Apparently, the folks from Shakopee weren't the only ones to get a proposal for a new Minnesota Vikings' stadium in at the last minute. So, how many proposals did there end up being? Well, our correspondent on the scene will be happy to tell you.
That's right. . .there are nine stadium proposals on the table as things stand right now, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. (Thanks to UnBanned Vikingholic for posting this in the FanShots first.)
Now, there are the ones that you'd expect from Ramsey County and Minneapolis, as well as the Shakopee proposal. There's also one for a site across from the Mall of America, near the Ikea store. (Maybe Ikea will be the main sponsor and the whole thing can be built out of balsa wood or whatever it is that Ikea furniture is made out of.) But, as the Star-Tribune article points out, the most interesting one probably comes from Bob Roscoe of Minneapolis, who cited the Journal of American Rocket Science.
Roscoe said the stadium could be "built completely from materials available at Menards, fabricated by the box store’s night crew." He said a Menard’s supervisor had estimated the cost at "three for $304,016.00, or one structure for $100,006.00."
He said the stadium’s design would recall Minnesota’s heritage of "pickup truck toppers propped up on sawhorses as seen in back yards and driveways in northern [Twin Cities] suburbs."
I don't know about you, but that sounds a bit. . .Wisconsin. . .to me.
But all the proposals are linked at the Star-Tribune link up above. I don't know if any of the plans that have been kept super duper secret have any real chance, but going from a time when the team couldn't even get one proposal for a new stadium to having nine is a positive sign that people don't want this team going anywhere.