Minneapolis Pitches In: Shoveling Towards Outdoor Football

Over the last few days, hundreds of people from across the Twin Cities, including South Minneapolis, flocked to TCF Bank Stadium to help clear snow in preparation for Monday's Minnesota Vikings game against the Chicago Bears. 

David Beebe of Woodbury traded his shovel for a cigarette during a quick break Friday morning outside TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus. Beebe was one of a select few shovelers to return to campus Friday from among the 700 or so workers who began clearing snow at the stadium Thursday.

"I've been here 10 hours already," Beebe said, counting the seven and a half hours he worked Thursday. "I'll be here the rest of the day."

Beebe said he was earning $10 per hour from Team Personnel, another temporary agency. He got a ride with a friend from Woodbury whose shoveling job also continued today. They found a parking spot about half a mile from the stadium and walked to work into campus.

The shoveling out the stands is nearly complete, with crews spending the morning clearing corners of the upper decks. "We're throwing the snow down tubes," Beebe said.

Long tubes like those used on construction sites and angled sheets of corrugated tin carry the snow from upper decks onto the playing field. From there, the snow gets loaded into dump trucks and hauled away.

As the morning progressed, crews moved into pockets of the lower stands where snow remained. The stadium's scoreboard told the temperature: 12 degrees above zero. The state flag told another story: a windy day.

A crew from the Labor Ready temporary agency was huddled outside the stadium, putting on wristbands and thin work gloves that a supervisor told the workers would provide them "at least another layer of protection."

Sean Moore of south Minneapolis was on detailing duty, getting spectator seating snow-free for Monday's game. "The NFL rule is that there's not enough snow to make a snowball," Moore said.

What's next, once the snow is gone? "Detailing the seats," said Maurice Jones, another Team Personnel worker taking a smoke break outside the stadium's Lincoln County gate.

Seats and walking surfaces that are encrusted with ice will get special attention from work crews and a sprinkling of salt, Jones explained.

Jones, who lives in St. Paul just south of Oakdale on Atwater Street, was one of the lucky ones from among the hundreds who sought work starting Thursday. "They cut down a lot of people," he said.

He said he'd already worked 16 hours and expected to put in at least that many hours more through Sunday. Someone nearby mention the possibility of additional work shifts on game day, starting at 4 p.m., and Jones said he was interested.

Others traveled greater distances, from places like St. Cloud and Rochester, but most came from the central cities or nearby suburbs and towns.

James Harris of south Minneapolis wasn't complaining. For construction workers like himself, "this is a walk in the park," he said. But Harris was impressed by the mess the stadium: "There's a lot of snow."

For Dennis Loop of south Minneapolis, readying the stadium for the Vikings is the latest in a lifelong association with Minnesota professional sports facilities. Loop started out ushering at Metropolitan Stadium in 1965. He was one of the so-called "Banner Twins" season ticket-holders who hung banners at the Metrodome for Minnesota Twins games from 1982–91.

How does shoveling snow at TCF Bank Stadium compare? "It's cold enough, but not too bad if you stay moving," Loop said. "I'm honored to be a part of it."