Eat Your Heart Out, Los Angeles: The Vikings Get a New Stadium

It was announced today that the Minnesota Vikings have found their local partner for the development of a new state-of-the-art Stadium. While the formal plans have yet to be announced, it appears that the Vikings will remain in Minnesota.

Minnesota's Ramsey County will partner with the Vikings to bring a multi-million dollar stadium to Arden Hills, Minnesota. 

The 260-acre site will house the Vikings new retractable-roof stadium. The project will require an estimated total cost of $1.057 Billion dollars. That figure includes the cost of the actual facility, environmental costs, infrastructure improvements and labor. 

The wide-open site will allow the Vikings to do many things that they couldn't in either of the proposed downtown Minneapolis sites. In addition to the stadium itself, the Vikings will be able to build shopping centers, hotels, restaurants and all sorts of other possibilities around the new site. The sky really is the limit for Vikings owner Zygi Wilf. 

Perhaps the most important luxury of this new site is the on-site parking. At the Metrodome, there was no parking, and as a result the team couldn't collect parking revenue. With all of the added space, Wilf will make roughly an extra $7 million per game. 

This announcement is great for the fans as well. Tailgating will, once again, become a major part of pro football in Minnesota. The days of the Old Met and the Purple People Eaters are upon us once more.

The project will presumably take three or four years to complete. Work on the roads and infrastructure will begin soon, and in the meantime, the Vikings will play at the Metrodome, probably extending their current contract in that facility. 

The majesty of Vikings football has returned to Minnesota, and it's a good day to be a Vikings fan.