Thanks for the pictures Rick. Hope your little one let you get some sleep last night...

The concourse is a HUGE improvement over the dome... It will be a great asset to be able to walk around and still see the field.

thanks!!!

Twins Suck!

Frank sucks!

If you dont like the twins then get out of Minnesota!

Frank, by association, must be a Brewers fan.

I also can't click on the link to get the calendar for some reason.

How the hell do you find this website if you hate the Twins? Dumbass

Has there been any nighttime pictures of the stadium yet?

you can check the webcams after about 7pm. they're live webcams, so you'll get nighttime photos.
i was driving home on Friday afternoon going westbound on 94, just past the Lowry Hill Disaster, and look off to the right, the ballpark comes into plain view. now, that will be a cool picture at night come 2010. the light towers, the scoreboard...it'll really look nice i think.
that part of downtown is so dark at night anyway. so, i think it'll look great to have the ballpark light it up a bit.

and by the by, is it just me, or do those concourses not look much wider than the ones at the Dome? of course, Rick was there, so he can vouch for how wide they are, or maybe the pics just make them look smaller than everyone says they are.

They certainly look wider than the dome's "tunnel" concourses. But they don't look as wide as many of the new park's concourses. Remember luke, limited space on this site. We still need those places to make food, sell food and to take a leak...Those places take space. Frank takes up space too.

very true Kevin. they are tight for space. it's going to have that Wrigley Field feel to it i think - which will be good. i think we're going to have a nice, neighborhood like ballpark, and not a corporate playpen - a la the Dallas Cowboys new stadium...

what i think would be nice, is if the Dome would put a scoreboard in the south endzone that is a carbon copy of the one on the north endzone. that sole video board over on the south side just looks weird. or if they really wanted to do something cool, take out the old-school, white light scoreboards (both the main and out of town) and replace them with Daktronics model HD screens.

maybe once the Vikings take over the place after next season, they'll do that. I made a suggestion to Dennis Alfton of the Sports Facilities Commission, that once the Twins are out, the Vikings should turn the dugouts into field-level party suites, like the Ticket Exchange Touchdown Club (above section 114-115) and the one above sections 138-139.

then of course, the Vikings could also gut out the baseball pressbox above section 125 and make a large party suite out of that too...

Yeah that would be cool if the Vikes used those dugouts for suits.

Haha yeah Kev, Frank definitely is taking up space.

I can't imagine they'll do too much for the Vikings after the Twins leave, seeing as how their lease is up after the 2011 season.

They should leave the baseball field at the dome the way it is so they can still play collegiate games in March and April.

"once the Vikings take over"

umm i was under the impression that the vikings have "taken over" as of 1982... this is there house twins were just sqatting....

they wont change much like hassertime said the gophers use it and also teams rent it for games...

luke - I sure hope the Vikings don't "take over" the baseball pressbox after next season for a party suite, as that's where they put non-essential/overflow media (i.e., folks like me from out-state) when I come down for games. That place is packed for Vikes games, and I can't imagine where else they'd put us...

And, as to the baseball dug-outs, I can't imagine anyone wanting to use those for a Viking game either. There are so many people on the sidelines (have you ever been on the sidelines during a game?) that anyone in the dug-out wouldn't see a thing...

A better scoreboard is a decent idea, but the Vikes just need a better stadium.

Moose

The Vikes need a better coach and QB before they need a better stadium.

yeah, you're true Moose. with all the coaches and stuff, it would be pretty tough to see...not only that, but the dugouts arent at field level either, there's steps going down...
Alfton told me that it was a "neat idea" but that the baseball configuration is going to stay for use by the amateur teams that use the Dome...or the Gophers, whose season starts in February. Cant see TF being used in February.

mazatratirick, you know what i mean. the Vikings could easily do alot of stuff to make the Dome football-specific. but, they cant because it would screw up the baseball configuration. once the twins leave, the Vikes can do whatever they want to the Damn Dome.

oh yeah, another suggestion I gave to Alfton, which also wouldn't be possible, was to take those God-awful temporary seats out, and make that whole section a permanent seating fixture. no can do on that one either, they'll still use it for baseball...just not the Twins.

kevin summed it up nicely. they need a better on-field product before a new stadium comes along.

Well they have already done some good things in the last few years to spruce up the dome, the touchdown club was smart but they really killed the "rally room" that place ues to be fun, then they made it season ticket holders only so nobody was in there...

The NFL and the vikings just want a new stadium.. they do not want to renovate the dome... if they get a new stadium I would never be able to afford to go to a game there anyway....

Yup, just got an email back from Alfton saying the same thing about the baseball config in 2010.

"As of now, the Metrodome will still have collegiate baseball in 2010, both the U of M and small-college. It is hoped that any new Vikings stadium will also include baseball."

I think that's great- it's a cool tradition to have small college baseball in March. Every college team in the midwest plays a couple games there. They play around the clock.

