Stadium authority makes effort to include veterans on Vikings project

When the new $1 billion Minnesota Vikings stadium under construction in downtown Minneapolis is completed before the 2016 season, it will include the work of Minnesotans to whom state officials want to give more opportunities.

State lawmakers wrote requirements for minorities and women on the stadium project into the stadium law, setting workforce goals of 32 percent for minorities and 6 percent for women.

The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority took those goals a step further by including former members of the armed services — a category that wasn't set in law.

"Right now, we have five veteran owned businesses that have contracts on the project," said Michele Kelm-Helgen, chair of the authority. "That represents about $8.5 million worth of work on the project."

Among the contractors who have served in the armed forces is Mike Klein, who served in Korea while in the Air Force from 1973 to 1976.

"I worked in a gun shop," he said. "That's actually where I got my electronic training. So it was everything that flies on an aircraft. The weapons systems. Worked on the big 20 millimeter Gatling guns."

Of course, the new stadium doesn't include any airborne cannons. But Klein has plenty of experience in electronics, which he is putting to good use. His Blaine-based company is designing the fire alarms and life safety systems it will start installing in the new stadium next year.

Kelm-Helgen anticipates about 1 percent of the stadium's construction budget will go to veteran-owned subcontractors. About 5 percent of the workers for the project have been veterans, she said.

Although that isn't much of the $1 billion construction program, stadium officials say it's a good first try at tackling a persistent problem: veteran unemployment.

Veterans who have served since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have an unemployment rate of nearly 9 percent, according to a Congressional report last month. That's more than double the state's overall unemployment rate of 4.1 percent. Unemployment for all veterans in Minnesota is nearly a percentage point above the overall rate, the report notes.

Numbers like those are receiving renewed attention this year, as deployments to Afghanistan have wound down and active duty members of the armed services have come home.

Starbucks founder Howard Schultz has also published a new book highlighting the contributions and potential of veterans in civilian life. The coffee company has pledged to hire 10,000 veterans and spouses of veterans by 2018.

Jerry Kyser, vice chair of Minnesota's United Veterans Legislative Council, and a Vietnam veteran, wishes Minnesota would be that direct. He said the Minnesota Department of Transportation has made good progress in identifying and giving business to veterans. But he said the state relies on an onerous certification process from the Veterans Administration.

Kyser said more outreach is needed, particularly for the 66,000 Minnesotans that have been deployed since 2001, according to the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs.

"Most of those are National Guard, obviously some are regular military, but they're leaving homes and their families and their businesses, to go overseas to do whatever they're going to do," he said. "And they willingly do that and they come back and they have to reintegrate."

The people building the new Vikings stadium hope the project, besides keeping the NFL in Minnesota, will serve as an example to the public and private sector of how to make that reintegration successful.