Metrodome roof collapses under snow (video footage)
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium built in 1979 in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It accommodates up to 64,000 fans of football (Vikings), baseball or basketball to enjoy the sports indoors and protected from the brutal winter weather in the area.
The Metrodome is home to the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, and is occasionally used by the Big Ten's University of Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team. The stadium was also the home of the Minnesota Twins from 1982 to 2009 and the Golden Gophers football team from 1982 to 2008.
The stadium is well known for its fiberglass fabric roof that is self-supported by air-pressure, copied after the roof in Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit. Because it is unusually low to the playing field, the dome occasionally figured into game action. Major League Baseball had specific ground rules for the Metrodome. Any ball which struck the Dome roof, or objects hanging from it, remained in play.
Five times in the stadium's history, heavy snows or other weather conditions have damaged the roof and caused it to deflate. Yesterday morning, the roof had a catastrophic collapse (video below) as a result of more than seventeen inches of snow the previous day, sustaining three tears in the process. The Vikings and the New York Giants had been scheduled to play a football game that afternoon. The game had already been postponed to Monday night due to concerns of stadium officials. Because of the tears in the roof, the NFL relocated the game to Ford Field in Detroit.
