Minnesota Vikings new home U.S Bank Stadium vandalized
By Adam Carlson
The home of the Minnesota Vikings for the 2016 NFL season has been vandalized by an individual throwing a rock to break one of the glass panels.
“This is why people can’t have nice things.” I’m sure everyone on the internet has heard some variation of that quote on a meme or in the comment of a post with some bad news or something happens that shines a bad light upon human nature.
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With U.S. Bank Stadium’s grand opening happening recently, many fans of the Minnesota Vikings are excited to watch their favorite team play some football in the billion dollar facility. But that doesn’t seem to be the case for everyone when it comes to how they feel about the structure.
According to an article on the Star Tribune website, the building was vandalized by someone on Wednesday morning. Noticed by passers-by and stadium officials, one of the glass panels of the building had been smashed with a rock.
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The panel is located near the Ecolab entrance near the Hyundai Club. Officials for the stadium claim that someone walking by picked up a rock and threw it at the building, shattering the glass panel. Thankfully, the incident was caught on camera.
Sadly, this isn’t a quick and easy fix. It is estimated that repairs could take as long as 8 weeks to get in a replacement panel and put it in place. Hopefully an incident like this will influence U.S. Bank Stadium to have replacement panels available instead of having to special order then when needed.
Here is an image of the broken glass as shared by @RedditCFB on Twitter:
"Perhaps laying a bed of rocks next to a big glass house wasn’t the best idea." https://t.co/KJCGszQdOr pic.twitter.com/TzW4nmPLQC
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) July 21, 2016
The 5′ by 10′ pane of glass has a hole big enough for a small person to get enter, but a second pane of glass on the interior will keep the building secure.
"“Now that the building is open, accidents and vandalism occur,” Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority spokeswoman Jenn Hathaway said in a brief statement. “Addressing these issues is a normal part of building operations. Part of our operations protocol is to file a police report if there is vandalism to the building, which we have done.”"
Next: Vikings game-by-game 2016 season preview
The Minnesota Vikings should have a pristine home when U.S. Bank Stadium hosts the regular season opener against the Green Bay Packers on September 18, 2016. However, if more vandalism like this happens, there could be some major problems in the future of the billion dollar state of the art facility.