Finding tickets for Vikings games at TCF Bank Stadium next season might be like finding a needle in a haystack – unless fans have season tickets.
With the Metrodome coming down and the new stadium being constructed, the Vikings will play the 2014 and 2015 seasons at TCF Bank Stadium.
According to WCCO, TCF Bank Stadium can hold up to 52,000 people, which is about 12,000 fewer than the Metrodome could hold. That’s where the problem unfolds, as reported by ESPN.
The Vikings currently have 11,000 season ticket accounts, comprising about 53,000 seats, and those tickets are typically renewed at a 90-92 percent rate, Vikings ticket sales and hospitality director Phil Huebner said on Friday. That rate could fluctuate this year with fans who don’t want to sit outside, but let’s be conservative and say the Vikings get 88 percent of their season-ticket holders in at TCF Bank Stadium. That would leave less than 5,000 seats available for single-game purchase next season.
It’s not a sunny outlook for fans without season tickets, as the demand will likely remain high with a very limited supply.
“Right now, it’s full,” Huebner said. “If everyone renews, we will have very few to minimal seats available on a game-by-game basis. But every sports team has some turnover.”
“Very few to minimal” might even be optimistic based on what Vikings Executive Director of Communications Jeff Anderson tweeted.
Team has currently slotted every seat in TCF Bank Stadium with a Vikings Season Ticket Owner. Losing 12,000 seats is signficant.
— Jeff Anderson (@andersonj) January 10, 2014
The other news announced Friday is that beer will be sold throughout TCF Bank Stadium during Vikings games, as opposed to only being sold in a beer garden during Gophers games, according to the Star Tribune.
On Thursday, the Vikings announced that season-ticket prices for the 2014 season at TCF Bank Stadium were going to rise $2- to $6 per ticket.
