The Minnesota Vikings and U.S. Bancorp confirmed they have a deal to call the downtown Minneapolis football stadium U.S. Bank Stadium as part of a 20-year partnership.

U.S. Bancorp spokesman Dana Ripley declined to disclose terms of the deal, but disputed the $220 million total and $8.8 million annual value reported by Sports Business Daily, characterizing those figures as "on the high side."

EARLIER: U.S. Bank is paying $220 million over 25 years for naming rights to the new Minnesota Vikings stadium set to open next summer.

The stadium will be called U.S. Bank Stadium.

The deal was reported by the Sports Business Daily, the cousin paper of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. It cited anonymous sources.

The deal was completed in March, the Sports Business Daily reported, but won't be officially announced until June 22.

U.S. Bank will donate $1 million to "Places to Play," which goes toward parks, playgrounds, trails and athletic facilities in Minnesota.

]Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank is paying $8.8 million per season, which is slightly less than what Levi Strauss & Co. paid for naming rights on the San Francisco 49ers stadium in 2013.

The $1.078 billion stadium is being financed by at least $566 million from the Vikings (including an NFL loan and revenue from season ticket licenses), $150 million from Minneapolis taxpayers and $348 million from Minnesota taxpayers.

U.S. Bank has long been thought a favorite for naming rights, if for no other reason than there were few other contenders:

• • Minneapolis-based Target Corp. already backs both Target Center (home of the Minnesota Timberwolves) and Target Field, where the Minnesota Twins play.
• • San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has a bigger share of the Minnesota market and will house thousands of workers in two new office buildings next to the stadium, but wasn't interested.
• • Golden Valley-based General Mills and Austin-based Hormel Foods have been spending their cash on acquisitions.
   

The bank's CEO, Richard Davis, was one of the chief supporters of the local push to bring the 2018 Super Bowl to Minneapolis. The game will be played in the new stadium, which will open in 2016.

The bank also has a naming rights deal for a sports arena in Cincinnati, though the facility is much less high-profile, with a minor-league hockey team as its chief tenant.

U.S. Bank parent company U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) is Minnesota's fifth-largest public company, according to Business Journal research.

 

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