Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings and Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins, and Memorial Stadium, the former home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team.
The Metrodome was the home of the Vikings from 1982 to 2013, the Twins from 1982 to 2009, the National Basketball Association's Minnesota Timberwolves in their 1989–90 inaugural season, the Golden Gophers football team from 1982 to 2008, and the occasional home of the Golden Gophers baseball team from 1985 to 2010 and their full-time home in 2012. It was also the home of the Minnesota Strikers of the North American Soccer League in 1984. The Vikings played at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium for the 2014 and 2015 NFL seasons, ahead of the planned opening of U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016.
The stadium had a fiberglass fabric roof that was self-supported by air pressure and was the third major sports facility to have this feature. The Metrodome was similar in design to the former RCA Dome and to BC Place, though BC Place was reconfigured with a retractable roof in 2010. The Metrodome was the inspiration for the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The stadium was the only facility to have hosted a Super Bowl, World Series, MLB All-Star Game, and NCAA Division I Basketball Final Four.
The Metrodome had several nicknames such as "The Dome", "The Thunderdome", "The Homer Dome", and "The Technodome". Preparation for the demolition of the Metrodome began the day after the facility hosted its final home game for the Minnesota Vikings on December 29, 2013, and the roof was deflated and demolition began on January 18, 2014. The Metrodome was torn down in sections while construction of U.S. Bank Stadium began.
History
Background
By the early 1970s, the Minnesota Vikings were unhappy with Metropolitan Stadium's relatively small capacity for football. Before the completion of the AFL–NFL merger, the NFL declared that stadiums with a capacity under 50,000 were not adequate. The Met never held more than 49,700 people for football, and could not be expanded. At the time, the biggest stadium in the area was the University of Minnesota's Memorial Stadium. However, the Vikings were unwilling to be tenants in a college football stadium even on a temporary basis, and demanded a new venue. Supporters of a dome also believed that the Minnesota Twins would benefit from a climate-controlled stadium to insulate the team from harsh Minnesota weather later in their season. The Met would have likely needed to be replaced anyway, as it was not well maintained. Broken railings and seats could be seen in the upper deck by the 1970s; by its final season, they had become a distinct safety hazard.Construction success of other domed stadiums, particularly the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, paved the way for voters to approve funding for a new stadium. Downtown Minneapolis was beginning a revitalization program, and the return of professional sports from suburban Bloomington was seen as a major success story; a professional team had not been based in downtown Minneapolis since the Minneapolis Lakers left for Los Angeles in 1960.
Construction
Construction on the Metrodome began on December 20, 1979, and was funded by a limited hotel-motel and liquor tax, local business donations, and payments established within a special tax district near the stadium site. Uncovering the Dome by Amy Klobuchar describes the 10-year effort to build the venue. The stadium was named in memory of former mayor of Minneapolis, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who died in 1978. The building's construction was designed by Bangladeshi-American architect Fazlur Rahman Khan, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.The Metrodome itself cost $68 million to build—significantly under budget—totaling around $124 million with infrastructure and other costs associated with the project added. It was a somewhat utilitarian facility, though not quite as spartan as Metropolitan Stadium. One stadium official once said that all the Metrodome was designed to do was "get fans in, let 'em see a game, and let 'em go home."
1980s roof incidents
Five times in the stadium's history, heavy snows or other weather conditions significantly damaged the roof, with four of the instances causing it to deflate. Four of the five incidents occurred within the stadium's first five years of operation: On November 19, 1981, a rapid accumulation of over a foot of snow caused the roof to collapse, requiring it to be re-inflated. It deflated the following winter on December 30, 1982, because of a tear caused by a crane used in snow removal. This was four days before the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the last regular-season game of the 1982 NFL season. In the spring following that same winter, on April 14, 1983, the Metrodome roof deflated because of a tear caused by late-season heavy snow, and the scheduled Twins game with the California Angels was postponed. On April 26, 1986, the Metrodome roof suffered a slight tear because of high winds, causing a nine-minute delay in the bottom of the seventh inning versus the Angels; however, the roof did not deflate.2010 roof incident and replacement
A severe snowstorm arrived in Minneapolis in the late evening of December 10, 2010. The snowstorm lasted to the following night on December 11, with of snow accumulated across the city. Due to strong winds, hoses malfunctioning, and a hazardous slippery layer building up on the roof, workers were not allowed to remove the snow from the roof. As the workers were pulled back, many noticed that the roof's center was sagging down by the weight of the snow.At around 5:00 a.m. CST on December 12, three of the roof's panels tore open. Snow fell through, covering the turf field. The night before the incident a Fox Sports crew, who were setting up for the football game between the New York Giants and Vikings, noticed water was leaking through the roof. They decided to leave their cameras on; the cameras captured footage of the roof deflation and the snow dropping to the field. The footage was aired on Fox NFL Sunday and quickly went viral.
