Tour of "The Bank"

Verdict is in: the "Bank" is going to be awesome when it's done. No question this place will "wow" recruits. Let's not even go into the "but can Brewster get it done."

The tour - We donned reflective vest and hard hats and walked through the side entrance of the stadium, past the 20,000 sq foot "gopher gear" store, into the locker room (unreal, truly) we got to go down the tunnel and come onto the field like the players will on game day. When you come out of the end of the tunnel the score board is in front of you and is more than big. Also at the end of the tunnel to the right is where the band is going to sit in a little alcove of seats for them with 10,000 students behind them, kind of cool. The field right now is something like 24 inches of gravel for drainage, the grass goes next week or so. We went back into the buidling under the seats and toured through the band area; the band has something like 20,000 or 30,000 sq. ft. of space to store their gear, practice etc. We then went up to the top and did a tour of all the suites (Club level, loge boxes, private suites etc.) saw all the press boxes, the VIP areas, basically what you want to see.

Quick highlights -

1. The President's box is sweet. It is the top right if you are on the field looking up at the luxury suites (what felt like 5 or 6 stories up from the field and like 4 from the street.) Nice big bar area with floor to ceiling windows on one side that look over the field and floor to ceiling windows on the other side that looks over Williams, Mariucci, the rest of that part of the U campus, and downtown Minneapolis (you could see the Dome from there.)
2. The locker room. The lockers were huge, the "M" over the middle of the floor has LCD lighting that will go from maroon to gold that is as cool as it looks (it is blue in the picture, people were concerned for a minute until it was explained the light is going through 'testing' now and were assured it would be maroon and gold game day), there are 6 extra large locker's for retired jersey's etc. (in the stadium itself they are building a 20,000 sq ft hall of fame for 25 different sports) If memory serves it is the "Murray Warmath" locker room. It was cool.
3. The scoreboard. I can't tell you how big this thing. It's our own touchdown Jesus just of replays and stats. It's bigger than Madonna. Running out on to the field and looking up at that thing would get anyone pumped.
   
4. The tribute stuff like having all the counties names on the outside of the building, the space at the entrance to honor Minnesota veterans (the person I was invited by to take the tour is a retired Air Force Brigadier General and was personally responsible for that part of the stadium)

Everyone in the group was giddy with excitement over the whole thing, like we already won a BCS game. I gotta say, I can't blame them, I was pumped.

(**Sorry the pics are out of order. F'ing technology, if it wasn't for my complete dependence on it I would be a Luddite.)