The $35 million deal that TCF Financial Corp. struck with the University of Minnesota this spring to put its name on the Gophers' new football stadium also created an array of other campus benefits for the bank that are just now coming to light. [Just now. Students and faculty seem to have been kept in the dark about this until it was a done deal.]

Documents reviewed by the Star Tribune show that in negotiations for the $35 million pledge, the University of Minnesota also agreed to:

• Provide TCF exclusive access to the names and addresses of 236,300 alumni and season ticket holders so it can market new debit cards. [You’ve got to feel for this group of losers. Already madly ripped off as ticket prices go stratospheric, now they get mailboxes stuffed with debit card offers for the rest of their lives.]

• Put the TCF Bank Stadium logo on everything from tickets and stadium menus to service worker uniforms and stadium maintenance vehicles. [Welcome to the University of TCF Bank Stadium.]

• Allow TCF to solidify its position as a dominant banking institution on campus, and potentially push two competitors -- US Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank USA -- out of key locations. [I like the North Korea feel of this -- Big Brother’s logo everywhere… People’s Happy Campus Loves One and Only Glorious Beloved Bank…]

Other perks were granted to the bank.

They include making available for free the head football coach, the school's "Spirit Squad" or the Goldy Gopher mascot to TCF for appearances [At your service, Mr. TCF!]. The university also pledged to pay the expenses for the bank to fly four people to one Gophers away football game a year, and give the bank a 16-seat "prime location" suite at all home games.

Mark Jeter, TCF Bank Minnesota's president, said many of the new benefits to the bank were made available by the university, not necessarily requested by TCF. The deal, he said, "really is a win-win for the University of Minnesota." [Sounds like it, doesn’t it?]

State Sen. Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, who opposed the naming-rights deal when legislators approved the $248 million stadium this spring, has a different view. "It's clear the market value of a land-grant university has been put up for sale," he said.


The 50,000-seat stadium, expected to open in 2009, is the first new Big 10 football stadium in decades. It will be the only football venue in the conference with a corporate name.

With few new college football stadiums being built, TCF's pact with the university is likely to remain rare.

"I don't think you'll see a big rush to it," said Jay Lenhardt, manager of sports practices at CSL International, a sports facilities consulting firm with an office in the Twin Cities.

Because of traditions at older college football stadiums, Lenhardt added, "it's going to be difficult ... to change the name, for example, from Michigan Stadium to a corporate name." [Other universities have traditions that mean something to them. This keeps them from prostituting themselves to banks.]

The relationship between the university and TCF dates back a decade, when the two institutions introduced the U Card, which can be used as a university identification card, ATM card or check card.

TCF has similar deals with the University of Michigan and nine other colleges. Other banks also have collegiate banking arrangements; US Bank, for example, has roughly 35.

Documents detailing negotiations between the university and TCF were obtained through a request through the state open records law. According to the records, TCF officials urged the school to expand the alliance during negotiations to market debit cards to alumni and season ticket holders.

At one point, for an additional $150,000 per year, adjusted at 3 percent annually, TCF and the school debated whether the bank could market itself as "TCF -- The Official Bank of Gopher Sports." For $200,000 per year, adjusted at 3 percent annually, the slogan could have been "TCF -- The Official Bank of the University of Minnesota."

In the end, no such deal was reached. But other agreements related to the naming rights deal will expand campus ties to the bank:

• TCF will have the ability to take over US Bank's only branch location on the Twin Cities campus, in Coffman Union, when US Bank's option expires in 2010. TCF was also allowed to open a new branch location on the school's West Bank, and its contract to have ATMs on campus includes options to extend the agreement through 2029.
• The university will pay at least $125,000 to end an agreement that now allows Chase Manhattan to promote its credit cards at football games. [Money well spent, eh? Taxpayers can sleep easy.]
• If the school erects a lighted sign on the stadium exterior that says "Home of the Golden Gophers," any nearby sign with the words TCF Bank Stadium must be illuminated "with the same or greater lighting quality and intensity." [This is a fun one.]

"They do have opportunities that they didn't have before," said Mark Rotenberg, the school's general counsel, who helped oversee the negotiations with TCF. But, he added, "No one company sponsors the University of Minnesota." [As ever, the job of general counsel is to make the Official Orwellian Statement.]


Documents also show that TCF will contribute an estimated $95 million to the university over the life of seven separate agreements signed last year, ranging from annual $1 million U Card royalty payments to $29,500 per year for every ATM on campus. Former state Republican Party head William Cooper is the chairman of TCF's board of directors. [Cozy.] Jeter said he could not say how much money TCF could make from the agreements. But university records offer a glimpse of the possibilities.

In August 2004, before the new deals between TCF and the university, there was $65.3 million in checking balances in TCF accounts at both the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses. Of that amount, $51 million was in student accounts. Jeter said the figures have likely since gone up.

Another university document offered this analysis of TCF's motivation for wanting to expand ties to the campus. "The [school's] financial offer from TCF was, and continues to be, the largest in the U.S. and Canada," the report stated. "They see the potential return of their investments. As you know, month-end balances are pretty impressive."

While Rotenberg said the university was not obligated by law to seek naming-rights offers from other banks, another document outlined potential costs of doing business with anyone other than TCF.

In assessing an offer from Wells Fargo, the document stated that "increased exposure by Wells Fargo" could diminish money paid to the university by TCF from existing business arrangements. The document also warned of a possible "TCF legal challenge." [I thought we were friends! This is starting to look nasty.]

Wells Fargo spokesperson Peggy Gunn said the bank discussed a stadium naming-rights agreement with the school, but she declined to elaborate.

US Bank officials also said little about the TCF agreements. "We have an agreement with the university. We're very happy with the success," said bank spokesman Steve Dale.



As part of the deal, TCF will market "Gopher Cards," which are debit cards, stored-value cards or ATM cards, to alumni and season ticket holders in six states, including Minnesota.

In agreeing to make names and addresses of that group available to TCF, the nonprofit University of Minnesota Foundation, which oversees the databases, promised not to market debit cards with any other financial institution during the same time period. [Boo competition. We know what’s best for our people.] School officials said the agreement did not circumvent the foundation's privacy policy because lists of only alumni and season ticket holders, not financial donors, were being released. [Intriguing distinction.]

Richard Pfutzenreuter [longtime readers will recall UD’s earlier suggestion that the university name the field the Pfutzenreuter Stadium] the university's chief financial officer, said it was the Gopher Card that led to discussions regarding slogans, including whether TCF could be the "Official Bank of the University of Minnesota" by paying extra. "It was a give and take," Pfutzenreuter said. "They offered numbers. We offered numbers. You would expect them to want that," he said.