U.S. Bank Stadium manager operates indoors with an outdoors attitude

The man who manages the newest and most gargantuan indoor space in Minnesota is actually an outdoors guy.

Patrick Talty, 44, came to the Twin Cities last year to manage operations of the then-half-built U.S. Bank Stadium, all 1.75 million enclosed square feet of it. His job — general manager — is another in a series of deskbound, travel-heavy jobs managing facilities and events that have not kept him from getting into the outdoors — not in Connecticut (in professional wrestling with World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.);not in Arizona (the NFL Cardinals' University of Phoenix Stadium); not in the United Arab Emirates (a multi-venue soccer complex in Abu Dhabi).

He is just beginning to explore his new home, while simultaneously participating in the construction of a $1.1 billion football stadium, and over the last year building a new house in Chaska with his wife, Becky, and their four children, ages 10 to 18.

Just before the Vikings' first home game in the building, we spoke to Talty about his tentative explorations of Minnesota's outdoors, new social rituals of outdoor grilling, the return of running and in-line skating in the new building, and, of course, birds.

It is evident when you see the design of the building, they wanted to make you feel as if it was outdoors. With the ETFE roof [ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene, a polymer in the roof] and all the glass, they created this light, airy feeling of being outside. You forget you're in an indoor stadium. There is sun and shadows of the clouds. When we open those doors, it's even more like you're outdoors. It was truly one of the design features they were trying to create.

Not as much as I'd like because I've been so busy with the space here. But the first six months when I got here I lived downtown. I used to run across the Stone Arch Bridge almost every day. It was awesome to run over to Dinkytown, and downtown, and that was great, learning about life outside in Minneapolis. Then we moved out to Chaska, and things started to pick up here [at the stadium], but we have a neighborhood where everyone is out grilling all the time. I've picked up smoking meat. I've never done that before. We do a lot of fire pits with the neighbors and just being outside with the kids.

This fall, now that things have settled down around here, I've been able to settle back and do some walks and hiking. That's what we're looking forward to now. The kids love to ride their bikes around here. They're outside so much here — more than when we lived in Connecticut. They're out all day long. They ride bikes, they shoot hoops, they play football, street hockey.

We love to go to Breckenridge, Colorado. My parents have a place there and we go on a consistent basis. When I was working here 18 hours a day at the start, they packed up and went out there. We like Breckenridge and try to spend a lot of time out there. To go to the beach, we usually go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My family has a place there as well. But Colorado is our favorite place, winter and summer.

We want to go to Duluth. We want to go north. That is definitely on the docket. We are trying to make a day trip up for the fall. The pictures we have seen, the terrain is so different. It is hard to believe that it is the same state. Duluth is a place we have definitely been taking about.

I've always been a snow skier and I've always wind surfed, I've always played golf. But we have now lived in the desert for eight years of our lives, between Phoenix and Abu Dhabi, and you can't even go outside in the summer — it's too hot. But then you kind of get used to it, and we did what you could. Actually, living in those kinds of climates eventually did get us outside even more. We became more outdoors people. It did have an impact on us.

I traveled a lot with that. And I'd go jogging in the morning when I traveled. It was my outlet. And I saw more small towns and more overseas cities running in the early morning. I've run along the Rhine. I've run in part of Saudi Arabia. I used to run in Mexico City, which was a little nerve-racking at times. That traveling [for WWE] actually got me outside, running to explore.

Yes, it will. We are now working to figure that out. Our first Rollerblade event is [still being determined]. Then we are looking to figure out the running clubs, so those will be coming back, too. It will be different. It is not the same building. It is a very different design. [The Metrodome's narrow concourse was about three-quarters of a mile around.] I think it will still be an exciting place for people to come to have that enjoyment.