Minnesota Super Bowl committee in San Francisco for game prep
Seven members of Minnesota's Super Bowl host committee are in San Francisco this week, checking out that city's preparations for the game.
The NFL is holding Super Bowl 50 on Sunday at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
Minneapolis will host Super Bowl 52 in 2018, a year and a half after the new Vikings stadium is set to open.
Minnesota's committee is observing how San Francisco is handling transportation, according to spokeswoman Andrea Mokros.
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An estimated 70,000 people are expected to move through the Bay Area ahead of Sunday's game between the Broncos and the Panthers.
"They are changing mass transit schedules, for example, utilizing multiple different transportation options such as Uber and Lyft," Mokros said. "So, lots to learn from how they're employing those new ways of moving around."
Mokros said Minnesota has much better transit options than the last time the Super Bowl was here in 1992. The new stadium will be connected to the rest of downtown by skyway, and the Blue and Green light rail lines also pass right in front of the facility.
The San Francisco host committee also lined up a week of free entertainment options ahead of the game. Mokros said the host committee is looking for options for non-ticket holders in Minneapolis in 2018.
The Minnesota host committee hasn't disclosed its budget, but recent games have required as much as $50 million in private funding to win the game from the NFL.
Mokros said "fundraising is going well," but didn't put a dollar figure on the effort so far.
"We've had a lot of companies both in Minnesota and beyond step up and want to be part of this. They see how important it is to really showcase Minnesota to the world," Mokros said. "They know that we have a tough time recruiting employees to Minnesota, but once they come to Minnesota, they don't want to leave."
The Minnesotans are also sticking around through early next week to have a look at the cleanup.
"We're going to see a little bit of how they shut it down, too, because that'll be a big part of what we do," Mokros said.
The Vikings are also in San Francisco along with the Minneapolis and Bloomington convention and visitors bureaus, which are looking at the lodging and logistics it takes to host one of the biggest one-day events in the world.