Category: Stadiums

The new Vikings stadium won’t have a retractable roof.  So what?  Get over it.

About one-third of the world’s population subsists on $2 per day, according to last Sunday TV’s 60 Minutes.  Don’t whine about not being able to accommodate a retractable roof in the $975 million budget.  That’s plenty of money to spend without adding on the retractable roof for another $25 to $50 million.

The design announced on Monday night detailed how part of the roof and huge pivoting doors will allow light into the building, providing the feeling of that long desired outdoor experience.  The stadium will have seven levels, seat 65,000 fans for Vikings games, provide close proximity to the field and be able to accommodate more types of events than any facility in the world, according to venue promoters.

Pro football is a spectacle well suited to indoor accommodations.  It’s a made for TV sport and NFL stadiums are giant TV studios.  Vikings fans will be cozy inside their new stadium with views of the downtown skyline and giant video boards to entertain themselves.  The purple-dressed throngs will be able to walk to the stadium in controlled climate comfort because of the skyway system linking to the facility.

From Detroit to Houston, the NFL has embraced the indoor football experience in multiple cities.  In Detroit the Lions play in a fixed roof facility and in Houston the Texans hardly ever play under blue sky despite having a retractable roof, preferring a climate controlled environment.

Instead of complaining about the absence of the roof, celebrate that this city and state has decided to build a state-of-the-art facility that will compare favorably to any in the world. This will be no built-on-the-cheap stadium like the Metrodome, a facility where tightwad politicians and administrators thought about not using air conditioning to save money.

Even when it was new, the dome with its Teflon coated roof, never won a beauty contest.  Shoulder pads are optional in the overcrowded concourses.  Visiting the restrooms is usually a tradeoff in missed game time.  Worst of all, a roof collapse always seemed a possibility.

The Metrodome did ensure the presence of the Twins and Vikings in Minnesota for more than 30 years.  In the 1970s both franchises wanted the downtown dome rather play in outdoor Met Stadium.  The Vikings particularly pushed hard for a dome.  Historians will remember there once were plans for the Twins to stay in Bloomington while the Vikings would move into a football only covered facility on the west side of downtown.  A parking ramp was to surround the exterior and daily revenues would help pay for the stadium.

The design detailed by HKS Sports on Monday night gave confidence to the notion that this new endeavor will be a world-class stadium.  There’s been a history here of building stadiums without a commitment to quality but that won’t be true of the Vikings’ stadium.  Both Met Stadium and the Metrodome were built with “what can we get by with approaches.”  TCF Bank Stadium and Target Field broke with that sorry mantra and the Vikings stadium looks like it will go a step higher.

The new stadium will host 10 or more Vikings games per year but it will also be a giant indoor park hosting high school and college baseball, saving the spring season in some years here in our bizarre climate.  There will be glamorous and not so glitzy uses of the facility ranging from Final Fours to neighborhood rollerblading, from rock concerts to conventions.  Yes, we might even see a bowl game here and certainly the stadium will host the Prep Bowl just like the Metrodome has for all these years.

A few years ago speculation was the Vikings were headed to Los Angeles.  But the Vikings will be playing in a new stadium in Minneapolis in 2016 and right now LA is still trying to figure out how to finance a pro football facility.  Not only that but LA’s baseball and college football teams play in old stadiums while here in Minneapolis our teams are in new facilities.

Maybe Hollywood is overrated.   Maybe like a retractable roof.

Vikings’ stadium executive Lester Bagley told Sports Headliners he expects to know this spring if the new $975 million downtown stadium that will be home to the local NFL team will have a retractable roof, or fixed roof.  “In the next 60 days we should know the fate of a retractable feature,” he said.

Knowledgeable observers are pessimistic that the state-mandated $975 million budget is large enough to pay for a retractable roof, likely to cost $25 million to $50 million.  But Bagley doesn’t describe the chances of a retractable roof as a “long shot.”

The Vikings, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, the architects (HKS) and the construction management firm (Mortenson Construction) are considering options to provide enhanced amenities in the new facility scheduled to open in 2016.  Those options include not only a retractable roof, but a window opening to the skyline and a moveable wall providing proximity to the game day outdoor plaza.  “We think it’s a pretty decent opportunity for the retractable feature (of some kind),” Bagley said.

While neither the Vikings, state or city of Minneapolis are expected to commit any more money to the stadium budget, Bagley is already encouraged by cost savings for the project. “It (a retractable feature) is going to be a budget issue but we’ve been able to have an architect and builder (Mortenson) come in under budget,” Bagley said.

The expertise of HKS and Mortenson is also expected to maximize the best outcome for a retractable feature.  HKS was the architect for the acclaimed football stadiums in Dallas and Indianapolis that have multiple retractable features including roofs.  Mortenson built Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Bagley didn’t identify the amount of the cost savings with HKS and Mortenson but it’s been reported the HKS fee will be $34 million and the Mortenson fee $12.5 million with incentives that could reach $15 million.

Bagley said the Metrodome will be demolished on February 1, 2014.  Ground for the new stadium—to be located adjacent to the Metrodome—is expected to be broken this September or October.

The 2013 season will the Vikings last at the dome, and then the team will play at TCF Bank Stadium in 2014 and 2015.  The Vikings and University of Minnesota are expected to have an agreement finalized within about 30 days, according to Bagley.

Sports Headliners believes the Vikings will pay in excess of $2.5 million per year to use TFC Bank Stadium.  In addition, the Vikings will pay for costs to make the stadium acceptable for them.  This includes paying for a new field with heating coils under the artificial turf, and then replacing that turf after the 2015 season.  TCF Bank Stadium was built for fall football but Bagley said the Vikings need the facility to be suitable for the team and its fans through January.

Stadium capacity for Gophers games is 50,805 but will be expanded to nearly 53,000 by the addition of temporary seating in TCF Bank Stadium’s west end, according to Bagley.  That figure was targeted to accommodate Vikings’ total season ticket holders.

The Gophers’ baseball program and other amateur baseball teams in the state have annually played games in the Metrodome when the weather otherwise forces them to be in warmer states.  Leaders of those programs have been concerned about an initial field design for the new stadium that will have a baseball foul line of less than 300 feet.  The Vikings are determined to build a fan-friendly football stadium that includes seats with close proximity to the field.

Bagley said design work regarding the issue is now on “option six” and he’s hopeful a solution will be finalized within a week or so.  “I don’t know exactly what the foul line dimensions will be but they should accommodate the baseball community,” he said.