It didn't bring quite the level of celebration that we had here a little more than two weeks ago when the Minnesota Senate had their final vote on the bill, but the Minnesota Vikings' stadium has officially cleared its final hurdle. Today in Minneapolis, the City Council gave their support to the bill by the expected margin of 7-6, making it official that the funding mechanism for the city's portion of the stadium would be put in place.

The City Council had given their support to the bill months ago, and while this step was largely seen as a formality, there was a bit of trepidation. Ultimately, however, the last party that needed to be included in the stadium process, along with the Minnesota Vikings and the state of Minnesota, has given their blessing, and the Minnesota Vikings are now, officially, going to be getting a new stadium.

Now, let us never speak of stadium legislation or funding issues again and get back to talking about how awesome this new place is going to be for Vikings fans everywhere, shall we?

While it appears to be just a formality at this point, enough noise is getting made about the Minneapolis City Council's vote on a new Minnesota Vikings' stadium where it might not hurt to contact your representative (if you're a Minneapolis resident) and remind them how important this bill is.

The link to the City Council's home page is right here. On that site, there are links to each individual member of the council. Those links will give you their phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and any other means you might need to make contact with them.

The 13-member City Council has given their support to a Vikings' stadium bill once, by a slim 7-6 margin. It is expected that the current stadium bill will be passed by the Council by the same margin. Again, however, you can never be too sure about something like this until it's well and truly over. . .as Minnesota Vikings fans, we know that better than anybody.

So, if you're a Minneapolis resident that is in favor of the Vikings remaining in Minnesota for the next 30+ years, take a minute or two to contact your City Council member before Friday's vote.

I've been trying to envision in my head what I would like the new Vikings' stadium to look like once it gets built. While I don't have the first clue about stadium design or anything like that, while I was bopping around the television dial this afternoon, I saw one that I think would be kind of cool.

Today, the soccer world is focused on the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea. The game is taking place in the stadium pictured above, that being Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. I know that it probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think the stadium looks pretty cool.

According to Wikipedia, the stadium can seat between 66,000 and 69,000 people, which is the range the Vikings are looking for. One of the things I like about it. . .and this is probably somewhat shallow, but that's fine. . .is the fact that the stadium actually has the ability to change colors. Observe:

Picture via Wikipedia

The top picture of the stadium is how the stadium is lit up when Bayern Munich is hosting a match at the stadium, in the home red. The middle portion is how it looks when 1860 Munich, the other German soccer team that uses the stadium as its home, is hosting a match, lit up in the home blue. The bottom white look is how the stadium is illuminated when the German National Team is playing at the stadium.

Think about it. . .how cool would it be for the Vikings' new stadium to actually be lit up in purple and gold on game days? I think it would look pretty amazing. If you look at this story from WorldStadiums.com on the design of the arena, it actually has a couple of pictures of a "split color" look for the stadium.

According to the article, the construction cost of the stadium was about 340 million euros, or approximately $435 million American. Now sure how hard it would be to fit a roof onto something like that, let alone a retractable one, but I'm sure something could be worked out. I, personally, think it would be pretty cool if the Vikings' new home was modeled after something unique like the Allianz Arena.

Do any of you folks have stadiums that you'd like the Vikings' new home to be modeled after?

Yeah, I know the stadium battle is over. Well, almost. Once the Minneapolis City Council approves it next week, it will be over. But that formality aside, what would you like to see in the new digs?

Both Mark and Zygi Wilf have said they're still in the conceptual phase, and it will be a year to go from here to breaking ground. That means they still need to hire an architectural firm and plan this thing out.

That's where we come in. Us, the fans. I mean, if it's the 'People's Stadium', we should have some input into how this thing is put together, amirite?

1. MOAR FULLBACKS. I want a fullback Hall of Fame within the Vikings Hall of Fame within the Minnesota 'Sparts' Hall of Fame (if you were here for the legislative threads, you get the reference. If not, may God have mercy on your soul). Starting with Bill 'Boom Boom' Brown and going all the way to Jim Kleinsasser, I want an area that is dedicated to fullbacks. Because you can't have enough fullbacks.

More ideas, and I'd like to see what you guys have, after the jump.

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One of the parts of the new Minnesota Vikings' stadium that has not been completely settled yet is the state of the roof. The $975 million deal that was signed into law on Monday calls for a fixed roof stadium, but it was said that if Zygi Wilf wanted to put a retractable roof on the stadium, it would have to come out of the team's pockets. It appears that the team is strongly considering doing just that.

Q. So you'll have a retractable roof?

ZW: "Well, I don't know."

MW: "We're going to try to get the maximum number of features within the budgets. ... We're going to want to make it something special. And to the extent retractability can get there, we're going to try to do it."

