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Minnesota State University, Mankato has launched a campaign to raise $60 million to fund a new football and soccer stadium and transform the south side of the school’s campus into an athletics and recreational hub for students and the community.

The project will be entirely funded by private donations with no state taxpayer funding, according to university officials. In addition to the new sports stadium, the project will include a residence hall, community gathering spaces and recreational areas. The university plans to break ground in the fall of 2027.

“This visionary initiative will help us build a dynamic, multi-purpose complex that will serve southern Minnesota, greater Mankato and our university for generations to come,” said President Edward Inch in a news release. “Hosting more than 115 events annually, this hub will be a catalyst for regional economic growth, cultural vibrancy and community wellness.”

Donors have already committed about $30 million to the project and some big names in Minnesota sports are contributing, including Minnesota Vikings star receiver Adam Thielen, an MSU Mankato alumnus. The Minnesota State University, Mankato Foundation hopes to raise the remaining funds in the next two years. 

The new stadium will be named the Becky and Glen Taylor Community Stadium, for billionaire Glen Taylor and his wife. Glen Taylor is another MSU Mankato alum and former owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Minnesota Lynx, and he is a current owner of the Minnesota United FC and the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper. Glen Taylor is also the father of Jean Taylor, the CEO of American Public Media Group.

The stadium’s front entrance gate will be named for the Thielen Foundation, Adam Thielen’s charity and the secondary entrance will be named for Mankato-based company ISG, which is also a major donor to the university’s complex. Additional naming opportunities are still available, according to university officials.

MSU director of athletics Kevin Buisman tells MPR News that Blakeslee Stadium has been around since the 1960s and “served its purpose.”

“There’s a lot of great memories, a lot of exciting things have happened in Blakeslee Stadium, but it’s time for a transition,” Buisman said. “There are certainly some challenges from an operational standpoint, from a safety standpoint, that makes a replacement project like this very much a priority.”

Phase One of the project will replace the aging Blakeslee Stadium with a new, 6,500 seat multipurpose stadium with higher end hospitality and club spaces, and a renovated track and field facility that can seat about 3,000 spectators. That facility would also be able to host college and high school football and soccer games on the track’s infield. MSU Mankato’s Maverick football team will be playing home games there in 2028 while the larger stadium is under construction.

MSU Mankato also intends to bid on hosting collegiate conferences and the NCAA championship-level track and field meets. 

They university is also hoping to host the Minnesota High School track and field championships and other state and regional competitions once they finish phase one of the project. 

“The new stadium will be contemporary, it’ll be modern,” he said. “It’ll be appealing to fans and donors and supporters. We feel that it’s going to be an opportunity to showcase it as we bring others into the facility for high school competitions, youth competitions to showcase not only the facility, but the entire campus, and can help drive enrollment and interest in the university.”

Buisman says the new stadium is expected to open in 2029. On top of hosting Maverick home football and soccer games, high school teams across southern Minnesota will be invited to schedule games at the new stadium. It’ll also be capable of hosting 12,000 spectators for outdoor concerts and other events. 

The new athletic and recreational complex is projected to generate an estimated $4.3 million in gross annual spending by local residents and out of towners, according to an economic development study released by Stone Planning in March of 2023.

Phase Two of the project includes plans to build a new residence hall on the corner of Stadium Road and Warren Street to address increased demand for student housing. Lower floors of the residence hall will have mixed spaces for retail and food shops,  student health services and more. Its construction is coordinated in tandem with the Phase One stadium construction.

The third phase of the project involves renovating existing walking and biking trails to create common, public exercise and recreation spaces, such as pickleball and tennis courts and areas for community youth sports. The plan also calls for building out parking and road infrastructure. 

MSU Mankato and its Blakeslee Stadium was the summer training camp home of the Minnesota Vikings from 1966 to 2017, before the Vikings moved it’s preseason training to its sprawling practice facility and team headquarters in Eagan in 2018.

At the time, the preseason training camp drew an average of 60,000 people per year to Mankato and pumped about $5 million a year into the local economy. While the Vikings organization saw it as a necessary move to more modernized facilities, the Mankato community suffered an economic blow as a result.

Buisman is hoping the new stadium project brings more economic opportunities back into Mankato and the surrounding area. He said much of the complex will be open to the public and will engage with the community outside of the university by hosting farmers markets, vendor fairs and other events in a plaza area adjacent to the stadium.

“We really feel that it needs to be a partnership with the community, and certainly that loss of economic impact from tourism and people coming to visit camp and being in the restaurants and the hotels and those types of things, we’re looking actively at that partnership with the community in ways that we can make this up,” Buisman said. “I think the future state really fills that void. 

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The project includes a new sports stadium, a residence hall, and community gathering spaces and recreational areas. The university plans to break ground in the fall of 2027. 

MSU Mankato launches $60 million fundraising campaign for multi-purpose stadium complex

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