Since it opened, whizzing by via car or train I've thought that the whole thing is way too big and that the attempt to make it look like a big ship mostly fails and reminds me of the Titanic going down.
But last night we got to see it up close and personal, thanks to friends who had access to cheap (enough) seats, so I'd like to offer up my review. Full disclosure - I am a sports fan, college and pro, women's and men's. I see the value of pro sports in the Twin Cities, even if our teams - with the outstanding exception of the Minnesota Lynx - suck. I don't hate that we got a new stadium.
So first, the game itself. We won, despite the loss of Teddy Bridgewater two days before to his horrible knee injury. I think every fan was surprised - we sure were - and maybe so were the Vikes. I'm hoping it's the beginning of a good thing. It's hard to be a lifelong Vikings fan. You gotta have humility and skills in coping with disappointment.
Now back to the stadium. It is shimmery, shiny and oh so new. The glass reflection thing is magnificent. We were there in time to see the sun slowly making its way down in the western sky, and the resulting reflection of downtown on all that glass was spectacular. And the gigantic doors were open - letting the breezes of the 75 degree day waft in. Oh the amazingness of it all.
We made our way to our seats waaaay up high by taking several escalators and endless stairs. We stopped at what looked like a pub only to be turned away - that was for the special, higher paying fans, and we were in steerage - but at the top of the ship, not the bottom. Our seats were about six rows down from the very top, and it gave a whole new meaning to the nose-bleed section. It felt like the air was thinner, or at least that's my excuse for taking the first quarter to catch my breath after all those stairs. This was our view:
There are no words to adequately describe the vastness of this beast. It is ginormous, a behemoth... We all remarked on how you can't see the other fans at all except those right around you. Everyone else is teeny tiny specks far far far away. And when they asked us to make some noise, the decibels got lost in all that vastness. It seems too big to feel like we are all in it together. Maybe it would be different at a sellout but I'm not sure. I think you might have that feeling no matter where your seats are - it's that big. It reminded me oddly of the Hunger Games.
From our seats, the players were dots. But thanks to the giant HD video screen (8100 sq feet), it didn't matter. We could see everything just as if we were sitting in our living rooms. It was hard to stay focused on the field - the vibrant high-definition color on the big screen and closeup shots were irresistible.
Be forewarned if you are attending future games - they have some work to do on their concession lines and people moving strategies. To get in we had to walk up a bunch of stairs outside, across some kind of giant walkway, back down more stairs and then back around behind the walkway away from the stadium in order to get into long lines to get our bags checked and then go through the ticket line. It was counter-intuitive - we should be able to walk down those stairs and head to the shiny, inviting pearly entrance right in front of us!
And then when we left, to get to the train we had to go the opposite way from the train entrance and down and around another long line before we could get in the very long line for the train. Again, counter-intuitive and frustrating!
I had a blast, but I'm not sure I'll have the desire to go back anytime soon. It was dizzying and overwhelming. I was actually a little nervous being up so high - when we looked out the windows we could see something like the 20th floor of the buildings around us. I like stadiums where you can look across and see the other people, feel as one, and maybe even pick out a friend or two. Maybe that makes me more of a college sports fan after all.
But last night was a great adventure - checking out this amazing piece of something with dear friends, drinking a beer or two, and watching my team win again the odds! Skol!
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