Vikings could play 2011 season outside

[charlie and algernon]

Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf has publicly campaigned for an open-air stadium to replace the Metrodome. He just might get a full-season shakedown cruise at the stadium that hosted the Vikings last Monday night.


Sources say the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission is assessing the viability of playing the 2011 season outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota, the stadium that hosted the Vikings' game against the Chicago Bears when the Metrodome roof was damaged by heavy snow.

The commission will deliver its findings to the Vikings in late January or early February. After reviewing the findings, Wilf will make a decision in consultation with the NFL on whether to play the 2011 season at the Metrodome or TCF Bank Stadium, according to team and league sources.

The Monday night game was the Vikings' first outdoor home game since moving into the Metrodome for the 1982 season.

Last week, Bill Lester, executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, said it's still not clear how long total repairs would take, including whether it would involve replacing damaged pieces of the roof, or replacing it entirely, and how much the repairs would cost. But he also said the stadium would be ready for the 2011 season.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5956782

[Forkboy]

1. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me why this is a bad thing.

[charlie and algernon]

2. if they can get the Univ of Minnesota's stadium up to spec for cold weather

then i'm all for it. With last week's game, there were no heating coils, the pipes could've froze and the vending stands weren't made for cold weather. I would imagine that if Minnesota and the NFL agreed to have the Vikings play all 8 games at the University, all those upgrades would be made.

[madinmaryland]

3. Nope. Not me. Two things. First, the Vikings won't have any home games

after mid December, and second, it's not the Super Bowl.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Why don't they just rip out the roof completely and play all of their HOME games at HOME?

[hughee99]

5. I wonder if it's the design of the Metrodome.

Outdoor stadiums normally have drainage and such designed into the plan to clear water. Domes probably don't have that, so if you just take the roof off, you may find that after the first snowstorm, the field, the locker rooms, or all the pipes freeze over.

[trotsky]

6. You are correct.

The seats and other items are not made for exposure to the elements; and as you note, the drainage just isn't there.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Those domed stadiums that went up in the eighties sure have a great track record

The Kingdome, the Metrodome . . .

They were discarded faster than the cookie-cutter baseball parks of the sixties and seventies (the ones with Astroturf for no good reason).

[hughee99]

8. I think they were both built in the 70's.

The Metrodome was finished in '79, the Kingdome in '76. You're point about the crappy domes still stands though. The domes from this period were shitty.

[Awsi Dooger]

9. Hoosier Dome is also long gone

The one example from the same time period and design that seems to be thriving is across the border in Vancouver.

BC Place has held up very well including hosting roles at the Winter Olympics last year. Now they are upgrading it with a retractable roof.