But I can't quite picture the new Vikes stadium with a baseball field.

i cant either quite frankly. although, the Superdome in New Orleans can accomodate baseball (there is a configuration for it), as well as Qualcomm in San Diego...i think the shapes of both stadiums make for a very big ball field. i can't imagine baseball at the Superdome...

well, if Alfton hopes that any new Vikes stadium includes baseball, then they might as well just keep the damn Dome, replace the seats, get new scoreboards, and just do things the way they're doing them now...lol.

I don't think the NFL would approve of a new multi-purpose stadium design. they're trying to get away from that and have football-specific stadiums. that latest design by the Vikes, the one that keeps the West sideline seats in tact, and the rest of it new, didnt seem to me that it would accomodate baseball.

and if the MSFC and Dennis Alfton wanted a place to play college ball in February and March, well - should have insisted on the retractable roof for TF, and not settled for anything else huh? of course, the MN Legislature was not going to pony up the cash for a roof. we were lucky to get a ballpark out of them. Pohlad wasn't going to pony up either...

Has any one heard any information on the ballpark seating types that Mr. St. Peter talked about in his previous blog entry. Here is the quote "...the selection of the actual ballpark seating types (November)..."

hassertime - I know the weather was bad in the TC, but it was worse in Bemidji. Bemidji State had FOUR home games last year (click my name for their schedule and results) due to three ft. of snow in April. Yep, FOUR (nine were canceled, and the series vs. Minn-Crookston was supposed to be a home-and-home, and it ended up moved to the 'Dome), so that was a grand-total of TWO doubleheader dates at home. The 'Dome is likely more importiant for small colleges than even the Twins or Gophers.

As to a new Vikings stadium - just do the same thing as the 'Dome. put an aux pressbox (even a small one) in a corner, and then put in retractable seats on one side...

Moose

Thanks for the update again Rick! This is a great site. I've been following along now for about the last 6 months and eagerly anticipate each update! Can't wait until April 2010!

Some additional construction pictures from the Twins website.

Update construction pics from the Ballpark Authority

Frank, Why doesn't Iowa have a major league baseball team? If We gave them one we would have to give one to Wisconsin!!!!

luke - Click my name to see how baseball is done in the Superdome.

ya, i've seen that diagram. it looks a bit like the way they did things at Qualcomm Stadium.
i've never seen baseball played at the Superdome though. the Dodgers played at LA Coliseum way back in the day (shortly after moving from Brooklyn). I've seen pics of that - it was wild. they'd get like 90,000 people for a game. from the looks of it, the Superdome might be able to pack them in for a ballgame.

nice work on the countdown clock. i like.

Sorry for random question.

Football players wear captain crests on their jerseys and have 4 stars under the C and some of the stars are highlighted in yellow. Does anyone know what those stars mean and why some are highlighted and some aren't?

Go Vikes!

Random rant....

Whoever had the grand idea to change the Vikings jersey a few years ago needs to be fired, chewed out, shot, I don't care. They must go back to the original purple with the striped pants and gray facemasks. The only thing missing tonight was a frozen homefield.

Yeah those throwbacks are bomb, I wish they would make it a tradition to wear them against every division team. (Packers, Bears, Lions, wear them 3 times a year)

About baseball in the Superdome, believe it or not the Twins have actually played baseball in the Superdome. I lived in Florida back in '98-'99. And that spring ('99) the Twins played the Cubs in the Superdome (over Easter weekend...for specifics). I made the 4hr hike from Pensacola to watch one game...and a spring training game at that too. Most people thought I was nuts but I had a good time. However, I don't remember specifics of the set up or even where I sat but I do remember going. It just seemed like an odd combination: Twins, Cubs, New Orleans...why not?

YouTube rules - I present the 1987 Busch Challenge (a college baseball tourney), complete with '80's music, from the Superdome (click my name)...

Moose

Also, note this post from Baseball-Fever, that shows the view from the upper-deck, and how you can't see home-plate from some seats. I also forgot to note in my first post, that YouTube video shows a 421' CF... Enjoy!

Moose

Small update from the Ballpark Authority regarding the Public Art projects for Target Field.

The Ballpark Authority's Fall 2008 Newsletter can be found at the link. The Newsletter has a couple of other imbedded links with some good information.

VikesTwinsWolvesWild - the NFL started the "C" patch last year, and the stars are supposed to indicate how many years the player has been a captain. One of the dumb things, though, is that it only covers the length of time that the "C" patch has been around, so that, say Peyton Manning, who's been the Colts captain for several years, had to wear one with just one yellow star last year, and now two yellow stars this year, even though, like I said, he's been captain for several years (enough to fill in all four stars, at least).

IC thanks moose

They need to get rid of the captain 'C' in football.

If the league is so inclined to keep the 'C' around, at very least, let each team design their own to look better with their uniforms. Hockey does this, and they look much better in hockey because they match the lettering/font style of the team, unlike the standard 'C' the NFL uses.

I was really surprised how fast the upper deck stadia went in this week. Starting to look like a real ballpark. It also helps me to get a sense of scale. I drove by last weekend and saw the stadia in the distance...it made the park seem much bigger than I'd previously perceived it.

frank get a life twins rule

luke is a fucking idiot