Metrodome -

Address: 900 South 5th Avenue
              Minneapolis, MN 55415

Home of: Minnesota Vikings (NFL)

Date opened: April 3, 1982

Capacity: American football: 64,111
               Basketball: 50,000

Cost: $68 million

The Minnesota Vikings play their home games in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, located at 900 South 5th Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55415. The Metrodome was built in 1982 and is owned by the city of Minneapolis. The stadium cost $68 million to construct and was financed through a city bond issue. The Metrodome had changed the field surface three times, SuperTurf (1982-1986), AstroTurf (1987-2003) and FieldTurf (2004-present). The Metrodome is home to the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, and is occasionally used by the Big Ten's University of Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team. The stadium was also the home of the Minnesota Twins from 1982 to 2009 and the Golden Gophers football team from 1982 to 2008. The Metrodome can hold more than 64,000 people for a football game, almost 56,000 for baseball, and 40,000 for basketball games, boxing matches, and concerts. For football games, the stadium features 113 luxury suites.

A dome style was chosen for the Metrodome because of the bitterly cold weather in the late months of the year. Construction began on the Metrodome on December 20, 1979, and it took just over two years to complete the building. The process to turn the stadium from baseball to football or vice versa takes a mere four hours and the only big move is a group of 7,600 retractable seats for football that form a 23 foot high wall in the baseball configuration. The Metrodome is the only air-supported dome in the nation, and fans enter the park through revolving doors that prevent release of the air that keeps the dome upright. The roof requires 250,000 cubic feet of air pressure per minute to remain inflated. To maintain the differential air pressure, spectators usually enter and leave the seating and concourse areas through revolving doors, since the use of regular doors without an airlock would cause significant loss of air pressure. The double-walled construction allows warmed air to circulate beneath the top of the dome, melting accumulated snow. A sophisticated environmental control center in the lower part of the stadium is manned to monitor weather and make adjustments in air distribution to maintain the roof.

When configured as a basketball arena, the fans in the nearby bleachers get a suitable view of the court, but the action is difficult to see in the upper decks and is very far away. Concessions are very far away from the temporary infrastructure. Most NBA and major college basketball arenas run to a maximum of 20,000 seats. However, the NCAA tournament makes a significant amount of money selling seats for regional and championship games for the Men's basketball tournament. Without a domed stadium, Minnesota will no longer be able to host the NCAA championship game, and may even have trouble getting regional final games. On November 19, 2008, the NCAA announced host cities for the NCAA men's Final Four between 2012–2016 and Minneapolis was not selected.