A section of railing at TCO Stadium in Eagan gave way late Thursday night after the Cretin-Derham Hall and St. Thomas Academy prep football game, sending roughly 20 to 30 Cretin-Derham Hall students tumbling about four to six feet onto the field below. Emergency medical personnel treated a number of the students at the scene, and one was hospitalized before later being discharged.
The fall happened as students were cheering from the stands following the game, according to the Pioneer Press. Jeb Myers, president of Cretin-Derham Hall, said the moment was a tangle of emotions for those involved — excitement over the team's win, the scare of the fall and resulting injuries, and exhaustion from the late night. Myers asked families to pray for those injured and wish them a speedy recovery.
TCO Stadium officials requested the names of each student who fell as they began working on an incident report, per the same account. Representatives from the Minnesota Vikings and MV Ventures reviewed the stadium damage and met separately with contractors and maintenance staff in the aftermath.
Every Railing In The Stadium Now Under Review
The Vikings and MV Ventures representatives have since assessed all railings inside the stadium, the outlet reports, with the stadium assessment preceding the remaining high school games scheduled at TCO Stadium this fall. Stadium officials say they will discuss short- and long-term measures meant to prevent similar incidents going forward.
TCO Stadium is a 6,000-seat outdoor venue on the 40-acre Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center campus, which opened in March 2018 as the Minnesota Vikings' headquarters and training facility, according to Meet Minneapolis. The facility sits within the 200-acre Viking Lakes development managed by MV Ventures and owned by the Wilf family, built by Kraus-Anderson Construction and designed by Crawford Architects as part of an initial Phase I investment of $120 million, per REJournals. The venue is designed with a master-planned capacity of up to 7,500 visitors for major events, using artificial turf, permanent grandstands, and perimeter safety barricades, according to Crawford Architects.
A Marquee Rivalry Game Turned Fundraiser
Since 2018, the Minnesota Vikings and Twin Cities Orthopedics have run the Vikings Prep Spotlight series at TCO Stadium, giving Minnesota high school football teams the chance to play regular-season games inside a professional stadium rather than on their traditional home fields, per the Minnesota Vikings. Thursday's matchup was also organized as an official Tackle Cancer community fundraising event, according to Saint Thomas Academy, adding to the emotional charge in the stands.
St. Thomas Academy and Cretin-Derham Hall share one of the Twin Cities metro's longest-running Catholic prep football rivalries. St. Thomas Academy won their August 2025 matchup 27-14, marking five consecutive rivalry victories over Cretin-Derham Hall, according to the Star Tribune. That history helps explain why large, energetic student sections have gathered close to the field barricades during the annual contest.
Building Codes And A Past Railing Failure Elsewhere
Under Section 1607.8.1 of the International Building Code, stadium guardrails and handrail assemblies must be engineered to withstand a minimum uniform lateral load of 50 pounds per linear foot, plus a non-simultaneous concentrated load of 200 pounds applied in any direction, according to Greco Railings. The City of Eagan enforces the 2020 Minnesota State Building Code, which incorporates the 2018 International Building Code with state amendments governing structural live loads and commercial assembly venues, per the City of Eagan.
A comparable failure occurred in January 2022 at FedEx Field in Maryland, when a side barrier gave way as fans leaned forward to greet Philadelphia Eagles player Jalen Hurts, dropping spectators about six feet to the field, according to WUSA9. That incident led to federal negligence lawsuits from four injured fans who claimed venue operators failed to warn of the railing's load limits.
A Busy Multi-Sport Venue
Beyond high school football, TCO Stadium also serves as the primary home venue for pre-professional women's soccer team Minnesota Aurora FC in the USL W League, and it previously hosted the 2022 USL W League Final, as Hoodline reported earlier this year. The venue's heavy year-round use across youth, prep, and semi-professional sports underscores why the pending assessment matters to a wide range of local teams and fans before the rest of the fall high school football schedule plays out.
