U.S. Bank Stadium

• 1. Introduction

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  U.S. Bank Stadium sits on the east side of downtown Minneapolis, on the exact ground where the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome stood for more than three decades. When it opened in the summer of 2016, it was the first fixed-roof NFL stadium built since Ford Field in Detroit, which opened in 2002. That choice of a fixed roof rather than a retractable one was not inevitable. It was the product of years of political fights, competing proposals from multiple counties, a near-collapse of the funding scheme, a fatal accident on the roof during construction, and a final price tag that cleared one billion dollars. How did a team and a city end up building an arena made of fluorine-based plastic that drains its snowmelt into the Mississippi River? And why did the entire financing plan nearly crater because of electronic pull-tab gambling? Those are the questions this documentary sets out to answer.

• 2. The Metrodome Problem

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  The Vikings' lease with the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, signed in August 1979, locked the team into the Metrodome until 2011. That agreement was considered one of the least lucrative in the NFL. The commission owned the stadium outright and reserved all advertising rights, including the scoreboard. The Vikings paid 9.5% of their ticket sales in rent and received no share of naming rights or parking revenue. The commission retained roughly 35% of concessions sold during Vikings games and paid the team only 10% of concession sales. By 2005, the Vikings ranked 30th out of 32 NFL teams in local revenues.

  For several years before the Metrodome's eventual demolition, the commission waived the team's nearly $4 million annual rent payment, a sign that the relationship had grown unworkable. A proposal for a joint Vikings and University of Minnesota stadium was floated in 2002, but disagreements over design and governance, combined with state budget constraints, killed it. The university eventually opened its own TCF Bank Stadium in 2009. The Vikings, along with every other tenant, continually rejected any plan to renovate the Metrodome itself. The situation changed suddenly on the 12th of December 2010, when the Metrodome's roof deflated, forcing the relocation of the Vikings' final two home games of that season and turning a slow-burning stadium dispute into a public emergency.

• 3. The Long Road to Approval

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  Zygi Wilf, a billionaire from New Jersey and the Vikings' principal owner since 2005, made his intentions clear from the start. He wanted the stadium anchored to the downtown Metrodome site as the centerpiece of a larger urban redevelopment. In June 2007, the Vikings acquired four blocks of largely empty land surrounding the Star Tribune headquarters from Avista Capital Partners for $45 million. That same month, they purchased three additional downtown parking lots for a total of $5 million. The initial 2007 cost estimate for a stadium with a retractable roof reached $953.916 million.

  The path through the state legislature was not smooth. A Minnesota House panel defeated the 2010 proposal by a vote of 10-9. In May 2011, Ramsey County reached an agreement with the team for an $884 million stadium on the site of a former Army ammunition plant in Arden Hills, about ten miles from downtown, but the plan carried a shortfall of at least $131 million and never secured full approval. Governor Mark Dayton announced a return to the downtown Metrodome site on the 1st of March 2012. On the 10th of May 2012, the Minnesota Legislature approved funding for the project, with the Vikings covering $477 million, the state covering $348 million, and Minneapolis contributing $150 million through a hospitality tax. The city's total obligation over the 30-year life of the deal, including interest, operations, and construction costs, would reach $678 million. Governor Dayton and the Minneapolis City Council both signed off on the 25th of May 2012.

• 4. The Gambling Gamble

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  Minnesota's $348 million share of the stadium was not to come from general state revenue. The legislature designated a new source: electronic pull-tab games, a form of charitable gambling. When the stadium bill passed and was signed in May 2012, officials estimated the games would generate $34 million in 2013 alone, rising in each subsequent year.

  Six months later, the Minnesota Office of Management and Budget slashed that projection by 51%, bringing the 2013 estimate down to $16 million. By March 2013, a further revision reduced the 2013 forecast to $1.7 million, a 95% reduction from the original $34 million estimate. The legislature responded by imposing a one-time inventory tax on cigarettes to cover the immediate shortfall and closing a corporate income-tax loophole for the following years. The crisis eventually passed. State officials reported in July 2016 that pull-tab revenue was climbing sharply. By January 2023, the gains had grown substantial enough that Governor Tim Walz proposed paying off the entire outstanding bond debt from the state's contribution more than twenty years ahead of schedule, drawing on the gambling reserve fund with a modest contribution from the general fund.

