A marvel in design and construction, U.S. Bank Stadium is also being touted as a model for diversity in its workforce and contracting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon to be home of the Minnesota Vikings, the 2018 Super Bowl, the 2017 and 2018 X Games, the 2019 NCAA Men\u2019s Final Four and more, the stadium that sits on the site of the former Metrodome was built at a cost of $1.1 billion. Many of those dollars ended up in the pockets of people of color, women and veterans. So while many of the \u201cVIPs\u201d selected to attend the stadium\u2019s ribbon cutting and open house July 22 ogled over their NFL team\u2019s new home, much of the talk from those involved with the project focused on the labor force that built the state-of-the-art dome that has radically changed the Minneapolis landscape and skyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis stadium is where opportunity meets reality,\u201d said Michele Kelm-Helgen, chair of the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority (MSFA) \u2013 the group responsible for the oversight of the new stadium. \u201cWe far exceeded our business and workforce goals. I believe we set a new standard for business in the state. This is a premiere example of what a public\/private partnership can be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Receiving state funds, the stadium that is double the size of the old Metrodome was mandated to have 32 percent minority workforce participation and six percent women participation. According to MSFA numbers, the project topped out with a 37 percent minority workforce and women at 10 percent. Of the 37 percent minority participation, 10 percent was African-American labor. According to Kelm-Helgen, 90 percent of the workers permanently reside within the state. That number is key because past major construction projects were accused of shipping in white non-residents, taking away potential jobs from area labors \u2013 many who are people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis project put thousands of people to work and thanks to the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority board and Mortenson Construction it put a lot of people of color to work,\u201d said Gov. Mark Dayton. Mortenson was the lead builder on the project and it worked closely with Thor Construction \u2013 a black-owned firm \u2013 and others to complete the stadium buildout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe fact that minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses participated to the tune of $240 million paid out on this stadium and we had 37 percent people of color, has been unheard of in this state,\u201d said David Mortenson, chairman of Mortenson Construction. \u201cThis was not just about bringing jobs, it\u2019s about starting careers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To that point, Ravi Norman, CEO of Thor, said this level of participation can\u2019t end with the completion of U.S. Bank Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening next is what\u2019s really important,\u201d said Norman. \u201cWhat happened with the stadium was greatly important, but it\u2019s a short-term stimulus. The push has to be for additional opportunities. We\u2019re not going to have mega stadiums coming along all the time. If we don\u2019t fill the demand for long-term opportunities the people will become disillusioned. On the other side of hope is resentment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A marvel in design and construction, U.S. Bank Stadium is also being touted as a model for diversity in its workforce and contracting. Soon to be home of the Minnesota Vikings, the 2018 Super Bowl, the 2017 and 2018 X Games, the 2019 NCAA Men\u2019s Final Four and more, the stadium that sits on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2720,1029,2701],"class_list":["post-4337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-minnesota-sports-facility-authority-msfa","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-u-s-bank-stadium","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-15.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4339,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions\/4339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}