Although the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority has yet to pick a builder of the new Vikings stadium, they’ve agreed on a plan to meet employee diversity goals, Minnesota Public Radio reports.
The Facility Authority on Friday adopted a plan to make minority workers nearly at third of the labor force, and want to hire six percent women, which was included in stadium legislation this spring.
Facility Authority chairwoman Michele Kelm-Helgen said it will be challenging to meet the goal since there may not be enough skilled workers in the state to meet their goals, but stressed that she didn’t want the state importing workers, either. She said it’s “about Minnesota jobs.”
The group is encouraging more training programs to begin with the hope that it prepares more workers for construction jobs, MPR reports.
The Facility Authority was expected to name the stadium contractor last week, but instead narrowed the finalists from three firms down to two: Mortensen Construction out of Minneapolis and Hunt Construction, out of Scottsdale.
Mortensen was the contractor behind Target Field, Target Center, TCF Bank Stadium and Xcel Energy Center.
The Sweden-based firm Skanska AB was eliminated from consideration.
Groundbreaking for the $975 million stadium project is set for October, with plans to open the new stadium in time for the 2016 NFL season.
