It's lights out for Metrodome

Well-behaved Metrodome fans bid farewell to an era.Hometown heroes of all stripes helped build memories.

December 30, 2013 at 6:02PM

Joe Lonke was say­ing good­bye to the Hu­bert H. Humphrey Met­ro­dome on Sun­day af­ter­noon long be­fore he ac­tu­al­ly left it.

Ever since his moth­er drove him down­town to see his first big-league base­ball game, the 39-year-old sports buff from Ma­ple Grove has been hooked on the sights and sounds of a place where home­town heroes won over hearts and de­liv­ered doz­ens of thrills over three mem­o­ra­ble de­cades.

So Sun­day af­ter­noon, as the Vi­kings played their fi­nal game in the soon-to-be-razed 31-year-old ven­ue, Lonke couldn't help but think about his late moth­er and the mem­ories they shared.

Kir­by Puck­ett's 11th-in­ning, walk-off home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. Brett Fav­re's magi­cal au­tumn of 2009. The Twins World Series ti­tles in '87 and '91. The Vi­kings' heart­break­ing NFC title game loss to At­lan­ta in 1999. Game 163 against De­troit.

"I'm not even watch­ing the game at all," Lonke said as he walked the con­course min­utes be­fore the fi­nal gun sound­ed in a 14-13 Vi­kings vic­to­ry that closed out the Met­ro­dome era. "I'm just wan­der­ing around look­ing at ev­er­y­thing and think­ing about the his­to­ry. It's as much about me say­ing good­bye to this place for her as it is for me."

Lonke was one of 64,000 fans who braved a bit­ter De­cem­ber chill to bid fare­well to the much-ma­ligned Tef­lon-co­vered sta­di­um that was of­ten the butt of jokes but served its local teams so very well.

They came from I­o­wa and North Dakota and as far away as London to catch a piece of his­to­ry and may­be, in a sea­son of too many "L's" and too much dis­ap­point­ment, to see a vic­to­ry.

In coming weeks, the Dome, named for one of the state's most promi­nent politicians and home for de­cades to the Twins, Vi­kings and University of Minnesota foot­ball team, will be razed to make way for a $1 bil­lion, state-of-the-art up­grade.

"Peo­ple called it a dump," Lonke said as he looked around the sta­di­um. "But it was our dump. And we loved it."

Quiet end­ing

Un­like the Metropolitan Stadium fi­na­le 30 years earli­er, when fans stormed the field, tore down goalposts and scam­pered up the score­board, the Dome went out Sun­day with a bit of a whim­per.

With ex­tra se­curi­ty of­fic­ers lin­ing the field at game's end and an ad­di­tion­al 50 off-duty Minneapolis po­lice of­fic­ers work­ing the con­course and the crowd, dam­age was slight — fold­ing chairs, cup hold­ers and signs were re­port­ed­ly the big­gest loss­es.

"No one was in­jured. Every­­thing was re­spect­ful," said Michele Kelm-Helgen, chair­woman of the Minnesota Sports Fa­cili­ties Authority, which runs the Dome and is over­see­ing con­struc­tion of the new sta­di­um. "It was a great day."

Hours be­fore the Dome's re­volv­ing doors stopped turn­ing for good, fans gath­ered in near­by park­ing lots for a fi­nal tail­gat­ing bash.

Decked out in pur­ple and gold jer­seys and stock­ing caps and beads and face paint, they grill­ed bur­gers and brats, guz­zled cold beer and sipped strong­er spir­its in a subzero De­cem­ber chill that made the toast­y con­fines of the Dome, even at its ad­vanced age, seem all the more ap­peal­ing.

While the sta­di­um goes down and the new one goes up, the Vi­kings will play the next two seas­ons out­doors at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota cam­pus. The new sta­di­um is sched­uled to open in time for the 2016 NFL sea­son.

"It's a big day," said Al Moore, a sea­son tick­et-hold­er from Plymouth. "And I'm tak­ing it all in. I just want to say I was here."

