What’s In A Name? About $220 Million, If It’s The New Vikings Stadium

Word came down Monday that the Minnesota Vikings finally have a name for their new stadium in Minneapolis: It's going to be US Bank Stadium.

The team made the announcement Monday that US Bank had signed a 20-year deal for naming rights to the stadium, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016. The cost? While all the financial terms weren't disclosed, THIS article says it in the neighborhood of $220 million, or roughly a 1.1 million dollars a year. That's a pretty pricey neighborhood!

So, while I'm betting the team is glad they finally sold the naming rights to someone, I'm left a little underwhelmed. "US Bank Stadium" just sounds generic. It's not unique to the Twin Cities or Minnesota, like Target Field or Target Center (named for Minneapolis-based Target, of course) or even the Xcel Energy Center (named for the electric utility that serves parts of Minnesota).

And, of course, there already is one stadium in Minnesota named for a financial institution: The University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium. Even that one has a tie to our state-- it's short for Twin Cities Federal Bank, after all. Oh, and, forget referring to the new stadium "the Bank," too, because that's nickname's already been coined for TCF Bank Stadium.

I get that in today's sports age, stadiums pretty much have to have naming sponsors. I don't even mind those sponsors that are hometown or home-state companies, who have some pride in team they're sponsoring, like the aforementioned Target Field, or Miller Park in Milwaukee (sponsored by Miller Brewing), or Coors Field in Denver (sponsored by Coors Brewing.) But US Bank Stadium? That could pretty much be located in any city, anywhere.

Where were the other Minneapolis-based companies? Best Buy Field has kind of neat ring to it. Or 3M Field. Maybe General Mills Stadium?  Wait, here's my favorite: Land-O-Lakes Stadium-- it doesn't get more Minnesota than that!

Curious what the new US Bank Stadium will look like? Check out this VIDEO...