Minnesota Vikings Break Ground on New Stadium

The Minnesota Vikings broke ground on Tuesday on the new $975 million Vikings Stadium. The stadium will be built by Mortenson Construction and Thor Construction and will replace the aging Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis that was built in 1982. The 65,000 seat, 1.7 million square foot facility will be finished in July 2016. It is expected to take 4.3 million work hours from over 7500 workers. The Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA) will require 11% of the construction contracts for the project to be awarded to women, and 9% of the contracts to be awarded to minority-owned construction companies. On May 10, 2012, a bill was passed to fund the stadium and states the Minnesota Vikings will pay $477 million, the state of Minnesota will pay $348 million, and $150 million will be covered by a hospitality tax in Minneapolis.

The stadium was designed by HKS Sports & Entertainment Group, the company that has designed many other professional sports stadiums including Cowboys Stadium in Dallas and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Vikings Stadium will feature the largest transparent roof in the country and will put fans closer to the field than any other NFL stadium. The design allows for the facility to be used for numerous sporting events including NCAA basketball, conventions, and concerts. Minnesota hopes to one day host a Superbowl in the new stadium. Click here to see renderings of the design from HKS INC.

Sources: Vikings.com, MinnPost