Vikings Break Ground On New Eagan Headquarters
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Vikings broke ground Tuesday on the team's official new headquarters and training center.
It's the first phase of the Vikings project that will eventually include residential and entertainment development. The new Vikings home is on the site of the abandoned Delta Airlines world headquarters.
Team officials won't reveal the project cost, but say team owners Mark and Zygi Wilf are prepared to make it the most advanced in the NFL.
"The resources that they have invested into this community," Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman said, "and all of the opportunities they have given us to really build a world class franchise."
A modern Vikings employee headquarters will anchor the site, with several adjacent practice fields and a theater. The team is building a 6,000 seat football stadium available to the public.
Outside the site will be development -- residential housing and an entertainment district with bars and restaurants.
"When you drive by that practice facility, you are going to know you are in Eagan without even seeing a sign," Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire said.
Maguire says the headquarters will make the city a regional hub and an entertainment destination.
"Together with the Vikings, and the clients they draw in, and the attention they draw to Eagan, we're able to fill in to help not only Eagan, but the entire region," he said.
In a surprise, Twin Cities Orthopedic Center bought naming rights for the Vikes' headquarters and will build what it says is an 88,000 square foot clinic on the site. It's the kind of development uncommon in the NFL, but League Commissioner Roger Goodell called it "visionary."
"This is the way a franchise should be put together, and they've done it in a great way," Goodell said.
The new Vikings game-day home at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis opens this summer. The team says it hopes to move into its new headquarters and practice facility in 2018.