Minnesota Vikings Stadium News

Heard about this on the blog http://stadium-love-.tumblr.com/

Via the Penalty Flag 

Long have the Minnesota Vikings needed state funding for a new place to call home, now they have the architect and concept images of what future NFL stadiums could represent. 

According to TwinCities.com, Dallas-based HKS Inc., which designed the new Dallas Cowboys stadium as well as Lucas Oil in Indianapolis, was hired to build the $975 million facility for the Vikings in downtown Minneapolis. 

“Those two facilities are among the greatest in the world, and we’re very, very excited about taking what they’ve learned and what they’ve done and improving upon those projects and bringing that to Minnesota,” said Lester Bagley, the Vikings’ vice president of public affairs and stadium development. 

HKS will be paid $34 million, which includes payments to sub consultants as well. Drawings of what the new stadium will look like will likely be unveiled in January or February of next year, officials said. 

HKS was a joint pick by the team and the public stadium authority that was created after the Legislature approved $348 million in state money for the project. 

The Vikings are contributing $477 million, and the city of Minneapolis will pitch in $150 million. The facility will replace the Metrodome, the team’s current home on the eastern edge of downtown. It is expected to open in 2016. 

The authority released two conceptual designs Friday showing HKS’s ideas for the Vikings facility, but Kelm-Helgen said the stadium would likely look very different from those drawings. She said that beginning in October, the authority will have several meetings to hear how the public would like the stadium to look.

I mean, damn. Look at that concept.

Astrodome Down

The "Eighth Wonder of the World" is looking pretty bad these days. The first domed stadium in the world has been without a team since 1999, and it's really been on the decline. Built in 1965, it was the first stadium in the world with a roof. With no natural sunlight, the invention of astroturf also came along. This was really the first big money stadium, a Cowboy Stadium of it's day. The scoreboard cost a million dollars, and 35 million overall. The thing is, to tear it down would cost almost 100 million dollars. So the city of Houston would rather keep the eyesore open. 

All of Houston's teams have new buildings. The dome hosted the Astros and Oilers from 1965 until both teams moved in their own way. The Astros, Texans, and Rockets opened new digs in 2000, 2002, and 2003 respectively. The Houston Cougars and Dynamo played at the Cougars' Robertson Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston. But the Dynamo built their new BBVA Stadium for this year, and the Cougars plan on razing Robertson Stadium, and build a new stadium in it's place.

The last time the Astrodome was really used was for Hurricane Katrina victims. But it looks like a tornado went through the dome. Here are some more sad pictures of the old dome.

http://www.chron.com/news/gallery/Astrodome-tour-41244/photo-2774936.php.

Vikings Stadium news

As you know, the Vikings are currently stuck in one of the worst stadiums in America. The long stadium drama may have just had a resolution. Minnesota's governor Mark Dayton has announced that an agreement was reached to build a new stadium on the site of the Metrodome. The 975 million dollar plan would be modeled after Lucas Oil Stadium, which you can see from the above picture.

If they build it on the spot the dome is now, they would have to play at TCF Bank Stadium, on the campus of Minnesota during the final year of construction.

Atleast they have their plan together! They were a team with a good chance to move to LA, or have a stadium not even in the Twin Cities(A surrounding suburb). Hopefully someone down here can do figure it out for the Rays.

2005 New Orleans Saints

So I was on the Chris Creamer boards, looking at the "Best football fields" thread. This guy posted some oddities at LSU's Tiger Stadium. One of them, was this gem of the New Orleans Saints playing there after Hurricane Katrina.

I remember they did this. One of the 4 games they played there was against the Bucs. I remember, actually we were driving home somewhere going through St. Pete on the highway that passes the Trop. The announcer said  something to the effect of, "If anyone wants to come watch a game, there are a lot of seats left at Tiger Stadium." Obviously the stadium wouldn't be to capacity, and just now I'm seeing a picture of it. Well, in that game they're either playing Carolina or Miami. You can't make out details but it's an all light uniform set, and Chicago and the Bucs wear navy and pewter.

