On Tuesday night, November 13 I went to Rochester and attended a one hour talk about the new stadium. The event was at Doubletree by Hilton and went from 5:30-6:30.
It was held in a large conference room that had around 50 people including media there from several different TV stations. Rochester Mayor Thomas Richards and Rochester DFL rep Kim Norton from District 29B, were some of the dignitaries in attendance along with a few season ticket holders sprinkled in.
The guest panel included John Hutchings, a principal with the HKS architectural firm; Michelle Kelm-Helgen with the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority; and Lester Bagley, Vice President of the Minnesota Vikings.
Hutchings has been with the firm 26 years. The firm has 7 locations internationally and 20 throughout the US. The headquarters are in Dallas, Texas.
The last 2 stadiums designed by this firm have both hosted Super Bowls and those are Cowboys Stadium and the Colt’s Lucas Oil Field. They have been involved with baseball stadiums as well. Those are Miller Park, US Cellular, Dodgers Stadium, and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
This session Tuesday was the 2nd stop on the talking about the stadium. A little over 2 weeks ago the first session was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Tuesday was in Rochester and then in a couple of weeks they will be in Duluth.
It is a chance for this group to inform people and also a chance for people to ask questions. There was also as card handed out you could write things down such as ideas of what you would want in the new stadium and then hand it in on your way out.
In May 2012 the Stadium bill passed after a long and hard fight. The discussion Tuesday started with the use of the new stadium that would include baseball (high school, college) Soccer, Youth football, Marching Band Competitions and Community events were just some of the early thoughts to fill the time besides the Vikings.
The stadium will hold 65,000 but can elevate to 73,000 which is required to be able to host a Super Bowl.
The stadium itself is projected to be 1.5-1.6 million square feet which would be a third larger than the present Mall of America Field. A larger plaza outside is also in the discussion.
One of the feelings coming out of tonight is space or lack of it. There will be a focus on making a concourse adequte to get people flowing and not so much congestion.
John Hutchings, HKS rep was at the Vikings-Lions game and made a comment about the current concourse on how much he could not believe how difficult it was to get through. One fan stood up and stated his wife had gone to the restroom and was gone almost the whole third quarter
Hutchings was in charge of Lucas Oil Field design. He made a comment about the Colts stadium seating. The minimum size seat in the building was 19 inches with some bigger but there was not one seat less than 19 inches.
A timeline was discussed with January 2013 a 50 percent schematic design to be done. In March of 2013 the rest of the design will be done. The groundbreaking would be in late 2013, while 2014 there is still question on where the tea m will play. 2015 the tea will play in TCF Bank Stadium and in 2016 the new stadium will be ready.
The PSL subject was brought up in the end and you could feel the tension in the air. There is no answer yet, but it will be a hot topic.
John Hutchings really made it quite enjoyable to listen to. The talk of an open concourse, bigger seats and much more makes one’s mind wonder just what the end result will look like. The firm is big in designing platforms in stadiums in which you could get the extra seating.
The one fact is there will be a roof just a matter of retractable or not but either way there will be a roof.
I made a trip to the capitol in the spring, now a trip to Rochester, and next step a trip to watch the groundbreaking is all very exciting and glad to be part of.
Thanks for reading
Purplestick
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