The blizzard in Minnesota has damaged the Metrodome badly enough that this week’s Giants-Vikings game cannot be played there, and now the NFL is exploring options that would include the University of Minnesota, Ford Field in Detroit or Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has announced that Metrodome officials told the league that the dome will not be available for the Giants-Vikings game on Monday -- and that it wouldn’t even be available if the league were willing to push the game back another day to Tuesday.
So now the league is exploring alternatives, and plans to play the game on Monday night. According to Aiello, the options are “the University of Minnesota stadium or another domed NFL stadium.”
The University of Minnesota’s stadium is outdoors, which would be brutal given the weather in Minnesota this week, and extremely difficult to remove all the snow. The Giants got on their plane yesterday thinking they were heading to Minnesota to play an indoor game, and they didn’t bring their cold-weather gear with them, so the Giants would have to scramble to get ready to play in bitter cold.
If the game does move to another domed NFL stadium, Detroit and Indianapolis would make the most sense geographically. The web sites for both Ford Field and Lucas Oil Stadium list no conflicting events for Monday night.
For FOX, which is scheduled to broadcast the Giants-Vikings game, Detroit may make the most sense because the network already has a crew in Detroit for Sunday’s Packers-Lions game.