Dive Brief:

• The Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority did the ceremonial ground-breaking Tuesday for the team's new $975 million football stadium, which Mortenson Construction will begin building as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis comes down to make way for it.
• The team will play at the University of Minnesota's stadium until its new home, which will have the largest transparent roof in the U.S., is ready — just in time for the 2016 NFL season.
• An announcement by the Vikings stressed the projects' local benefits, saying that it will take 4.3 million work hours by 7,500 tradespeople from 19 different trades and hundreds of local subcontractors and suppliers, with additional goals for women and minorities in the workforce, and for minority- and women-owned contractors.

Dive Insight:

The stadium project includes adjacent land where the investment will spur downtown development. The Vikings are touting the stadium's "bold, progressive" design by HKS Sport & Entertainment Group. The facility will seat 65,000 people in its 1.7 million square feet.