The Metrodome to Deflate Tomorrow
It's finally time to say goodbye.
The big white roof of the Metrodome will be deflated sometime tomorrow in Minneapolis. There won't be any explosions, there won't be any real fan-crazy interaction, the crew will just open up all the doors and watch it come to a deflating end.
Kind of fitting for the Metrodome.
Don't get me wrong, I have always loved the building for what it was. My first experience was back in 2002 when I attended the Vikings/Giants game in which Daunte Culpepper was benched. From that time, I've attended over 30 events in that building. I've seen great quarterbacks come into the dome (no, I don't mean Tarvaris Jackson), great teams, and always crazy fans.
We'll always remember the tiny concourses, the awful bathrooms, the cluster of people trying to leave the stadium through a few set of doors, getting blown out of the dome, and being stuck in the middle of a 32 seat row and having to figure out whether to go left or right to exit.
It was a special place where you could make the building shake, go home with a migraine headache, and still wish to go back. It was like a drug. For all the negative aspects of the building itself, once seated in the blue seats none of the problems mattered any more. It was a second home, but not a vacation home.
I said my final goodbyes after the Lions game to the Metrodome. It was surreal walking out of the building knowing it was the last time. I can compare the feeling to leaving the college campus you attended for the last time as a student. There is a direction ahead, and it will be better, but for now it's just a missing puzzle.
The future is bright. In just a matter of a few years there will be something new in which memories will be made.
For now, it's just time to raise a toast one last time. Goodbye Metrodome and let the air take you down on the way out.