Moore, his wife, Jen­ni, and their par­ty of eight pulled into a park­ing lot a few blocks from the sta­di­um well be­fore sun­rise af­ter drop­ping off their kids at grand­ma's house in St. Louis Park.

"We were the first ones in the lot," Jen­ni Moore said. "We want­ed to make sure we got a spot."

De­spite the cold and a sting­ing wind, the Moores and friends stayed com­fy with hot chil­i and chick­en wings.

"It's the end of an era, but it's been a lot of fun," said Sara Peulen, a fan from Chisago City, as she tossed pep­pers and po­ta­to skins on a near­by grill.

By 10 a.m., the sweet scent of both waft­ed across the park­ing lot. By 11 a.m., a steady stream of fans hus­tled up the street and through the sta­di­um gates, where ticket holders re­ceived com­memo­ra­tive pur­ple pen­nants.

By the time the Lions kicked off at noon, the crowd was in a tiz­zy. For the next three hours fans cheered and groaned and cuss­ed and pumped fists in a game that was more rou­tine than re­mark­able.

But to most watch­ing, the de­tails didn't seem to mat­ter.

"This is his­to­ry going down," said Pat­ti Lang, 35, who grew up in Bloomington but now lives in Or­e­gon. "It's a big deal."

"This is our child­hood," said her friend, Alissa Thorsland, of Hopkins. "We grew up here."

Three hours later, the Vi­kings trot­ted off the ar­ti­fi­cial turf for a fi­nal time with a one-point vic­to­ry, thanks large­ly to rook­ie Cordarrelle Patterson, who ran 50 yards for one touch­down and caught a short pass for an­oth­er score late in the game to de­liv­er the win.

As the fi­nal gun sound­ed, fans rose to cheer and sa­lute. Cellphone cam­eras flashed. Some fans blew kiss­es. Oth­ers sang "Skol Vi­kings" and raced out the re­volv­ing doors, slap­ping their palms against the exit sign to Kir­by Puck­ett Place.

"This sta­di­um, even ­though it might not have been per­fect, it was us," form­er Vi­kings cen­ter Matt Birk said in a brief, postgame cer­e­mo­ny at mid­field.

A personal souvenir

High in the se­cond deck, sis­ters Shawn Schmitz, 43, of St. Louis Park and Nat­a­lie Craw­ford, 40, of Bil­lings, Mont., pulled out a pur­ple and gold boa and be­gan pluck­ing feath­ers. Their moth­er had made the boa for Craw­ford, a self-de­scribed "se­ri­ous Vi­kings fan," more than 20 years ago.

But now, the sis­ters thought it only fit­ting to leave it behind.

As a fi­nal round of fire­works sound­ed and fans head­ed to the ex­its, the sis­ters picked the boa clean, toss­ing each feath­er over the side of the se­cond deck rail­ing, flut­tering to the seats be­low.

"Yeah," Craw­ford said as she teared up, "it's kind of sad."

"It's very sad," Schmitz said as she hugged her sis­ter. "But we thought we'd leave the feath­ers. It seems only fit­ting that they stay here and go down with the Dome."

Rich­ard Meryhew • 612-673-4425


Jason Stockwell and his wife Maria Zaruma, lifelong Viking fans from Columbia Heights, linger in their seats at the Metrodome after the final game in the 32 year old stadium. Stockwell, age 33 remembers coming to the dome as a very young boy. ] Last game at Metrodome - Minnesota Vikings -vs- Detroit Lions Minneapolis, MN 12/29//2013
Jason Stockwell and his wife, Maria Zaruma, lifelong Vikings fans from Columbia Heights, linger in their seats at the close of Sunday’s game. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
about the writer

about the writer

Richard Meryhew

Team Leader

Richard Meryhew is editor for the Star Tribune's regional team. He previously was editor of the east bureau in Woodbury and also covered state news, playing a key role in team coverage of many of the state's biggest stories. In 2006, he authored an award-winning series on Kirby Puckett's life.

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