MANKATO — One of Minnesota’s iconic football venues has its days numbered.
Blakeslee Stadium, MSU’s home field since 1962, is down to its final seasons. With ‘The Future State’ set to create a state of the art football facility ready for the 2029 season, Blakeslee will hots its farewell season in 2027 with the 2028 season being held in a makeshift 3,000 seat venue where the outdoor track and field facility currently lies.
“It’s been so good to our program,” MSU football head coach Todd Hoffner said. “It’s been nothing short of exceptional when it comes to a home field advantage.”
Despite the history of Blakeslee Stadium, the home for Minnesota Vikings’ training camps from 1966-2017, it has its limitations. The natural grass, which tricks some football fans for a turf field, serves as a barrier from hosting a magnitude of events. As of now, Blakeslee can host 10 outdoor events during any given football season. This new turf facility? Over 100 events, and it can seat close to 12,000 people as an outdoor concert venue.
“We really want this to be a regional asset,” said Greg Weis, who serves as MSU’s Senior Associate Athletic Director/Development & Revenue Generation. “We want the community members up here using the facility. We couldn’t design it without involving them in the decision-making process and the design process.”
There are already plans in place for the new stadium to host weekly high school football games. Even be a neutral site venue for section and state tournament football games.
“We know what we need to put on a world-class football experience, or world-class soccer experience, and what our sport programs need to have a phenomenal student athlete experience,” Weis said. “We really took a look at designing this facility in terms of what else does the community need? We know that we’re going to be able to do all of those things, because this thing can do that and so many other amazing things for the community.”
Saying goodbye to Blakeslee at the end of the 2027 season, however, is easier said than done. But that doesn’t mean celebrating Blakeslee isn’t going to be fun.
“Being able to have a couple years of runway to really celebrate what Blakeslee has meant is gonna be really incredible,” Weis said. “We’re going to have some cool ways to tie in some of the fun parts about Blakeslee into the new facility as well. It’s not going away completely. It’s an iconic facility that so many people have been through that it’s never really going to go away.
“It’s going to be an important chapter of our history.”