The game between the Vikings and Giants, scheduled to take place on December 12 during the afternoon, was postponed to the next day and relocated to Ford Field in Detroit. There were considerations moving the game to the University of Minnesota's nearby TCF Bank Stadium. However, the stadium had limited seating capacity, as well as snow that would have taken several days to clear. A couple of days later, a fourth panel ripped open, allowing more snow to enter the stadium. This forced another game between the Vikings and Chicago Bears to be relocated to TCF Bank Stadium. The final two games for the Vikings for the season were on the road, and the Vikings were already eliminated from the playoffs, meaning no additional home games were to be played.
The roof collapse also caused schedule complications for the Golden Gophers baseball team. All Big Ten Conference home games were moved to Target Field, the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. A Metrodome tournament was replaced with a three-game series against Gonzaga. Another tournament named the Dairy Queen Classic was relocated to Tucson, Arizona. Other changes included many home game cancellations, and some games being pushed to next year's season.
On February 10, 2011, it was announced that the entire Metrodome roof needed to be replaced at an estimated cost of $18 million. In November 2010, the University of Minnesota men's baseball team had announced plans to play all of their 2011 games at the Metrodome; however, the roof collapse caused those plans to be abandoned. On February 18, 2011, the Gophers announced that all 12 scheduled Big Ten home games in April and May would be played at Target Field, with three non-conference games moved to on-campus Siebert Field.
On July 13, 2011, it was announced that the roof was repaired and had been inflated that morning. However, other construction and repairs were still in progress. The remaining construction and repairs were done by August 1, 2011.
Demolition
With the approval of the new Vikings stadium at the Metrodome site by the Minnesota legislature, the fate of the Metrodome was sealed. The Vikings played their final game at the Metrodome on December 29, 2013, beating the Detroit Lions 14–13. The following day, a local company began removal of seats for sale to the public and various charities and nonprofits. Individual chairs went for $40 each to charities, $60 each to the public and $80 each for specific seat requests.The roof was deflated for the final time on January 18. On the morning of February 2, 2014, the steel support cables that stretched from end-to-end of stadium that held together the roof were severed, as construction crews set off a simultaneous set of 42 explosive charges that detached the cables from the concrete structure. The general public was not informed about this phase of the demolition process, prompting about a half-dozen phone calls to police from people who wondered what was going on. This was viewed as the final step before the destruction of the concrete bowl of the Metrodome would begin. On February 10, 2014, shortly after 9:15 a.m., after more than two months of preliminary work that dated back all the way to the groundbreaking of the new Vikings stadium, demolition of the stadium walls finally began.
Just after 1 p.m. on February 17, 2014, one week after demolition of the stadium bowl had begun, demolition crews were working on taking down the concrete ring beam that encircled to top of the Metrodome, when a portion of the ring beam collapsed out of sequence, bringing an immediate halt to the work. No one was hurt and no equipment was damaged by the collapse. After five days of investigation from structural and demolition experts, it was decided that the remaining portion of the concrete ring beam would be destroyed using controlled explosive charges—virtually the same method that was used to bring down the Metrodome's steel support cables for the roof. This second controlled explosion was a continued deviation from the original plan to not use explosives to destroy the stadium, as it was determined that this was the safest way to bring down the remaining ring beam structure. On February 23, 2014, the remaining ring beam and corners of the Metrodome were brought down with 84 explosive charges of dynamite. This enabled demolition crews to continue with the wrecking ball demolition method that was originally chosen, to bring down what was left of the Metrodome. Despite this unexpected setback, Mortenson Construction said that the demolition of the Metrodome and construction of U.S. Bank Stadium were both still on schedule.
On March 15, 2014, the final upper deck bleachers and concrete bleacher-support girders were brought down, taking away any standing remnants of the exterior stadium walls. On April 11, 2014, the final portion of the inner-stadium concrete walls were reduced to rubble, marking the official end of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Demolition of the Metrodome was formally declared complete six days later—a month ahead of schedule—as the final truckload of rubble was loaded up and removed from the new stadium construction site. Officials from Mortenson Construction said the entire demolition job required 4,910 truckloads and 16,000 man hours to complete the job.