One of the rumors that has been circulating lately is that the Wilf family wants to try to attract Major League Soccer to Minneapolis. . .and, indeed, MLS has said that with this new stadium, the Twin Cities moves to the top of the list of cities to potentially gain an MLS franchise.

So how would a retractable roof affect the Vikings? It appears that decision will be up to a combination of the owners and/or the National Football League. There doesn't appear to be a set of hard-and-fast rules for when retractable roof stadiums can open the roof up and when it needs to be closed.

For example, Lucas Oil Stadium has a rule saying that the roof will be closed when the temperature is below 40 degrees, while Reliant Stadium in Houston has one saying that the roof will be closed if the temperature is below 50 or above 80. As far as actual, official NFL rules, the Arizona Cardinals have the following info on their website concerning University of Phoenix Stadium:

The Cardinals are required to follow all NFL policies in effect for retractable roof stadiums. In accordance with NFL policy, the following guidelines must be followed:

The roof can only be closed during the game if rain or other hazardous weather conditions develop or are anticipated. The only exception is that the roof will not be closed for rain in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, or prior to or during any overtime period.

If the roof is closed at the start of the game or during the game, it cannot be opened for the remainder of the game.

If the decision is made to open the roof, the roof must be open no later than the time that the teams take the field for pre-game warm-ups.

So it appears that what the NFL's rules govern is basically that if the roof is open when the game starts, it has to stay open, and if it's closed it has to stay closed, as well as provisions for inclement weather. Those are the general guidelines, but it appears that each individual stadium can establish their own set of rules for when the roof will be open and when it will be closed.

It will be interesting to see how, exactly, the team will handle the roof situation if they do have the ability to open and close the roof of the new stadium.

So let it be written, so let it be done:

(St. Paul Pioneer Press) Vikings stadium bill: Dayton signs, spotlight moves to Minneapolis City Hall: bit.ly/JbSiOm

— Vikings News (@Vikings_Live) May 14, 2012

It's official. Well, not quite. The Minneapolis City Council now has 30 days to vote on the stadium bill that Dayton just signed. They already gave their support earlier in the process, so this should be nothing more than a formality, but I'm not going to be 100% relieved until that vote is taken.

But I AM going to go drink some of the bitter tears of the anti-stadium crowd, who showed up to protest the signing of the bill, along with scores of fans that are stadium supporters.

Now the Vikings will begin planning in earnest, and Vikings VP of Stadium Affairs has said it will be about a year before the Vikings can break ground on the new digs adjacent from the Metrodome, as several things need to happen, like, you know, get a final design and all. But there will time for that later.

For now, we celebrate!

Over the last few days, we've learned that politics can make people that are ordinarily intelligent kind of stupid. According to Minnesota Public Radio, we got a pretty good example of that yesterday in the aftermath of Minnesota's vote on a new Minnesota Vikings stadium.

Representative Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican from District 16B, sent the following e-mail to her supporters following the passage of the stadium bill:

Usually bills get better when they come back from a conference committee.

This time, it got worse. Additional pork for St. Paul and Minneapolis was added, a shocking data privacy for the Vikings was included, the funding mechanism of the pull tabs continued, the percentage to charity got smaller, no user fees included and the general fund continues to be at risk of bailing out this project in the future. In addition, the "new" $50 million the team is "adding" to their portion is offset by the team getting the naming rights instead of the state. The Wilf family also got back in their exclusive rights to a Soccer team for the next five years or so. Quite an amazing package for the owners.

I realized that this was a set deal between the Vikings, the Governor and the bill authors and that no matter the amendments or arguments, it would get done. They had enough votes to force it through. The City Council of Minneapolis has the last vote after the Governor signs the bill.

That's where the party started.

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Just saw this come across the Twitter from Tom Hauser, KSTP's chief political reporter, concerning the Minnesota Vikings stadium bill:

Governor Dayton will sign the Vikings stadium bill into law on Monday in the State Capitol Rotunda...High Noon.

— Tom Hauser (@5hauser) May 13, 2012

So, what became semi-official on Thursday afternoon will become officially official on Monday at noon. I don't know if the signing will be streamed anywhere, but if it is, we'll effort to have it here for you and/or let you know where you can see it.

There's a portion of this that still hasn't completely sunk in yet. . .maybe that's because the cynical Minnesota sports fan part of me can't wrap himself around the fact that something positive has actually happened to this team after the past couple of years.

Of course, my inner WWE fan is expecting that Mark Dayton will get up to the podium, get the pen in his hand, start to sign the bill. . .and then rip off his jacket to reveal a Green Bay Packers shirt just before he tears the bill in half. But I'm sure that won't happen.

Relatively sure, anyway.