For football game - hungry Minnesotans , a new arena for their darling Vikings has been a long meter coming . After all , the last one , the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome , was a cement mausoleum erected back in 1982 that was unfortunately subjected to a go steady aesthetic from the beginning . It was also a little more than an eyesore on the business district apparent horizon ( though , to be fair , an eyesore that was also the source of many fond memories for a lot of people ) . But today , we are finally closer to having the Bob Hope of a unexampled home become a reality ; the Vikings ' US Bank Stadium will open afterwards this year ( with a ribbon - film editing slate for July 28th ) and be fit enough to host not only the 2018 Super Bowl , but also the 2019 NCAA Final Four . And with its young opening on the apparent horizon , we were process to an exclusive aspect at heart .
It ’s a project that has present a number of obstruction over the years – primarily blowback from a public unconvinced that a new bowl was really needed . Also , just discover the staring plaza to put the damn thing was almost impossible . Factor it all in , and a fresh facility has been roughly 16 year in the industrial plant .
The one-time Metrodome once housed the Minnesota Vikings , the Twins , the Timberwolves , and the Golden Gophers . As time went on , an era of stadium revolution arose : the Twins got Target Field back in 2010 , the Gophers got TCF Stadium in 2009 , and even our minor conference baseball game squad , the St. Paul Saints , receive their own CHS Field last twelvemonth . ( Not to name we have a professional association football stadium on the direction . ) The dot is : it seemed everybody had their own brand new home , and it was time the Vikings caught up .
Courtesy of The Minnesota Vikings
The new stadium is a modern marvel
Many people are n’t exactly sold on the angulate aesthetic of the new design – reportedly inspired by some of the jagged rock ‘n’ roll formations down by St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River – but the design is in fact quite the feat when it comes to modern computer architecture , and incredibly unique as far as sports stadium go . It was project by HKS , a sports and amusement computer architecture business firm that was also responsible for the newfangled Cowboys Stadium down in Dallas . It was put up by a local contractor , Mortenson Construction , who also built the Target Center , Xcel Energy Center , TCF Stadium , and Target Field .
expression originally begin back in December 2013 , beginning before the actual end of the Vikings ’ time of year and the destruction of the former Metrodome . The other start is what appropriate gang to maintain the incredible stop number at which the stadium is going up . At this point , it ’s about 90 % complete ; and despite being a bit dusty , there ’s quite a great deal to see , and even more to learn .
With the unique design come the power to sit 66,200 game - leaver , with the capacity to expand to up to 70,000 tush for the forthcoming 2018 Super Bowl . The arena itself uses over 100,000 three-dimensional yard of concrete supported by near 20,000 tons of pure steel . What ’s truly impressive here is that , even with all of that weight , the primary financial support comes in the form of a single sword supertruss that runs the length of the edifice . This is in part due to the fancy , space - age cloth used for the roof . It ’s called " ethylene tetrafluoroethylene ” ( or ETFE for myopic ) , and not only is it hyper long-lived , it is also super lightweight and transparent , give up the stadium to inundate with natural light , giving it an outdoor smell without the fear of snow ( which is expert because , if you have n’t hear , our winters can be barbarous ) .
Keane Amdahl/Thrillist
Of course , if ( and when ) a violent storm stumble , there ’s a massive snow gutter that run all the means around the construction designed to withstand it . The gutter is placed so that snow sliding down from the jagged edges of the cap land perfectly in the gutter where it will be housed safely out of everyone ’s way .
What about the amenities?
The new stadium really glitter when it comes to all the fluff and flair that ’s packed into it . Much like Target Field just down the street , the sit design allow for a full field vista no matter where you ’re sitting . what is more , it has the absolute close field - side seats in all of the NFL , with a combined totality of 132 landing field - level suites uncommitted . ( Actually , rumour has it that a small few are still usable for purchase . Should you have the investment trust , you might desire to consider jump on that . )
The bowl will house six new club that can invest up to 7,500 mass . Of course , these can be used during the biz , but they are also available for private party rentals . Each have different features that roll from outdoor terrace to elephantine video wall . The latter is part of the stadium ’s intense system that house over 15 monolithic gamey - definition video wall and over 2,000 4 K televisions .
If you ’re someone that want to be forever connect to the net ( after all , it is 2016 ) , chafe not : the stadium will be plan for maximal Wi - Fi capabilities , with an expected net bruit to be able to handle all 70,000 live - tweet football game fans during the 2018 Super Bowl . router will be placed throughout the arena , include smaller ace that will supplement to the handrails in the various seating area sections . The estimate is not to haul fans out of the secret plan , but should they call for to hold in their fantasy stats in a haste , they ’ll all be able to do so at the same time … and maybe even make a few Facebook updates and post a dyad of videos to Snapchat .
Keane Amdahl/Thrillist
To well help take care of Vikes fans ' football game pauperization ( both in and outside of the stadium ) , a new mobile app is being developed that ply game day traffic updates and mathematical function features to help sail the stadium , and it even has the ability to pre - order food for tone arm or food - to - seat delivery .
