International Champions Cup (ICC) and the Minnesota Vikings held a promotional press conference on Thursday afternoon where more specifics about the matchup between the two storied Europeans teams emerged. The event will take place at the new US Bank Stadium on August 3, at 8:30 p.m.
“When we saw that the Vikings were going to get the US Bank [Stadium] we got really excited about it,” said Charlie Stillitano, co-founder and chairman of Relevent Sports. “This has always been a great market for soccer. We’ve always been excited about games here. Man City is one of the great clubs right now, but a few years ago they were still getting to be known and Olympiacos has much more of an ethnic fan base. So 34,0000 people for that game is pretty remarkable. I think if we had that game in Athens we wouldn’t have had 34,000. We were really pleased with those numbers.”
“When we had the opportunity to open up the stadium, we thought, let’s get a really spectacular game here that in a lot of ways is a historic rivalry.”
Minnesota has a unique connection to RSE Ventures which runs Relevant Sports. Stephan M. Ross, co-founder and chairman of the entertainment venture firm is also partners with the Wilf’s who own the Vikings. Stillitano explained that it was important to Ross that we bring a big event here. “I do think this is a big international event. It’s certainly not a local event by any stretch of the imagination.”
Michele Kelm-Helgen, Chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority who oversees the stadium agreed and said she was excited that the first event at US Bank Stadium will be one with an international flavor which emphasizes the diversity of the venue.
Stillitano says there’s excitement when they open a new building which they did in 2003 with Lincoln Financial Center. He explained that both players and managers get excited when they play in large NFL stadium. “…They are like – wow! This is really cool,” Stillitano said. “Because honestly, they don’t have these type of stadia in Europe.”
Stillitano admitted he had not known about the conflict for the Aug. 3 date with Minnesota United who have a league game that same evening in Blaine, MN. Asked about saturating the market that evening and hurting attendance for both teams he replied, “I didn’t know the local team has a game. Our schedule is driven by one factor and that is the schedule of the teams. You have to keep in mind we are in preseason. So in England they have the Community Shield which is on the seventh; That kicks off their season. In France, they start on the 4th. In Italy and Germany they start later now, Spain starts in the middle of that and the European Super Cup starts on the 9th. The teams have to prepare, they have to have their preseason. We have to somehow figure out how to get these teams to play. There are so many games the same days because we have to spread things out so there are three days between games for rest and stadium availability. So that’s really how we put the schedule together. We certainly don’t try to intentionally disrupt anyone else schedule. It’s not anything more than that.”
Despite some previous belief that the new stadiums field would play small for soccer, both the Vikings website and Stillitano say the field will be 115 by 74 yards. For comparison, Chelsea’s’ Stamford Bridge is 112×73 yards and AC Milan’s San Siro is 115×74 yards.
The stadium’s turf will be covered by real grass for the event which takes from three to five days to settle in. “We had a challenge last time,” admitted Stillitano. Manchester City almost pulled out of the match in 2014 at TCF Bank Stadium after the grass was laid down. Joints both buckled and sometimes gaped leaving a surface that was dangerous for the players. Stillitano says, this time, they are bringing in the same group who put in the grass at the University of Michigan in 2015. They are also bringing in Paul Burgess who is Real Madrid’s field manager who served in the same position for years at Arsenal. “We’ve probably put in 200 fields. Last time we used a group that were good people but were inexperienced and didn’t have the right equipment. This time, we are going to be really prepared for it.”
Stillitano said that the process will involve laying down a geotextile fabric on top of the turf and then laying large 6 x 60-foot thick cut sections of sod picked out from a sod farm where the field will be designated specifically for this game. The large rolls of grass minimize the seams and, this time, there will be large machines brought in to put it together much like how a carpet is laid, explained the ICC spokesperson.
Tickets for the 8:30 p.m. CT matchup will be available through a presale opportunity beginning at 10:00 a.m. CT on Tuesday, April 5. The general public on-sale will begin one week later at 10:00 a.m. CT on Tuesday, April 12.
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