News Highlights

Lutheran student center benefits by providing training camp parking

Beacon beckons

Cut-rate parking for fans attending the Vikings training camp is a boon to the Lutheran student center, allowing students to attend church retreats across the country.

2007-07-30
By Dan Linehan, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 7/29/2007]

Three years ago, a lucrative idea came to Lyle Wichmann’s mind.

He saw the thousands of cars paying $ 5 to park at Vikings training camp, then thought about the empty 60­spot lot behind The Beacon, a Lutheran student center at Minnesota State University where he volunteers.

Would camp-goers be will­ing to walk a few more blocks in order to save a few bucks? Turns out they are, to the tune of $1,600 last year from the $ 3- per- car venture. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans chipped in too, and is this year offering to match every dollar that The Beacon’s parking sale generates.

It’s an idea that would help to send Timothy Ibisch and many others to church retreats across the country, in South Carolina, Florida and Texas.

For the past three years, Ibisch would help direct traf­fic, a laid back job, except dur­ing popular football scrim­mages.

He says people like the idea of a secluded lot and don’t mind that it’s a bit farther back.

“For $2, I think I can walk,” he said.

And for some who aren’t familiar with Mankato, this might just be the first lot that comes up.

That’s the case with the McDowell clan, marking their first year at training camp.

“This is nothin,’” Tami McDowell says of the walk to camp. Tami, her brother Dave and a sister-in-law, Deb, didn’t know their $3 was going to help the student center.

Dave suggested the center ought to advertise this fact, as drivers might be more inclined to spend money on a good cause.

This isn’t to say that parking revenue generated in the regu­lar $5 lot doesn’t go to a good cause, though.

MSU coordinates parking and parked 6,180 cars last year, said Dave Cowan, facilities services director for MSU.

Money collected during training camp goes toward parking control for other events, including high school tournaments and the Fourth of July.

Cowan’s not worried about the competition.

MSU’s lot has 2,200 stalls and “we’ve got proximity and as they say ‘ location, location, location.’” “We wish them well,” he said.

Ibisch graduated this spring, but he plans to be back at The Beacon’s parking lot on Aug. 3, when the Vikings play a scrim­mage against the Kansas City Chiefs. Wichmann expects to park more than 100 cars that day.

His favorite part of the job is seeing families decked out in Vikings gear climb out of mini­vans, the kids holding footballs, eager for autographs. And, given all the purple — one van parked in the lot Saturday had big Viking horns — it’s tough not to ask the question.

“I’m a fan,” Ibisch said, quickly adding: “It’s hard to be a Vikings fan.”

For more Free Press news go to www.mankatofreepress.com.

Email this article | Permanent link | Topstories news | Topstories news archives