Megamall maven is amped up for her Super Bowl gig

On the eve of her own professional Super Bowl last week, Mall of America Executive Vice President Maureen Bausch reminisced about her many years at the shopping behemoth and tossed off preliminary thoughts about her next showcase challenge — as CEO of the 2018 Super Bowl host committee.

Bausch, 60, a Stillwater native, has run Minnesota's biggest tourist destination out of a windowless office in the Bloomington mall's basement since it opened in 1992. She's considered the prime reason the mall stayed fresh and hopping even as online shopping slew many brick-and-mortar centers.

On Dec. 15, she'll begin her new job preparing for the '18 game in Minneapolis. "We have to start everything," she said. Her first hire will be an administrative assistant, followed by an operations director.

An 11- by 17-inch flow chart of the staff and volunteers from the 2012 Super Bowl played in Indianapolis sits on her desk as evidence that she's already shifting focus. She's going to need an office and quips that unlike her current space ("right now, it's my car"), her new digs will have windows.

Bausch wants to find office space for her soon-to-be staff near the new Minnesota Multipurpose Stadium, but adds, "I certainly don't have to be fancy at all."

In her new post, she will report to Super Bowl committee chairs U.S. Bancorp CEO Richard Davis, Ecolab CEO Doug Baker and former Carlson Cos. CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson.

Bausch wouldn't divulge her salary and said the overall budget has yet to be determined, although she knows the money will have to be privately raised. As a condition of pitching Minneapolis as the host city to the NFL last spring in Atlanta, the host committee is required to have at least $30 million in pledges.

Having been there for the opening of the Mall of America, she recalled attending "thousands" of meetings to prepare for that day and others.

She recalled the time early in the mall's life when plans hit a snag. The late-afternoon wave of shoppers was trying to leave the mall as fans were arriving at the then-nearby Met Center for a North Stars game. Bausch still looked chagrined as she held up two fingers to indicate the number of hours some shoppers waited in their cars to get out of mall ramps and lots.

Those are the sorts of things the director of operations will oversee, along with managing permitting and public safety issues, including dealing with the police and fire departments.

"We have a lot of talent in this market," she said of her upcoming search for staff. "You want to get a group that works together as a team and really gels."

In addition, she wants staff members who can have fun and manage stress — something she has made a priority at the mall, where staff tenure averages 14 years. "If we're not having fun down here, they're not having fun up there," she said pointing to the ceiling, above which sits the mall.

She's seeking to "educate the world on the values of Minnesota," she said, adding, "We can do that. I'm not sure how yet."

One of her recent thoughts for the Mall of America was to target workers in North Dakota's oil fields. The mall created a video showing workers going from hard labor to a quick flight and pampering at the mall in the form of an old-fashioned barber's chair shave, visiting family, eating out and relaxing at a comfortable hotel. Hundreds of oil workers have visited the mall since, she said. "Now we're looking for other groups like that," she said.

Marketing Minnesota, making it a tourist attraction, is a key aim of the Super Bowl job as well. "We need to be able to use these events to showcase the state for a long time before and after the game," Bausch said. "We do this with the mall — you have to be on top of people's minds, at the top of your game," or people won't come.

Another thing they do at the mall: accommodate celebrities. Bausch recalled the time she saw a spread of food in the green room, stuck her head in and asked, "Who's here today?" The one man in the room responded, "That would be me." It was Donny Osmond.

She got a picture with Alice Cooper, who looked like he stepped out of an L.L. Bean catalog, she said, while he and his wife used an empty room after shopping for outfits for twin grandchildren.

Edwards came by herself without handlers and was extremely warm and kind, she said.

Rivers flew in on the red eye and "looked fabulous," Bausch said. She worked nonstop on QVC selling her jewelry and then in a kiosk before leaving late at night, Bausch said.

Actresses-turned-fashion designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were in their early teens when they first came to the mall. "They called me Mrs. Bausch. I liked that," she said.

The Super Bowl draws big-name celebrities, but a "mission" of the chairs and Bausch is to "create a weeklong event that everyone can participate in."

But first came the mall's own Super Bowl-like weekend, where Bausch would work through Thanksgiving in the mall's command center doing whatever needed to be done. In 2013, she proudly noted that she "broke" the mall's Twitter account by surpassing its 1,000 daily tweet limit.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747