The team had 3 regular season home stadiums. The hurricane came the week after a preseason game at the Superdome vs the Ravens. But still recovering, in week 2 they played the Giants at the Meadowlands. Week 4 and 6, they played Buffalo and Atlanta at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The next 4 home games were at Tiger Stadium, then they rounded the season out back in San Antonio against Detroit.

Then they fixed the Superdome, and it still looks like a dump.

But there is your history lesson everybody!

Mini Jerry World

Remember the Super Bowl?

I'm not sure if this is awesome, or just really really sad, but this guy made a New Cowboy Stadium in his living room. COMPLETE WITH VIDEO SCREENS. I thought my stadi-bros would like this.

Stadium Report Card: Everbank Field

Our friend Nick went to the Jags-Titans game and did a report card for Everbank Field for y'all.

Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
Location: Jacksonville, FL
League: National Football League(AFC South)
Built: 1997
Capacity: 76, 867
My event: Regular Season Game, vs Tennessee Titans

1. Outdoor Design

The exterior has a nice façade made of glass and features a statue of a jaguar named “Touchdown” sitting in front of it. The Everbank Field logo is on the top of the façade as well as plastered around the top of the stadium. Nothing else really stuck out though.
6/10

2. Indoor Design

The interior looks really good especially with the Bud Light Party Zone added to it when the stadium hosted the superbowl. You can tell you are at a Jaguars game with the look and feel of the interior. Teal blue seats, the “Pride of the Jaguars” Ring of Honor featuring Jaguar great Tony Bosselli honored in it. There are lots of activities for people of all ages. Just wish the field walls had a unique design to them instead of black with the helmet logo.
7/10

3. Prices
Very inexpensive for an NFL game. The Jaguars have probably one of the least expensive ticket prices. $75 a ticket for section 100 seats, in my mind that’s real good. Food prices were average for a sporting event. 7/10

4. Food
They had your typical stadium food of burgers, chicken, nachos, and hot dogs but they also had a Sonny’s stand and different variations of everything. I had a big plate of chicken tenders and fries, the chicken was spicy and it was good, I only wish I could have tried all of the food.
8/10

5. Staff
The staff was very friendly. They talked to you and helped you if needed. At the end of the game someone stole my souvenir cup and when we found a stand that had the cup my dad was willing to buy it but the manager just gave it to me for free. Great service.
9/10

6. Cleanliness
For a stadium almost 15 years old it was very neat and well kept.
8/10

7. Parking
the only downside to the day. My dad went with me and he needs handicap parking. The handicap section was at a baseball field across the street from Everbank and we still had to walk to the gates. If I didn’t have to pay $25 to walk the same distance we would have walked from the $10 garages I might not have been as mad.
2/10

8. Atmosphere
I’ve heard people say that Jaguar fans don’t care about the team. WRONG!!! The crowd was very into it the whole game. They love this team and support them. Every first down you can hear the famous Jaguar home game chant “MOVE THOSE CHAINS, MOVE THOSE CHAINS, MOVE THOSE CHAINS, MOVE EM!!!!!! The 9/11 tributes also made this a very emotional experience. The pre-game and half time ceremonies were very touching. In the end the crowd was loud and having fun, especially when the Jags won a nail biter..
9/10

9. Playing Surface

It was good. Nothing special but no complaints about it.
7/10

10. Scoreboard
There are two identical scoreboards, one on each end of the field. Both were good quality, full of ads, and solid. 7/10

Overall I give Everbank Field a 76 of 100.

Extreme Sun Life Stadium Makover

So the Marlins are officially out of this stadium for good. After their entire history in a football stadium that just happens to fit baseball there, the Marlins will move to their new stadium. Everyone down there is excited, which makes me jealous, but it's still nice to look at.

