ship.

Some big, intimidating statues near the stadium's entrance would be really cool.

Artwork depicting Norse mythology EVERYWHERE. The Vikings could really run wild with the team's identity and come up with some borderline frightening imagery. Read up on the Ragnarok (Norse apocalypse) if you haven't before- it's pretty insane. At least they've managed to work the Gjallarhorn into games. And the new stadium kind of looks vaguely like a Viking ship.

Some big, intimidating statues near the stadium's entrance would be really cool.

I suggest a sculpture or mural depicting Thor fighting Jörmungandr.

It's too late to name our stadium after Pillsbury. That stadium is coming down...



The best thing that can happen to keep the Pillsbury name alive is to keep calling US Bank Plaza (the one by City Hall, not the Center on Nicollet) by its original Pillsbury Center name.

There's a good deal of heavy equipment on site now, including at least one pile driver that can be seen from 35W.