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U.S. Bank Stadium
It’s difficult for a Vikings fan to believe in destiny. But at the end of the last Ice Age, when massive continental glaciers began to recede from the ancient North American craton that geologists now refer to as Laurentia, a plan began to unfold. A $1 billion stadium would rise a mere Case Keenum bomb away from where St. Anthony Falls began to flow. It would happen first in drips, then in rivulets, and then in a current as strong as the mighty Mississippi.
10,000 BC
A massive waterfall appears at the confluence of the ancient glacial River Warren by the site of what is now Fort Snelling. Over the next 12,000 years, the waterfall carves its way upstream to its present location in Minneapolis.
8000 BC–European Contact
For centuries, ancestors of the modern Dakota and Ojibwe reside in the area around the falls. The Dakota call them Minirara (curling water); the Ojibwe, Kichi-Kakabika (great severed rock).
Father Louis Hennepin
1680
Father Louis Hennepin, a glib “Recollect” friar, accidentally “discovers” St. Anthony Falls on a woebegone scouting trip for René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle.
1854
Two ragtag squatter settlements—“St. Anthony” and “Minnehapolis”—build a suspension bridge over the falls.
1904 Gopher football team
1904
Gophers bag their first national football championship. The program will go on to win six more titles—but none with Iron Ranger Bronko Nagurski (’27–’29), the greatest Gopher of all time.
1924
Memorial Stadium built on U of M campus in tribute to the men and women “who fearlessly sacrificed themselves in the Great War.”
Metropolitan Stadium
1955
A group of Minneapolis businessmen buy 164 acres of farmland in Bloomington for $478,899. One year later, 18,366 people watch the AAA Minneapolis Millers lose to the Wichita Braves, 5–3, at the brand new Metropolitan Stadium.
1960
Calvin Griffith moves his Washington Senators to Minnesota and renames them the Twins. And the NFL awards an expansion team—the Minnesota Vikings—to a group led by Max Winter. Both move into Met Stadium. For the first time, Minnesota can claim to be “major league.”
1970
Purple People Eater dynasty sacks the Cities. The Vikings reach their first Super Bowl, and lose to the Kansas City Chiefs, 23–7.
Vikings fans
1974
Vikings lose the Super Bowl.
1975
Vikings lose the Super Bowl.
1977
Vikings lose the Super Bowl.
1977
Governor Rudy Perpich signs a “no site”–specified stadium bill that begins a battle royal between Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Bloomington.
Metrodome
1979
Minneapolis wins the feud and builds the Metrodome, a very sensible, very ugly domed stadium. The building is finished on time and substantially under budget. Very Minnesotan.
Bob Dylan
1986
Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead rock the Metrodome. Tangled up in purple!
Twins players
1987
Twins win the World Series! We win!
1989
NBA returns to Minneapolis after a 30-year absence. Timberwolves lose first home game to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, 96–84, at the Metrodome.
Super Bowl trophy
1991–1992
Metrodome hosts a World Series (Twins win, again!), a Super Bowl, and a Final Four.
1992
Despite calls for historic preservation of “the brickhouse,” Memorial Stadium is quietly demolished.
TCF Bank Stadium
2009
The Twins move to the North Loop and the swank new Target Field—loft-loving cosmopolitans follow.
2009
Gophers move back to campus and the $300 million TCF Bank Stadium, debuting with a 20–13 win over Air Force Academy.
2010
During an early December blizzard, the Metrodome’s snow-removal system fails. Snow rips through the roof during a catastrophic structural collapse that resembles a melting marshmallow. FOX cameras capture the dramatic footage.
2012
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stages a press conference at the Minnesota capitol to revive a dying Vikings stadium bill. The legislation—designating $498 million in public funding—passes the Minnesota Senate three weeks later by the football score of 36–30.
U.S. Bank Stadium
2016
Vikings move into their new $1.06 billion stadium and beat the Green Bay Packers 17–14.
2018
(Press time prediction) Vikings win Super Bowl LII, at home in their own stadium, before a global audience of more than 100 million. A city can dream, right?