Stadium Report Cards: LP Field

Team: Tennessee Titans
Location: Nashville, TN
League: National Football League(AFC)
Built: 1999
Capacity: 69,143
My event: Pre Season Game, vs Minnesota Vikings

1. Outdoor Design

Pretty football like. Basic stadium with areas in the endzones. It reminds me a LOT of Raymond James. Big Red lights overhung over everything.
6/10

2. Indoor Design

We showed up real early, as you can see. Big Bowls and upperdecks, and large areas on the end zone areas. The concourses were pretty dull. Lots of cement, and old NFL designs. That bugged me, hahaha.
7/10

3. Prices
Preseason games are generally cheap. The cheapest were about 5 dollars, and the upperdeck was around 30. We scalped 30 dollar tickets, but sat at the lower bowl.
7/10

4. Food
Just guess what they had. THE REG.
5/10

5. Staff
The people working the rows were nice and talkative, and they didn't check me for tickets. My dad also had pictures for his birthday with cheerleaders who were pretty nice, so that counts!
7/10

6. Cleanliness
I really didn't have a problem with it. Well kept for sure.
7/10

7. Parking
This was great. They had areas around the stadium, obviously. But there is a pedestrian bridge going from downtown Nashville to LP field. That is probably the source of 2/3rds of the people who was at the game. 20 dollars, and we parked for a downtown parking spot for the whole day.
7/10

8. Atmosphere
These people missed football. Typical NFL crowd wanting to have fun. The whole town was in light blue and navy. Also, the wave went around at least 15 times. I thought it was great.
8/10

9. Playing Surface

I thought it was nice, clean, and well maintained. Too bad there wasn't any logos or anything. But it was the first week, so I guess that's normal.
8/10

10. Scoreboard

2 huge boards on each endzone, though the presentation was kind of crappy.
7/10

69, which was about right. It wasn't that mind blowing, but it was a nice one never-the-less.

My Road Trip!

Here are pictures of stadiums that I took on my trip, I will do some posts about it soon. I didnt take a picture of Bridgestone Arena, and Rupp Arena.

UT-Chattanooga Football


Chattanooga Lookouts


Tennessee Titans


Vanderbilt Football


Western Kentucky Football


Bowling Green Hot Rods


Louisville Football


Churchill Downs


KFC Yum! Center


Louisville Slugger Stadium


Kentucky Football


Tennessee Football

New Road Trip plans!

http://stadiaarcadia.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-post.html

So the 2011 one wasn't official, apparently. My dad and I were going to go to just those three, but we made some changes. We WERE going to see the Nashville Sounds between Chattanooga and Bowling Green.

WELL, the Tennessee Titans POSSIBLY would be hosting the Minnesota Vikings that weekend. My sister is also playing softball in South Carolina the next weekend, so that opens up several days for more games. My dad talked about the Tennessee Smokies, and Asheville Tourists.

That would be 6 games for sure. I want to maybe see some in South Carolina depending on where they play. I'm thinking Augusta Green Jackets.

Super Bowl!

So this is the 45th Super Bowl, and the first in Dallas. A billion dollar stadium goes up and its hosting a Super Bowl in it's second year. Known for it's ridiculous capacity, and trillion inch big screen. The stadium had about a thousand new seats installed. The fire Marshall deemed it unsafe, so many people were not allowed in. Some were given standing room only seats, and some were given a refund 3 times the face value of the ticket. the official attendance was marked at 103,219. A lot of debate is always on the field during the big game. Some have the NFL shield at the 50, some have the game's logo. Then in the endzone, some have the helmets, some just have logos. Here is the Super Bowl's field looked like last night, for everyone to see.

TCF for MNF

Well! as a result of the last stadium related post, the Vikes are playing at the U of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium. It's really the high point of the whole season so far, it's fair to say everyone is excited about this game. About a week ago, the stadium looked like this.

They swept it up, and got it to playing condition. I got a text from TC today saying it was snowing. Now, it looks like this.

As you can see from the picture above, people are excited. Apparently Old Man Favre is starting, so that should make fans even more excited. Unless you wanted him out. Which I could understand...

Metrodoomed

Well, the 29 might've gotten worse. A snow storm last weekend has broken the Metrodome. 17 inches of snow fell on the bubble, and that was enough to make it break. As you can see from this video, things went down.


The roof broke just in time for 2 home games. The Giants were in town to play that Sunday, which was rescheduled to the next day. Now, the Vikings will play the Bears at TCF Bank stadium. 15,000 man hours were put in to ready the on campus stadium.

This is a call to Viking ownership. The team has been linked to moving to Los Angeles, and as the last post I made says, the Dome is old, and crappy. A new stadium is needed. Maybe they can play at TCF while they build it, and then have a new state of the art stadium.



