And it was about what you'd expect. But you think back, I remember looking up into the stands during the game — it's night, and the lights are on — and I can remember all the snow going up into the air. All the fans were grabbing snow and throwing it up and kind of making these, not necessarily snowballs, but these snow flurries, and it was a pretty cool sight. The halftime ceremony honored the 50 Greatest Vikings with many of the players and Head Coach Bud Grant returning to the elements in which they starred, 29 years to the date of the last game at Metropolitan Stadium Dec.
Minnesota's final two games of the season involved trips to Philadelphia for a game that was delayed from Sunday to Tuesday because of forecasted snow and a season finale at Detroit. Allen: "It was just a hot mess. I think it was just one of those seasons where you just shake your head and say, 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
It was one of those deals. Bagley: "At the time of the roof collapse, we were in the middle of a long-term stadium debate, and our argument for a new stadium in Minneapolis was the fact that the Metrodome was obsolete. It was basically a concrete bunker with a Teflon roof. It wasn't complicated, and it wasn't a long-term, viable facility for our market. In the short term, the roof and the turf that molded from the precipitation were replaced in time for the season, but the Vikings maintained their quest for a new home.
Some countered that the building had a new roof so it should be good to go. After a year effort by team officials and Vikings fans, legislation for a new stadium passed in May The decision that the new venue — eventually named U. Bank Stadium — would be placed on the Metrodome site involved a tight turnaround.
Groundbreaking for U. Bank Stadium occurred on Dec. Additionally, the location meant that the Vikings would return to the elements for two seasons at the University of Minnesota during construction of their new iconic home. Davisson: "Having the game there in '10 really helped us for when we were going to play there for two years, because we knew what we needed and what could go wrong, even though more things went wrong. As the Vikings learned to remake their home-field advantage and become the first team playing home games in a temporary stadium to host a playoff game, work continued on the east end of downtown Minneapolis, sparking developments on nearby blocks and altering the skyline.
The elements — particularly snow removal, but also a desire to incorporate as much natural light as possible — prompted architects with HKS to use state-of-the-art, clear ETFE on 60 percent of the roof. The panels are super strong. Air-support is still incorporated, but over a much smaller span.
Bank Stadium became the first major sports venue in North America to use ETFE, which allowed the use of just one centralized ridge truss and saved 2, tons of structural steel. Bank Stadium shed snow into its giant snow gutter. Heaters melt the snow, and the water goes through the venue's stormwater management system. Bagley: "The fact that we took 12 years to get our stadium deal through the community and legislature gave us plenty of time to visit stadiums throughout the league.
We found out what we liked, what we didn't like, so we kind of had a pretty good vision of what we wanted to see, and paramount to what we wanted to see was a home-field advantage. The Metrodome provided a great home-field advantage in terms of volume level, but building a new stadium and imagining that home-field advantage was the challenge.
Designing it with the ETFE roof, the transparent roof, and the pivoting doors was important. It also turned out that the angle of the roof — and the angle of the roof was designed to get the snow off the roof so we could avoid any future situations — also helped as a reflector. It reflects the sound back and actually sort of angles toward the visiting bench. So the glass pivoting doors, the ETFE roof was really important to the noise level. And just designing an intimate bowl, an intimate fan experience, turned out to be a great home-field advantage at U.
Consider Allen a bit of a traditionalist. Sure he's able to appreciate modern conveniences and a path to the locker room without an elevator filled with hot dog and nacho aromatics, but he also has tremendous memories of playing under the Metrodome's pillow top and wild recollections caused by the roof's demise. Allen: "Yeah, for sure. They gave us a tour — my wife and I and the kids — and I was just like, 'This is ridiculous.
Kids are spoiled these days. The city deserves it, honestly. It's such a beautiful place; it's such a beautiful part of downtown. I really, I was blown away. They took kind of the best of all the new stadiums around and put it into one.
It's phenomenal. It provides such an amazing atmosphere for football, and I'm a little sad I didn't get to play in it. Greenway's career began in the Metrodome on Aug. The first-round pick tore his ACL while covering a kickoff in Minnesota's preseason opener. The South Dakota native bounced back and played through , showing grit on the field and becoming a pillar of the Twin Cities community in which he continues to live. The Viking for life knows the life of the Vikings, as evidenced by the way the organization managed the crisis to solve immediate problems and continue working toward a long-term solution.
Greenway: "Well, I think it says a lot about the Vikings organization. The one thing is, we're a little hamstrung sometimes. Sometimes we get some poor luck. And that's kind of followed us throughout our career, or throughout our organization's [history]. But the other thing I'll say is, very resilient people in general, from ownership, to management, all the way down to our staff — support staff, players and coaches. It never became an excuse.
It never became a, 'Well, this happened, so we can't have success. We wanted to kind of push through that and obviously have success in our own way as a team and as individuals, but I'll say a resilient group, the Minnesota Vikings are. Great ownership. And I think it says a lot about an organization that can go through that crazy, chaotic series of weeks and still come out in one piece.
I think you look back at the season, and I'm glad there's a special about this, because it truly is an unbelievable year. The Metrodome's roof had collapsed four previous times before its fifth and final in The first time it collapsed was in , before the stadium was even open.
The second was during its inaugural year in The third collapse was in The fourth was only a partial collapse in , so maybe officials thought it was learning and evolving. Ultimately, the collapse led to the eventual demolition of the stadium, which occurred on February 2, To learn more about the inconveniences caused by the many Metrodome roof collapses, listen to today's episode of "This Day In Weather History.
Need an account? The Metrodome roof unintentionally collapsed five times in the stadium's history, four of which occurred in the s. When it happened, it sounded like " the sky is actually falling ," reports the Christian Science Monitor. The Metrodome roof was purposefully collapsed for a sixth and final time in , when crews were preparing to demolish the year-old stadium. Bank Stadium, which has a fixed roof, now stands in its place. William Bornhoft , Patch Staff. Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapolis with free, real-time updates from Patch.
Let's go! The fourth collapse was partial and only caused a delayed game. Maybe not such a bad record, but how do you feel about domed stadiums? You've read of free articles.
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