U.S. Bank Stadium

[Rube Dali]

One thing that bugs me and it's pretty obvious in pictures including the ones I posted, is the fact that the silver accent or whatever you want to call it doesn't align from panel to panel. My OCD hates this. I'm not sure how much they can do to fix it. Seems like they'd have to do some fairly major adjustments just to move it a few inches.

On another note, on last week's Beyond the Gridiron, they interviewed a member of the NFL scheduling team regarding the stadium who confirmed they like to open new stadiums to a national audience. Also, they said they prefer it to be a marquee match up. Both of which are probably pretty obvious. So that said, I'm willing to bet that the first regular season game in the new stadium will be on Sunday Night Football, September 11, 2016 at 8PM against the Packers. Any takers to that bet?

I do believe that the Packers will be the first opponent, but I'm guessing that it will be in week 3, as I believe the NFL wants to have a game in New York for the 15th anniversary of 9/11 and apparently week 2 will be off limits due to light rail construction downtown.

[MN Fats]

They could just have it Monday night Sept 12. Or the preceding Thursday night if they win the Super Bowl

[Rube Dali]

They could just have it Monday night Sept 12. Or the preceding Thursday night if they win the Super Bowl

As much as I would like to agree with both sentiments, I'm not sure it's possible to have a week one opener. Probably dependends on what the construction schedule looks like and whether or not there's a plan in place between the Vikings and MSFA on when the opening takes place. I should also mention that if there is a relocation to Los Angeles for next year, that may complicate things on the opener front.

Also, a little hint, there's a dedicated thread to US Bank Stadium at another forum I spend time on. It's called 506sports.com You will have to register to see the forums, but the main page has weekly NFL maps on the front page.

[HiawathaGuy]

and apparently week 2 will be off limits due to light rail construction downtown.

Care to elaborate what this means - and why they know about this "construction" a year in advance.
Feel free to answer in the Transportation thread - thanks!

[Rube Dali]

and apparently week 2 will be off limits due to light rail construction downtown.

Care to elaborate what this means - and why they know about this "construction" a year in advance.
Feel free to answer in the Transportation thread - thanks!

Regular maintenance for light rail. I have noticed that the Twins are on the road on September 18 and the Gopher football team have a bye that week. Maybe the fact that I spend a lot of time on a forum dedicated to sports tv makes me more of an expert in nfl scheduling than I will let on.

[seanrichardryan]

Do fans really want to see them lose their first home game? I suppose that was a given though.

[David Greene]

One thing that bugs me and it's pretty obvious in pictures including the ones I posted, is the fact that the silver accent or whatever you want to call it doesn't align from panel to panel.

God damn you.

[Chip Whitley]

They could just have it Monday night Sept 12. Or the preceding Thursday night if they win the Super Bowl

As much as I would like to agree with both sentiments, I'm not sure it's possible to have a week one opener. Probably dependends on what the construction schedule looks like and whether or not there's a plan in place between the Vikings and MSFA on when the opening takes place.

The construction will be done long before Week 1. They have 2 pre-season games before Week 1. Also, I don't know why the MSFA would really care when the home opener is. We know directly from the NFL scheduling team it will open to a national audience and will be a marquee match up. So we know it will be either SNF or MNF and likely against the Packers. Week 1 or 2 is debatable. I'm leaning/ hoping for Week 1 but I guess we won't know for sure until April.

On another note (and I'm saying this as a Vikings fan and a seat license holder), I wish there wasn't as much Vikings branding with the seats. The purple color is cool but I wish they would have a picked a more neutral, modern color that fits the stadium like gray or black. Also, the Vikings logo at the end of each row is kind of annoying when a non-Vikings event is happening. It seems like it should be removable at worst. They already have staff to put booklets on each chair before the game, shouldn't be hard to add/ remove the Vikings logo on each row.

Lastly, on the MSFA FB page, they announced steel installation will be completed Thursday. A worker on the site posted they have 8 weeks to get the glass in after that. Giving us an enclosure date of around November 20. It would made sense they'd want to get in enclosed before the Thanksgiving break.

[nfschauer]

Steel topping off event today.

[KML_1981]

Steel topping off event today.

I don't understand what this means.. Can someone explain? It looks to me like there is a lot of steel yet to go up on the south-side of the roof let alone the rest of it.

[FISHMANPET]

Steel topping off event today.

Are they doing the tree thing or something else?

[mamundsen]

Yes, Tree will be placed. See the picture and signed steel beam here:

@Vikings - The final steel beam will be put in place today at @usbankstadium during a topping out ceremony.

https://twitter.com/Vikings/status/644516553858289664

[nfschauer]

Yup, the tree as usual! And I think it's because it's the final, highest steel piece. Of course the doors are steel, but they aren't considered "beams". This will be the final beam placed.

[FISHMANPET]

If you're really confused about why they're hoisting a tree to the top of the stadium, it's because it's a builders tradition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topping_out

[KML_1981]

If you're really confused about why they're hoisting a tree to the top of the stadium, it's because it's a builders tradition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topping_out

Not confused about that. Confused about how many beams are left to put on the roof yet today..

[FISHMANPET]

Sorry, not sure how the word "really" got in there, which made it sound way snarkier than it was meant to (which is to say it was not meant to be snarky). I'd only recently learned about the practice, so I thought I'd share for others that hadn't heard of it yet.

[KML_1981]

Sorry, not sure how the word "really" got in there, which made it sound way snarkier than it was meant to (which is to say it was not meant to be snarky). I'd only recently learned about the practice, so I thought I'd share for others that hadn't heard of it yet.

No worries. And maybe they are delayed because of rain/storms? But, by my count they would need to hoist 4 beams on the south-side roof to qualify as "topping-out."

[MNdible]

I'm guessing that the work of the primary structural steel subcontractor is wrapping up. This doesn't mean that there won't be a lot of steel still going up. It may well be that the specific elements you're looking at are under the roofing subcontractor's scope and considered to be secondary structural steel.

[VikingFaninMaryland]

Yes, a look at the aerial pictures of the Viking stadium clearly indicates that there is more than just one structural beam to go in. It may be that they put this date on the calendar and scheduling made it difficult to reschedule the event. Interior pictures of the stadium on the Viking's webcam show rows of tables, a portable stage, and a large crowd of construction workers standing in audience as, it seems, someone is speaking.

I am trying to figure out how they will get the big crane to hoist the last beams while being able to retract. I sorta thought they wold have the beams go in at the top end and end towards the rim where outside cranes could be used to place the last steel beams. I see that another much smaller crane has popped up.

If you "rewind" the Interior pics number 2 on the Viking's Interior webcam, you can see that they began pouring surface concrete at 2:00 am. That is a change.

[KML_1981]

MPR just reported that final beam raising was delayed due to lighting in the area posing a danger. May still go up later today.

Still begs the question--how can that be a "topping-out" ceremony with 3 more large steel beams to go up..but, whatever.lol