The Minnesota Vikings have agreed to provide even more money for their new stadium, which is projected to be completed by the start of the 2016 NFL season. $46 million is the official number (pocket change right?). $2.5 million of that will fund larger videos, TV walls, and escalators, according to StarTribune.com. Total contributions are now $526 million while taxpayers will still nearly $500 million for a budget that comes to a grand total of just over a billion dollars.
The new contributions won’t be going to anything in particular, but rather a countless number of things, including upper level ductwork. Channels that will flow beer and soda into the stadium are another funded amenity, making once familiar scene of workers rolling kegs throughout the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome a thing of the past. Five gigantic pivoting glass doors, escalators, elevators, and acoustics will also be covered by the funding. Minnesota can mostly attribute the fact that they are hosting Super Bowl LII in 2018 to the construction of this new stadium. The team will play at the University of Minnesota Gophers’s field while they await the completion of the project, according to NewMinnesotaStadium.com.
While the Vikings haven’t had much success in recent years, you can bet that if that trend continues, at least their fans will be comfortably agonized while watching Minnesota home games.