U.S. Bank Stadium manager Patrick Talty leaving for Indianapolis job

The executive responsible for booking some 400 events a year at U.S. Bank Stadium is leaving for a new job in Indiana.

SMG General Manager Patrick Talty is "pursuing a new opportunity with a sports organization" in Indianapolis, an SMG spokeswoman said Monday.

John Drum, assistant manager of general operations for SMG at the Minneapolis stadium, will step in Oct. 1 as acting general manager while SMG conducts a search for Talty's successor.

Neither Talty nor SMG provided details on his new job, and he could not be reached for comment Monday.

Talty was hired at U.S. Bank Stadium in January 2015 to begin promoting the venue before it opened on Aug. 3, 2016. He came from World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE), where he was senior vice president for live events.

He said at the time that he was drawn to Minneapolis by the opportunity to join global sports giant SMG, open a new stadium and work with the Vikings, the main tenant.

During Talty's tenure, he oversaw preparations for Super Bowl LII in 2018, the reconfiguration of the building's interior for the 2019 men's NCAA basketball Final Four, and concerts by artists ranging from Taylor Swift and Metallica to Garth Brooks, Beyoncé and Jay Z.

Said Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley: "Patrick and the SMG team have done a nice job opening up U.S. Bank Stadium and getting it off the ground on a very positive note."

Bagley added that SMG had a collaborative approach toward working with the Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA), the public body that oversees the stadium and chose SMG to operate it.

SMG, an international venue management company based in suburban Philadelphia, has run entertainment venues for more than 40 years. It pays the MSFA a fixed amount annually to book the building; any revenue above the fixed payment is divided between SMG and the MSFA.

Talty's tenure at U.S. Bank wasn't entirely smooth. In 2016, SMG hired Chicago-based Monterrey Security; it was fired in 2017 over deficient training and background checks, sloppy record-keeping and possible overbilling.

That same year, Talty's proposal for a user fee for Minnesota State High School League events was quickly batted down.