Stadia Standings and Structural Failure
The 5 and 8 Minnesota Vikings will host the Chicago Bears Monday Night at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus due to Snowmageddon and the collapse of the Metrodome roof last Sunday.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAyLX2hY7E0&fs=1&hl=en_US]
Several points:
The collapse of the Metrodome roof guarantees the Vikings a new stadium. It is too embarrassing to Minnesota to let the Vikings leave because a spectacularly structurally troubled stadium deflated. What if there was a game on? Someone could have been hurt (probably not in this slow-motion collapse, but something slightly faster, or he subsequent panic). Were the stadium deemed adequate and the team left, that would be because they were greedy. Now who looks cheap? I predicted the Vikings would get a stadium only if they won the Superbowl last year (not gonna happen this year either), but I did not account for this.
The best solution given the Vikings stay in Minnesota would be to share a field and stands with the Gophers. This deal should have been cut 5 years ago. Maybe something could still be worked out to retrofit the "Bank", but I doubt it. I really don't understand the problem so long as the NFL has revenue sharing. Wilf can increase profits either with more revenue (his current strategy) or lowered costs (which using TCF Bank Stadium bring)
I hope they move the new stadium out of downtown. Football stadiums are a waste of scarce downtown space that could be put to a higher or better use ([saracasm] like even a parking lot, which would at least be used 365 days a year)
What is it about Minnesota infrastructure. Comparatively this is a well-managed state, yet we seem to have a lot of infrastructure failure in this Minneapolis Triangle.
[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=109+Warwick+St+SE,+Minneapolis,+Hennepin,+Minnesota+55414&ll=44.974954,-93.25176&spn=0.013874,0.01575&t=h&z=16&output=embed&w=600&h=600]
I saw them shoveling out TCF stadium while walking home Thursday, they were almost done then. But what is with all the helicopters circling the site, what can be gleaned from a helicopter that is not obvious from the ground?