Vikings Stadium Miscellaneous Discussion

[Mdcastle]

The Georgia Dome is what, only 20 years old?

[go4guy]

Not to mention that they did a $300 million renovation starting in 2007. What a waste of money.

[min-chi-cbus]

What's their urge to build a new stadium then? Is somebody threatening to move the team to LA?

[Didier]

This isn't directly related to the Vikings stadium but I feel it is relevant enough to post here. If there can be any momentum here, this is where soccer should and could thrive in MPLS. The Vikings stadium will be a terrible soccer venue IMO.

http://www.mls4mn.com/minneapolis-farme ... ign=Buffer#!

[MNdible]

Why would The People's Stadium (TM) be a terrible soccer venue?

[Tyler]

Giant cavernous indoor stadium with a plastic pitch. Sure, it would be fun for the world cup, but at the very least not ideal for MLS.

[mplsjaromir]

This isn't directly related to the Vikings stadium but I feel it is relevant enough to post here. If there can be any momentum here, this is where soccer should and could thrive in MPLS. The Vikings stadium will be a terrible soccer venue IMO.

http://www.mls4mn.com/minneapolis-farme ... ign=Buffer#!

lol, no

[Nick]

To continue to take this further OT, my cynic sense does give me a very faint feeling that football may be on its way out in the next couple decades. I say that as a Gopher football season ticket holder who enjoys watching football, and is going to a Vikings game next week, but...it's becoming increasingly clear that there are a bunch of guys in their 40s walking around with brain damage. Which isn't to say that Americans have no taste for blood sport, but if enough parents really start withholding their kids from football programs at the high school level, and the racket that is the NCAA eventually collapses (another subject altogether), it's not outside the realm of possibility that the NFL could fold.

So, hey, soccer.

[mullen]

In the southern states football is king and will be for the foreseeable future. I do see less football participation down the road but the south will continue to be a football pipeline. I've read stories about less football participation in Minnesota but nothing concrete. I'd steer my kids to other sports for sure.

I think the stadium will be fine for soccer albeit a tad cavernous. Ok more than a tad. And soccer is like baseball, it's optimally a grass sport. but the advances made in artificial turf have been huge since the days of astro turf.

[mplsjaromir]

Read this former player's twitter rant against the NFL in reference to concussions and deceit. People like this will spell the end of of the NFL as we know it our lifetimes.

https://twitter.com/HamzaAbdullah21

[Didier]

It's exceedingly rare for high level soccer to be played on turf because it kills the players' knees. It's not uncommon for temporary grass fields to be installed for a single game. A few MLS teams do play on turf, though.

Obviously the Farmers Market soccer stadium talk is pretty premature at this point, but you can build a very good 20,000 seat soccer stadium for a fraction of the price of the Vikings stadium, so it's conceivable that one could be built with very little public funding (see Houston). This would be a great location, and a real soccer-specific stadium would be night and day different than trying to bring MLS into the closed roof, carnivorous Vikings stadium.

[Didier]

Just to be sure, there's a more relevant thread for this MLS discussion on anything goes, so we can continue it there, but I just felt it was newsworthy enough to mention here.

[m b p]

Rome killed people for sport and entertainment. Surely we, as a country, can give a few guys brain injuries for the same reason. It's way less severe.

I'm only half kidding. Every great culture has/had a great outlet for violence. Football is ours. It's not going anywhere... nick.

[mister.shoes]

...the closed roof, carnivorous Vikings stadium.

Yikes!

[min-chi-cbus]

It's exceedingly rare for high level soccer to be played on turf because it kills the players' knees. It's not uncommon for temporary grass fields to be installed for a single game. A few MLS teams do play on turf, though.

Obviously the Farmers Market soccer stadium talk is pretty premature at this point, but you can build a very good 20,000 seat soccer stadium for a fraction of the price of the Vikings stadium, so it's conceivable that one could be built with very little public funding (see Houston). This would be a great location, and a real soccer-specific stadium would be night and day different than trying to bring MLS into the closed roof, carnivorous Vikings stadium.

A retractable component to the roof COULD allow for natural playing grass to grow on the field.....perhaps without having to move the turf outside the stadium (like they do at the University of Phoenix field in Scottsdale, where the Cardinals play).

[Tyler]

A retractable component to the roof COULD allow for natural playing grass to grow on the field.....perhaps without having to move the turf outside the stadium (like they do at the University of Phoenix field in Scottsdale, where the Cardinals play).

Actually, real grass can easily grow inside now. No one has done it yet in a large indoor stadium, but it would really be no problem at all (probably better than outdoors since you could control the conditions exactly). The main reason for turf is durability and cost. Grass would be a bad choice here, not because it's indoors, but because Cru Jones and Bart Taylor racing helltrack tears the shit out of grass.

[Didier]

...the closed roof, carnivorous Vikings stadium.

Yikes!

Sorry, I know there will be vegetables in the stadium as well!

[Viktor Vaughn]

Vikings owner Wilf charges 'anti-wealth bias' in New Jersey court case
In papers filed in a New Jersey civil case, the Vikings owner explained why his family’s net worth should not be made public.
http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 39511.html

I always knew the extremely wealthy had unfair disadvantages to overcome.

Related Steve Sack Cartoon: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/230132371.html

[Viktor Vaughn]

As usual, Jon Tevlin is dead on:

Tevlin: The billionaire's burden – crying Wilf
http://www.startribune.com/local/230364451.html

For decades, they sought privacy. Fair enough. Privacy granted, in my book.

Then they bought an NFL team. And then they asked the taxpayers for a half-billion dollars.

I think they call that a game-changer.

[mullen]

can this thread be used to discuss the actual construction of a billion dollar edifice in our downtown and save the stadium whining for another part of the forum? construction begins this month...the bill passed a year and half ago. the debate last more than a decade. get over it.