The other stadium bids
Little known fact: There were NINE submissions for a Vikings stadium that made Gov. Mark Dayton's deadline yesterday.
There's the three well-known offers, from Shakopee, Ramsey County and Minneapolis. The six others were, well, let's just say more imaginative.
They include a proposal to fund the whole thing with a $4.2 billion dollar theme park in Eagan and St. Paul resident Charles Hollom's offer to pay for the whole stadium himself, or rather, on behalf of the World Desert Reclamation Society. In either Moorhead or New Brighton, no less.
Perhaps the most, um, self-aware of the bunch comes from the esteemed Journal of American Rocket Science, which claims to have designed a stadium that the authors deem fitting for Arden Hills and other northern suburbs. It apparently involves a mammoth pickup topper, a set of giant sawhorses, some railroad tracks and a fleet of Bobby and Steve's tow trucks.
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Here's the raison d' etre from the proposal:
With an eye towards the recently-heralded Twins ballpark, which was lauded for its use of local materials, the Journal of American Rocket Science (JARS) took that concept several notches further, with a design inspired by local tradition, with a Minnesota cultural typology, and built with local basic materials. Vikings team owner Ziggi (sic) Wilf heralded the stadium design as "recalling the Vikings coach Buck (sic) Grand heritage," when Minnesota men stood by their team.
JARS designed the masterpiece to be built completely from materials available at Menards, fabricated by the box store's night crew. Menard's supervisor estimate the cost at three for $304,016.00, or one structure for $100,006."
Photo: Gary Hansen, used by permission