The Minnesota Vikings held their ribbon-cutting ceremony for their new home, U.S. Bank Stadium, on Friday. Unfortunately, they had to do it with a gaping hole in one of the windows thanks to an unruly passerby.
According to Rochelle Olson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, sometime before Wednesday morning, a vandal threw a rock through a window at the new stadium, putting a hole in it that officials say will take up to two months to repair.
Broken window @usbankstadium on ground level near Ecolab gate entrance to Hyundai Club. pic.twitter.com/GNAKHq8A2F
— Rochelle Olson (@rochelleolson) July 20, 2016
The lengthy repair time is because the glass panes are made custom for the stadium, a source said. There is also reportedly security camera footage of the incident.
While it was unclear where the rock came from, it should be noted that the building’s facade is almost entirely glass, and sidewalks surrounding it are lined with a bed of rocks. It’s unclear if one of those rocks was used to vandalize the stadium.
Still, come on, Minnesota. It doesn’t excuse the vandalism, but when you build your stadium out of glass and put a huge bed of rocks right next to it, what do you think is going to happen? It doesn’t take too much imagination to envision a drunken fan coming out angry after a difficult home loss and taking that anger out on the stadium with the weapons that have been basically handed to them. I mean, remember how fans reacted to this play? It was bound to happen sooner or later. Perhaps they should reconsider that design.
