U of M gets $10 million tribal gift for stadium

In the largest single gift to University of Minnesota athletics, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is donating $10 million for the Gophers' new $288 million football stadium.

For its donation, the tribe, which owns Mystic Lake Casino, will get naming and landscaping rights to the main plaza for the 50,000-seat Minneapolis facility, which is already named TCF Bank Stadium after its top sponsor.

Tribal Chairman Stanley Crooks said the plaza probably would incorporate the Dakota people's name and honor Minnesota's Indian tribes, but the casino name wouldn't be featured anywhere in the plaza.

"'The Dakota Mall' or something like that," Crooks said Thursday afternoon. "We're not promoting Mystic Lake Casino. ... This is an historic place for us. This was an opportunity to make a significant impact on something that will be around for a long time."

The tribe is also donating an additional $2.5 million, to be matched by the university, for a scholarship fund at the school.

The donations continue a pattern that in recent years has seen the Shakopee tribe donate almost $100 million, making it one of the largest philanthropic organizations in Minnesota and the possibly the largest charitable donor among Indian tribes in the country.

This year alone the Shakopee tribe expects to give away almost $21 million. That generosity has been made possible by the success of its gaming operations, specifically Mystic Lake Casino, which by some estimates pulls in between $600 million and $1 billion a year in revenue for the tribe.

University spokesman Dan Wolter declined to comment on the gift from the tribe, saying the school would not discuss the matter until a news conference this morning.

Helping fill a funding gap

Still, the gift is significant for several reasons. As of Thursday, the university had raised $63 million of the $86 million it needs in private gifts and sponsorships to help pay for the $288.5 million stadium.

The remainder of the money is coming from the state and through student service fees.

With the gift from the tribe, the university's unmet share of the bill for the stadium -- which is under construction and scheduled to be completed in time for the 2009 season -- will be down to $13 million.

The tribal donation -- which is categorized differently than the $21 million sponsorship agreement with TCF Bank -- is easily the largest toward the stadium.

Crooks said he had thought briefly about trying to go after the naming rights to the stadium, but decided the price was too steep.

While nearly 20 donations or pledges of $1 million or more have been made toward stadium costs, none of the other gifts has been for even $5 million.

In addition, this is believed to be the largest single private donation ever made to Golden Gophers athletics.

"I was not aware that it was that significant," Crooks said.

Crooks said that the gift is not coming from Mystic Lake and that there will not be signs on campus touting the casino or gaming operations.

A new revenue stream

The agreement marks a shift of the university's athletic department toward a new source of donations.

While the athletic department has a sponsorship agreement with the Minnesota State Lottery, it has no agreements with any of the state's tribes or the casinos they operate.

Minnesota is not alone in receiving money with ties to gaming.

A year ago, during football games at Kinnick Stadium, the University of Iowa aired advertisements for a hotel and golf resort that operates a casino, according to a report in the Des Moines Register.

In addition, the NCAA now allows nonconference basketball tournaments to be held at an arena owned and operated by a Las Vegas casino.

Crooks said the tribe was contacted in February by the university, which was looking for large contributors for its stadium.

Scholarships for Indians

He said he became interested when university officials talked about establishing the scholarship endowment, which would probably be used to help Indian youth around the state because Shakopee already has its own education fund.

"I'm always supportive of Native American people getting an education," Crooks said.

By summer the details had been hashed out and the proposal was taken to the tribe's general meeting, where members expressed "overwhelming support" for the donation, Crooks said. The deal was completed in September.

"It will let more people know about the Dakota tribes and their history," he said.

Crooks said he also became interested in establishing the plaza because it gave the tribe the opportunity to set up a permanent presence close to one of its historical homes, the area near St. Anthony Falls.

"The tribe will have influence over how it all looks," William Hardacker, the Sioux community's legal counsel, said of the plaza the university is planning.

Crooks acknowledged that the tribe hopes to garner some goodwill as a result of its donation.

Once one of the poorest areas in the state, the Shakopee reservation is now among the wealthiest as payments from casino profits have greatly enriched tribal members.

That has led to criticism from some legislators and Gov. Tim Pawlenty about the tribe not doing enough to share its wealth with non-Indians.

"That's human nature," Crooks said. "Obviously we are very successful in gaming. Our experience is that we can never do enough for [critics]. I think we will have more positives than negatives with this project."

Herón Márquez Estrada • 612-673-4280