Here is a proposal they once had, and should be built. It would be weird not having a team in Minnesota, I hope they stay.

Stadium Report Cards: Metrodome

Here's a segway to my next post... Our resident Minnesotan TC comes up again.

Team: Minnesota Vikings
Location: Minneapolis, MN
League: NFC North
Built: 1982
Capacity: 64,111
My event: Regular season game, vs Dallas Cowboys

1. Outdoor Design

It looks like crap. It's just dirty, old cement. While the roof was still up, you could see that it was on it's last legs. Certain panels were beginning to bulge out and it was starting to look deformed. Just a really boring and uninspiring place.
4/10

2. Indoor Design

Equally crappy. The only thing I like about it it the fact that everything is symmetrical. Otherwise it's just blue seats and more dirty cement.
4/10

3. Prices
Prices are just average, maybe a bit better than most NFL stadiums.
6/10

4. Food
Again, more averageness. Burgers, hot dogs, brats, etc. Tastes fine.
5/10

5. Staff
. Everyone is helpful, and more than happy to escort the occasional drunk fan. Can't complain with any of them.
8/10

6. Cleanliness
Not really all that clean. Dirty cement that they try to look nice by buffing it out and polishing it. But there are always muslims sweeping up the concourses, constantly, never seen anything like it.
6/10

7. Parking
There are plenty of lots around the stadium, but kind of spendy. Getting in is easy, getting out is a nightmare. We literally waited 45 minutes to get out of the lot.
3/10

8. Atmosphere
It's incredible, really I can't describe it. They crank up the music to unnecessarily high levels and the crowd's just into it the whole game. It makes up for how crappy the building is. Dome field advantage right there.
10/10

9. Playing Surface.

They just got new turf this year, so it looks better than past years where you could see more wear around where the infield used to be when the Twins played. Just a pretty average looking field.
7/10

10. Scoreboard

don't know if it actually qualifies as a scoreboard. There's like this videoboard that's barely bigger than the TV in my living room, and the scoreboard is the same size, but in plain yellow light bulbs. Really professional, eh? There were ribbon boards installed along the edge of the upper deck a few years back, and they look nice. But still...
1/10

TC Counted... 54. Ouch. Well, luckily he went to a game before the accident. I'm sure it would be worse now.

Stadium Report Cards: Raymond James Stadium

Team: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Location: Tampa, FL
League: NFC South
Built: 1998
Capacity: 65,857
My event: Regular season game, vs Carolina Panthers

1. Outdoor Design
As you can see above, it's nothing real special. There is modern architecture along the sides where the club seats are.
7/10

2. Indoor Design

It's pretty basic, but there are some cool things. Behind the stands in each endzone are pirate-y village type things with bathrooms and food. Plus, there is a freaking pirate ship.
7/10

3. Prices
They're okay. Typical NFL stadium prices. I was actually given a free ticket by my Dad's friend. 99 dollar place value to sit 12 rows from the field.
5/10

4. Food
I've always liked the food there, typical food, but they do taste pretty good.
8/10

5. Staff
Pretty nice, they were smiling when they checked my ticket... and while patting me down...
8/10

6. Cleanliness
I actually noticed how clean it was. Great job.
9/10

7. Parking
They had a grassy area behind both endzones, they park 2 cars, then leave space. It was kinda bad getting out though. Well, we got on the street fast, just got caught in traffic.
6/10

8. Atmosphere

For a team that has been blacket out a lot, it was pretty fun atmosphere at the game. The whole lower bowl was filled, just the upper decks had open spaces. They did TAMPA
BAAAAY, and then got loud when the pirates on the ship would throw beads and launch shirts.
7/10

9. Playing Surface.

Damn, look at that field. And the cheerleaders I guess. The picture was taken in the 4th, so thats why it looks kinda torn up. I loved it, it looked really clean and soft.
7/10

10. Scoreboard

They have 2 large scoreboards on each endzone, with scores, ads, and fantasy updates every 15 minutes. Neat.
8/10

Nice, a 72. Some more NFL stadiums should have report cards soon. Hang tight.