Goodbye and good riddance Metrodome

By RICK SOLEM

Goodbye Metrodome, you will not be missed.

Sunday morning just before 8 a.m., parts of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome were blown to smithereens to make way for the Minnesota Vikings new billion-dollar experience.

http://youtu.be/jO583N0fG6M

 

Here’s what linebacker Chad Greenway had to say about the Dome in 2013.

“I remember in 2002, when we won the Big Ten title [at Iowa], and our fans tore down the goal posts and tried to take them out the rotating doors,” Greenway told ESPN. “We’re good at winning games, but not smart enough to open the doors. It was great. We were handing out roses, because we thought we were going to the Rose Bowl. We ended up going to the Orange [Bowl]. It was a great memory. … The more I hear about how important the Met [Stadium] was to everybody, I think it’d be cool to go back to an outdoor facility. But I think the state gets a lot more use out of [an indoor facility] for different events — high school soccer, high school football, all across the board.”

In May of 2012, Time Magazine deemed the Metrodome the worst stadium in the U.S. – but not the world.

On Jan. 28, the roof deflated – this time manually – for the last time. It took 35 minutes.

OUTSIDE

INSIDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BwMJ42Lcg8

In the 32-year history of the Metrodome, the roof collapsed five times. The first was, perhaps, a sign of what it would really be known for, as it collapsed on November 19, 1981, five months before it was scheduled to open.

It collapsed again in December of 1982, just after the Vikings regular season and, the roof tore again, four months later, in April, postponing a Minnesota Twins game. A year later, the roof tore again, but didn’t collapse. It caused a nine-minute delay at another Twins game.

And the last time the roof went was Dec. 12, 2010, which, perhaps, gave the Vikings that boost to get a new stadium built. Another indoor stadium. One in which the roof shouldn’t collapse.