For all of you art lovers , the unexampled spot will have its very own curated art assembling that will contain while from local creative person . While several stadiums run around their own compendium , this will be unique in that the art will be propagate throughout the stadium instead of being reserve for premium section seating or suites .
The front of the stadium will take for a 150 ft viking ship terminated with a dragon ’s head mast . The dragon will be fit with the classic viking car horn and glowing royal eyes , with the " level " of the ship containing bricks buy by fans and inscribed with a variety of subject matter to highlight fan participation in the development of the stadium .
Keane Amdahl/Thrillist
sit down on a three - acre spread next to the stadium will be a monolithic Downtown park used for the most part for the obvious pre- and post - game celebration , allowing fans to both wind themselves up before the game , and then , hopefully , back down afterwards . And present the near propinquity to the scant - rail lines that run either to the Mall of America via the MSP Airport , or to neighboring Downtown St. Paul , the hope is to cut down on traffic over-crowding pre- and post - game . ( Note : " hope " being the operative give-and-take . )
Oh , and for all of you knocker - feeding mothers out there , no need to vex : the stadium will have several breast - feed pods onsite to assist make the cognitive process go a little more smoothly should you take it . ( Is that random ? Sure . But hey , you ’ll thank us later when you do n’t have to breastfeed from your rear end while some guy rope spills mustard on your lap because he was interfering creepily staring . )
How will this affect the community?
One of the biggest concerns on the part of Minnesotans in regard to the new stadium come in the form of what other uses and benefits it could maybe offer the Twin Cities . It was made pretty clean-cut that if almost $ 500 million in taxation dollar was go towards the sports stadium , it had better have more consumption than just hosting eight Vikings game a year . Fortunately , the team appears to have been rather sensitive to this fact , which comes through in a variety of ways .
There was obviously a fortune of work that had to be done in tearing down the original Metrodome , and even more put into building its new substitute , which at last result in the creation of over 4,000 construction task . The state also required that certain percentages of those jobs were to go to both women and minorities – something that in the end made up almost 40 % of the men . Plus , the sports stadium will have to staff itself , and recently announced that they ’re front to occupy 2,500 part - time chore .
With that , over $ 1 billion in novel development has been generated in the neighborhood as a direct issue of the stadium . Wells Fargo recently put in not one but two new office edifice that directly neglect the park outside the stadium . Along with the new businesses in the area , there are currently plans to renovate the old Downtown armoury , which will create more housing unit near the stadium .
Keane Amdahl/Thrillist
Some of the attractor to the new place is the ability to host a variety of other sporting events outside of football game . There ’s an entire section of retractable seating that can be stow aside to make room for a collegial baseball game field , a feature article that is 100 % singular to US Bank Stadium . There ’s even a 360 - point concourse to allow for runners and rollerblader during non - event clip .
Outside of sport , SMG , one of the primary partner , is working on bringing a slew of handsome name concerts to the bowl . They ’ve already booked land superstar Luke Bryan in August . A few more stars will presently be announced .
But what about all those birds?!
Some of you may have heard about the controversy wall birds potentially flying into the fancy transparent methamphetamine hydrochloride at the new arena . Well , this is a very real ( and not at all curious ) concern . And though the Vikings opted out of the special glass that would help oneself to prevent this from becoming an issue ( due to the fact that it would change the full aesthetic of the stadium ) , it ’s still something they have weighing on their intellect . So as a resolution , they ’ve been work with 3 M on a special moving picture that apply some kind of infrared technology that is invisible to the human eye , but in effect deters our feathered friends . While it ’s presently unknown how they ’ll proceed , the team mean to try and wait it out to see if it actually turns into a problem at all before spending the money to have all the windows coat .
Is it an ideal solution ? No . But it ’s practiced to get laid they have a contingency plan in place to help prevent a rain of dead birds falling from the sky and onto fan during biz days .
So, the final consensus is…
Ultimately , I think rooter are going to be very pleased with how the raw bowl turns out . To be honest , I was unsure about the motive for a young taxation - funded arena , but thing are coming along nicely and it ’s breathing unexampled life sentence into a part of town that was antecedently on its deathbed . for sure , there are still a lot of things that both the Vikings and the stadium indigence to forecast out before everything goes live … like how precisely they ’ll allot with food for thought . Rumor has it they ’re presently work with Aramark as their primary catering service , but they ’ve also contracted with local fame glutton Andrew Zimmern to help play in a piddling more local flavour .
One of the ( many ) great things about the new outer space is that White House seem fairly attached to the idea of filling it with as many local businesses as possible , which could be great for a lot of nearby restaurateurs and brewers . And in mentation of the Mungo Park , it ’s in all likelihood a bigger draw for business development than many would understand : with all sort of new housing going up , it should be an attractive unexampled part of town for a variety of ventures that could potentially give the develop North Loop locality a running game for its money .
In the conclusion , only sentence will tell how it ’ll all wreak out for sure , but at this period , things seem to be improve . I , for one , am really set out excited for the opportunity to catch a Vikes game in one of the conference ’s most unique stadiums .
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