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We all know that once it's completed, the new Minnesota Vikings Stadium is going to be the premier sports facility in North America. It's going to be the home for our favorite football team, the host of Super Bowl LII-do, WHOA OH OH OHHHHHHHHH OH OH, (sorry, but that's a great song. Am I going to run it into the ground using it as my SB LII joke? Yes. Get used to it) and a slew of other events.
But to get the stadium built, you need a crane. A bigge crane. A bigge-ass crane. Well, technically it's called the Terex Demag CC 6800, not to be confused with the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle.
Well, exactly how big is this crane?
One that's so damn big it arrives in stages, to the tune of 70 truckloads, over 10 days. And then after it's all here, another 11 days to fully assemble. But if you click the link about bigge crane right above, it leads to a .pdf fact sheet about the bigge-ass crane. Said fact sheet says that this crane has a 'highly simplified assembly process'. I'm no crane assembly expert, so I will take this statement at face value and believe them when they say that it is easy to assemble. But if 70 trucks arriving over 10 days with an 11 day assembly is 'highly simplified'...I shudder to think what the 'really friggin' complicated' crane assembly system looks like.
Seriously, I have issues assembling a damn grill or shelving unit. I'd hate to see the assembly instructions for this thing. It would probably make me long for your typical Ikea assembly sheet, AMIRITE?
Here's some other eye popping numbers for the Bigge-ass crane:
It can move over 1500 tons. That's over 8500 Pat Williams'. At once.
Once it's fully assembled...just under a month from now...using the highly simplified assembly process...it will stand over 400 feet tall. Which is about 65 feet less than a Josh Freeman pass at full arc.
The total weight of the crane fully assembled is 528 tons. The counterweight...counterweight...is 170 tons.
That's a big ass crane, man. It's so big that the Vikings will be holding a press conference at 10 AM to herald the arrival of the crane. Well, the first sections of the crane, anyway.
So really, if there are any 'Vikings are moving to L.A.' holdouts, I have one final gift for you.
The Minnesota Vikings Stadium:
