Get Off Their Lawn

When is a park not a park?

A proposed park next to the new Minnesota Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis may not be as public as some had envisioned.

Several sports interests have already carved out long chunks of time to use “The Yard,” billed as a major public amenity anchoring a revitalized Downtown East.

A February agreement gives the Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority up to 80 days in a typical year to use the nearly two-block park to be built on land where the Star Tribune now sits. In extreme scenarios, that number could grow beyond 100 days a year if the Vikings bring a professional soccer team to the new stadium — depending on how long workers spend setting up for events.

Disputes over the park’s ownership and who will pay to operate it remain unsettled, which some fear could jeopardize the project’s completion in time for the stadium’s 2016 debut.

I'm guessing you can use it in January. Meanwhile, some members of the Minneapolis City Council are bumming on the fine print:

“It’s kind of like a bait and switch, it seems to me,” said Council Member Cam Gordon, adding that he was already uncomfortable with an earlier, vaguer agreement, which he voted for, that appeared to give away closer to 60 days. Among the changes he noted is that teams will have 72 hours to arrange and take down tents for games, meaning “no longer is it a game day, it’s a game weekend.”

For legal reasons, the park is expected to be owned by the Minneapolis Park Board rather than the city, although Mayor Betsy Hodges and others are recommending operations and maintenance of the park be farmed out to a third party.

Arlene Fried, co-founder of the watchdog group Park Watch, said the priority booking means The Yard won’t be a public park.

“That’s just not the way public parks work,” she said.

Amusement parks work that way, but I don't have to pay for Valleyfair unless I choose to go there.