We’re still about 11 months away from the next Super Bowl, but it’s already making a mess of its 2018 home.

The last time the Super Bowl was played in Minneapolis, in 1992, it took place in the multipurpose Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. It was built for only $55 million a decade earlier and designed to return as much revenue to both Minneapolis and Minnesota as possible at relatively little cost. It wasn’t pretty and wasn’t always a great home for baseball, basketball or even the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings, but it allowed the city and state to host a whole lot of teams at minimal cost.

When the Super Bowl returns to Minneapolis next year, it’ll be played in U.S. Bank Stadium, the embodiment of the opulence, greed and political influence that have leeched into both the NFL and its stadium politics within the past 25 years.

“ When you allow the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, which governs U.S. Bank Stadium, to use six-figure luxury suites for “marketing purposes,” some folks are going to have a fairly broad definition of what “marketing purposes” are. ”

Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf began making noise about a new stadium more than a decade ago, but increased the volume after a winter storm collapsed the inflatable roof of the Metrodome in 2010. Also, despite facing trial in New Jersey on racketeering charges related to his real estate business — charges he and his brother Mark were found liable for in 2013 — Wilf had the audacity to allow rumors of a potential Vikings move to Los Angeles to go unanswered.

Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis eventually decided to cover nearly $500 million of a new stadium’s $1.1 billion cost in one of the worst stadium financing deals in recent history. Overall, it’s the second-largest layout of public funds for a National Football League facility in history, with only the Indianapolis Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium ($619 million) eating up more tax dollars. However, with just one season of football under its roof, U.S. Bank Stadium has already become a symbol of corruption, political favors and unchecked greed.

As it turns out, when you allow the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA), which governs U.S. Bank Stadium, to use six-figure luxury suites for “marketing purposes,” some folks are going to have a fairly broad definition of what “marketing purposes” are. In November, the Minneapolis Star Tribute reported that the MSFA was allowed to use two $200,000 to $300,000 suites, free food and free parking spaces for “marketing purposes.”

However, Minnesota’s Legislative Auditor discovered that MSFA commissioners were allowing friends, family members and other “people with no connection to marketing the stadium” to use the suites. The MSFA also flouted state law “by not maintaining a record of who received tickets to its stadium suites.” While the MSFA did not violate the state’s gift laws, since they miraculously aren’t subject to them, they did “violate a core ethical principle” and open the door for legislators to expand the gift law to cover tickets to events held in publicly owned facilities.

What’s most astounding about all of this is that the MSFA wasn’t subject to any legislative or legal oversight whatsoever during the 2016 Vikings season. Who would have guessed that tickets worth thousands of dollars could have been used for less-than-altruistic purposes? Who could have known that tickets to a luxury suite located 36 rows from the field could be converted into graft and political kickbacks? And who would have thought that the folks running a facility picked to host the Super Bowl — an event whose tickets are basically expensive thank-you notes to league sponsors and partners — would have found a way to make some of the building’s most valuable assets work to their personal benefit?

Well, despite the report noting that “the authority’s claim that it needs two suites rather than one is not supported by facts or logic,” the MSFA’s obliviousness extends to a third luxury suite that it’s paying $1.5 million to use for the next 30 years. Yep, for “marketing purposes.” Perhaps realizing that all of the above was making the MSFA look sketchy, if not outright criminal, MSFA Chairwoman Michele Kelm-Helgen resigned her post in late February. Following her out the door was MSFA Chief Executive Ted Mondale, who was on the verge of being voted out. Both have deep political connections within the state, but Mondale is perhaps best known beyond Minnesota as the son of former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale.

Throwing public money at high-profile, big-ticket public facilities like this one creates altogether too much opportunity for scenarios like this. While there’s no evidence that the stadium freebies were used for the sake of political influence, they certainly exploited a position of power to enhance personal standing. At a bare minimum, a public official is supposed to avoid that conflict of interest. When they don’t, they erode trust not only in themselves and their party, but also in the institutions of government that provided their jobs.

The sad part is that Minnesota and Minneapolis taxpayers didn’t even need this suite scandal to figure out that The House That Pulltab Lottery Games and Cigarette Taxes Somewhat Built would never return their investment. When the NFL awarded U.S. Bank Stadium the 2018 Super Bowl, it did so with a 153-page list of NFL demands. Those demands ensured that local government would still be on the hook for free police escorts for team owners, 35,000 free parking spaces, sales tax rebates, residential suites at no cost in high-end hotels and free billboards. Oh, and they guaranteed that the NFL would receive all revenue from the game’s ticket and merchandise sales.

Jason Notte is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Esquire. Follow him on Twitter @Notteham.