• 5. Design and Construction

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  Architecture firm HKS, Inc., which had also designed the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium and the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium, won the commission over four other nationally recognized competitors after a bid process in August and September 2012. The central design challenge was the roof. A retractable roof capable of operating in a Minnesota winter, the kind that would let the Vikings play outdoor playoff games at home, was ultimately judged too expensive. HKS settled instead on a translucent fixed roof made of 60% Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, a fluorine-based clear plastic, spanning 240,000 square feet and installed by the firm Vector Foiltec. It is the largest ETFE roof in North America. The slanted design was inspired by Nordic vernacular architecture, allowing snow to migrate toward a heated gutter that drains into the Mississippi River.

  Construction was originally set to begin in October 2013 but was delayed until the 3rd of December 2013, after an ongoing investigation of the Wilfs' finances extended following the resolution of a 21-year lawsuit against them in late August. On the 27th of August 2015, Jeramie M. Gruber, 35, of Northfield, died after a fall during roof construction. A second worker was injured in the same incident. Both workers were employed by St. Paul-based Berwald Roofing Co., which had been cited six times since 2010 for OSHA violations related to fall protection. Following an investigation, contractor Mortenson Construction and subcontractor Berwald Roofing faced combined fines of $173,400 for serious and willful safety violations. The largest single fine, $70,000, cited Berwald for willfully failing to require workers to use fall protection at heights above six feet. The naming rights deal was announced on the 15th of June 2015, when U.S. Bank acquired them for $220 million over 25 years.

• 6. A Stadium That Kills Birds

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  Before construction was complete, conservation groups including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Audubon Society pushed for a bird-friendly exterior using slightly less transparent glass along the building's facade. The stadium sits along the Mississippi Flyway, one of North America's major bird migration corridors. Designers chose highly reflective glass for aesthetic reasons instead. The outcome has been a bird death rate double that of any other building in Minneapolis.

  A bird fatality study, financed jointly by the Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, was completed in 2019. Its recommendations included treating the glass to reduce reflectivity, particularly in areas that mirror heavy vegetation, and turning off lights during peak migration periods. The stadium's translucent roof and large glass wall panels do give fans an unobstructed view of downtown Minneapolis, and the operable wall panels allow some outdoor airflow while still blocking rain, snow, and cold. Those design goals were in direct tension with the bird-safety requests that were made before a single beam was placed.

• 7. Major Events

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  The Vikings played their first regular-season game at U.S. Bank Stadium on the 18th of September 2016, defeating the Green Bay Packers 17-14. On the 14th of January 2018, the stadium hosted its first playoff game, a divisional-round matchup against the New Orleans Saints. Wide receiver Stefon Diggs caught a 61-yard pass on the final play to win the game 29-24 in what became known as the Minneapolis Miracle. The Vikings then traveled to Philadelphia for the NFC Championship, where they lost 38-7 to the Eagles, ending what would have been the first chance for an NFL team to play a Super Bowl in its own home stadium.

  Three weeks later, on the 4th of February 2018, that same Eagles team defeated the New England Patriots 41-33 in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium. The 2019 NCAA Final Four followed, with Virginia defeating Texas Tech 85-77 to claim that program's first national title. The NFL awarded Minneapolis the Super Bowl on the 20th of May 2014, beating competing bids from Indianapolis and New Orleans. In 2023, The Athletic ranked U.S. Bank Stadium as the top NFL venue in the league. WWE announced in May 2024 that the stadium would host the 2026 edition of SummerSlam across two nights on August 1 and 2, which is planned to be the second two-night edition of that event.

• 8. Concerts and Sound

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  Prince, a Minneapolis native, was in preliminary talks to perform the first concert at the new stadium in August 2016, but he died on April 21 of that year. The opening-weekend concerts instead went to country artist Luke Bryan on the 19th of August 2016, drawing 47,219 people, and Metallica the following night, with 48,492 in attendance. The Guns N' Roses show on the 30th of July 2017, marked the first time original members Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan had performed together in Minnesota since 1992.

  Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour dates on August 31 and the 1st of September 2018, drew a combined 98,774 attendees and generated $10,242,024 in revenue. Governor Mark Dayton declared the 31st of August 2018, as Taylor Swift Day in Minnesota to mark her two consecutive nights at the venue. Metallica returned on August 16 and 18, 2024, with a combined attendance of 107,474 and revenue of $12,014,211, becoming the highest-revenue concert run in the stadium's history at that point. Despite the volume of events, the stadium has developed a reputation for poor sound quality. In 2025, two Minnesota Star Tribune music critics ranked U.S. Bank Stadium in the bottom five among 53 Twin Cities concert venues, noting that the sound bounces throughout the domed space and makes lyrics nearly impossible to follow unless the listener is within roughly 20 yards of the stage.