This year’s tour features a partnership with the U’s athletics department for approximately 30 of the anticipated 40 stops. The theme of those stops is “The Ultimate Homecoming.” They feature information about TCF Bank Stadium, currently under construction on campus. Other tour stops will include a variety of University topics.

The first stop is set for the Luverne High School Activities Fair, where former Gopher and NBA star Trent Tucker will speak to hundreds of students and will sign autographs. The stop also features a visit from Goldy Gopher and the Gopher Stadium Wagon, which includes stadium facts and a virtual tour. This and other stadium-themed stops will help the U reach its goal to visit all 87 counties in Minnesota on its own grassroots stadium tour. See all the upcoming Statewide Tour stops here.

The stadium stops on the tour include information on how Minnesotans can get involved. See the sidebar at right for more.

About TCF Bank Stadium

TCF Bank Stadium will open on September 12, 2009, when the sounds, sights, traditions and excitement of Big Ten football will resound on campus for the first time in 28 years. TCF Bank Stadium is an open-air stadium located on campus.  It has a horseshoe shape and initially will seat 50,000 with the potential to expand to more than 70,000 seats.

The stadium will be the symbolic center of campus life—a place for students, faculty, alumni and the citizens of Minnesota to gather together, build a common heritage and experience a sense of community. It will have 20,000 square feet for our great University of Minnesota Marching Band, their first official home. 

The University of Minnesota Alumni Association was the first organization to give $1 million dollars to build the new stadium (coupled with a gift for scholarships) and mobilized alumni to lobby the legislature to pass partial state funding of the stadium.

The Alumni Association has a long history of involvement with on-campus stadiums, going back to raising money to build Memorial Stadium in the 1920s. When Memorial Stadium was demolished, it  preserved bricks and sold them to raise money for scholarships. The Memorial Stadium processional arch, preserved thanks to a gift from the class of 1942, was rebuilt and is now the entrance to the Heritage Gallery inside the McNamara Alumni Center, just southwest of the new stadium location.