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By: Aj Mansour | KFAN.com
@AjKFAN

Minneapolis, MN - Representatives from the Minnesota Vikings and new stadium architect HKS joined Vikings season ticket holders Tuesday afternoon to hold a "Fan Forum" via teleconference and web presentation. The conference call is the first of multiple sessions that will be held throughout the process of building and designing the new stadium in hopes to keep the team's most dedicated fans in the loop on the decision making.

Today's session didn't offer up much new in the way of news, but did serve as an opportunity to introduce the fans to HKS's lead architect Bryan Trubey. Here are some bullet points from the one hour presentation.

  • Images displaying the final design of the new stadium can be expected to be made public in mid-to-late spring 2013.
  • Builders are scheduled to break ground sometime in the fourth quarter of 2013
  • The 2014 & 2015 seasons will likely be played on the campus of the University of Minnesota at TCF Bank Stadium
  • To accommodate season ticket holders and eclipse the 50,000 seat threshold, temporary seating accounting for 3,000-4,000 additional seats will be added to the west plaza of TCF Bank Stadium
  • New turf and heating coils will also be a necessary improvement to be funded by the Vikings
  • There has not yet been a final decision made on the inclusion of "retractable features" that will be included in the design but it is more likely to be some sort of a retractable wall creating the open air experience rather than a retractable roof.
  • The new stadium will be built with a capacity of 65,000 but will have the ability to expand to 73,000 (the minimum amount needed to place a bid for to host a Super Bowl)
  • The Vikings have already submitted their application to the league to host the 2018 Super Bowl

That's about all we got out of today's discussion. That and those cool, weird, unusual images that we have seen slip out from HKS already. It should be noted that these are simply concept sketches from the architects, a final design has not been determined. Check those out below.


Concept sketched from the architects...


Concept #1 - Outer View


Concept #1: Inner View (note, retractable windows on far side)


Concept #2 - Outer View


Concept #2 - Inner View (note, retractable wall/windows on far side of field)

Aj Mansour covers Minnesota Sports for KFAN.com. Feel free to leave comments and questions regarding this post in the space provided below. For Vikings' updates and breaking Vikings' news, follow Aj on Twitter. @AjKFAN