Vikings Home Playoff Game Will Give Local Businesses A Boost
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After Sunday night's big win, the Vikings are set for their first home playoff game in six years. They'll take on the Seattle Seahawks at TCF Bank Stadium.
The last time the Vikings hosted a playoff game was in 2010. That year, they beat the Cowboys at the Metrodome. But they weren't the only winners that weekend.
"On a Sunday football day, it's like putting a whole week in one day," Dave Bullerman of Buffalo Wild Wings said.
Buffalo Wild Wings is right across the street from TCF Bank Stadium. Right next door to what will be the first and possibly the last Vikings playoff game at the stadium.
"We close our parking lot, put up a tent. Have that tailgate atmosphere for our guests," Bullerman said.
They've been doing that for every Vikings home game the past two years. During a regular week day, the restaurant may have 20 people working. But on any given Sunday, they could have as many as 100 workers. Many come in from other Buffalo Wild Wings locations.
This week, for playoff Sunday, they'll have at least that many.
"It's great for sales but it is a lot of work," Bullerman said.
But totally worth it.
In 2010, University of Minnesota Extension and Meet Minneapolis collaborated on an economic impact study for the Vikings home playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. The results showed that more than 25,000 visitors outside of the Twin Cities came here for the game.
Those visitors spent close to $6 million total on restaurants, hotels, retail and transportation. An additional 113 jobs were also added that weekend as a direct result of the Vikings playoff game.
Experts said to expect similar results this weekend even though fans will be away from the temperature-controlled Metrodome and in the frigid elements of TCF Bank Stadium.
"First one in a long time. This place is going to be crazy. And then with the cold, it's going to be really cold, but it's going to be packed here," Vikings fan and Buffalo Wild Wings customer Marshall White said.
The U of M will also get about $300,000 from the Vikings for this game. The Vikings pay the university about $250,000 a game to play at TCF Bank stadium while their new stadium is being built. They also split concessions with the U of M. That amounts to roughly another $50,000 per game.
