Think of it as a new twist on tailgating -- "railgating."
Beginning with the Minnesota Vikings' Sept. 23 home game against the San Francisco 49ers, the city of Minneapolis wants to allow nearly two dozen food trucks and a beer stand with Minneapolis brews to set up on two blocks of 5th Street along the Hiawatha light-rail line between Park and 5th Avenues.
The idea is part of an experiment by Mayor R.T. Rybak and other city officials to create a more vibrant downtown game-day experience in anticipation of the opening of a new Vikings stadium in 2016.
The $975 million development will be built on and near the current Metrodome site.
"We're not going to wait until the stadium opens to have a more exciting game-day experience," Rybak said Thursday. "Doing it now allows us to experiment a little bit. Let's jump in and let's have some fun and see what happens."
Rybak discussed the plan at a meeting of the city's stadium implementation committee, which is working with the Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority on developing the future stadium neighborhood.
Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley said he plans to meet with Rybak and other city officials on Friday to learn more about the city's plan. "We want to assure a great game-day experience for our fans," Bagley said. "So we're looking forward to hearing the details of this proposal. We need to know more."
Rybak said a final decision on the idea, dubbed "railgating," will be made by Monday, but he said: "It looks good. We don't anticipate a problem."