Official Gophers Stadium Design

[bucskick20]

here it is

[NJTank]

Looks good

[Dilbert]

Looks great! Football fans in Minnesota can finally see a game outdoors the way it should be

[spyboy1]

Man, that looks tasty. I can't wait to take my son there.

Second impression. The top of the upper deck looks quite a ways back from the field. What ever happened to building the decks one over the other?

What I really want to know is, where the hell am I supposed to park if they build the stadium ON the parking lots that are currently there for basketball & hockey (the two arenas across the street in the lower pic)?

[no97]

What I really want to know is, where the hell am I supposed to park if they build the stadium ON the parking lots that are currently there for basketball & hockey (the two arenas across the street in the lower pic)?

Actually, check out this page, and note that after construction, the area around the stadium will go from 3,008 parking spaces (noted towords the bottom of the linked page near the "Existing Configuration" map), to 3,203 parking spaces (noted on the right side of the linked page near the "Phase 3" link)...

This drawing shows where the "new" parking is being displaced to:

Moose

[Bucks6thMan]

So are the Vikings going to play there as well? Or are they still demanding their own stadium?

If so, then big up to the city of Minneapolis. If you're gonna use tax dollars to fund something as frivilous as a stadium, then you might as well build it for the team that can't leave.

But I hope they're also building this stadium like a college stadium. If it's gonna just fall apart in 25 years anyway, then they did themselves no favors by building it on the U of M campus.

Second impression. The top of the upper deck looks quite a ways back from the field. What ever happened to building the decks one over the other?

Three words: obstructed. view. seating.

[OnWis97]

Is there a link to these?

[no97]

Is there a link to these?

TCF Bank Stadium Image Galery

Also, as far as the "why no upper deck" question... This stadium, is, to some extent, supposed to resemble old Memorial Stadium, the facility the team played in prior to moving to the Metrodome, and seen in this photograph (circa 1940 - note Williams Arena, also visable in the renderings of the new building next to the old):

Moose

[leopard88]

This is off-topic, but I am always fascinated by the manner in which many old stadiums were built when I see photographs such as this one. Specifically, I am always amused about where stadiums were often located in an era when cars were not as prevalent as they are today.

If you look at this picture, there do not look to be many parking lots nearby (maybe to the top left, but I can't tell for sure -- they may be trains). In addition (and this fascinates me more), there are what appear to be houses about 50-100 feet from the stadium in an ordinary residential neighborhood.

[OnWis97]

This is off-topic, but I am always fascinated by the manner in which many old stadiums were built when I see photographs such as this one. Specifically, I am always amused about where stadiums were often located in an era when cars were not as prevalent as they are today.

If you look at this picture, there do not look to be many parking lots nearby (maybe to the top left, but I can't tell for sure -- they may be trains). In addition (and this fascinates me more), there are what appear to be houses about 50-100 feet from the stadium in an ordinary residential neighborhood.

Take a look at Camp Randall at Wisconsin. Apartments right across the street. Very few parking lots nearby. But it's a college campus. People walk a half a mile to the games.

[leopard88]

But it's a college campus. People walk a half a mile to the games.

True. That does make a difference.

On the other hand, if you look at the sketch above, the new stadium is built pretty close to the site of the old one, but the plan includes five parking lots adjacent to the stadium.

[Moser316]

I'm assuming that if it's on campus, it's going to be closely integrated with public transit, right? At least that's the way it is for our colleges here in Milwaukee (UWM has it's own separate bus lines within the county transit system, to boot). This may counter the parking shortage to some degree.

[buzzcut]

I'm assuming that if it's on campus, it's going to be closely integrated with public transit, right? At least that's the way it is for our colleges here in Milwaukee (UWM has it's own separate bus lines within the county transit system, to boot). This may counter the parking shortage to some degree.

Metro Transit has several lines that will pass close to the stadium(2, 3, 6, 16, the new Central Corridor light rail line, etc.) Also the U operates it's own bus service that connects the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses.

Getting back to the stadium itself, you'll notice in post 5 that the horseshoe curves around the northwest end of the field and stops short of curving at the southwest end. Odd, but subtly futuristic.

[-kj]

Plus, if the new "central corridor" line is added to the light rail, there will be a Stadium Village stop.

I like it, except for the open end thing.

I want to see drawings of the soccer configuration, for when that thing hosts the US national team.

[EatSleepJeep]

There is a plan on the table to close the horseshoe at a later date. It's not in the current construction plans, but they are preparing for it.

[bucskick20]

that would move it from 50,000 to 80,000

[spyboy1]

It's a bit odd that the open end is not symetrical. The stands wrap around the endzone on the left (north) but stop at the goal line on the right (south) side. Wonder why?

Sure would be slick to have the light rail stop there some day. There's a station 4 blocks from my house.

[TBGKon]

It'll look pretty bad when the Vikes get shown up by a university that has a better stadium than they do...lol.

TCF Bank Stadium looks like a great place to see a college ball game.

[BBTV]

Why are so many college stadiums build in the "horseshoe" shape? Is one end zone that much worse to sit in than the other? It's not like there are home and away endzones, or anything like that. I guess it could be because it provides a logical place to put a big scoreboard, but with today's tech., you could put scoreboards any and every where.

[Viper]

So are the Vikings going to play there as well? Or are they still demanding their own stadium?

If so, then big up to the city of Minneapolis. If you're gonna use tax dollars to fund something as frivilous as a stadium, then you might as well build it for the team that can't leave.

But I hope they're also building this stadium like a college stadium. If it's gonna just fall apart in 25 years anyway, then they did themselves no favors by building it on the U of M campus.

The Vikings still want their own stadium. However, the latest proposal I've heard is for them to play at the new Gopher football stadium for two years while the Metrodome is given the St. Paul Civic Center treatment (i.e. torn down except for the foundation, which is re-used for a new retractable-roof Vikings stadium, which is they did when they built the Xcel Energy Center on the old Civic Center site).