Reality Check: Is the new Minnesota Vikings’ Stadium a Major Contributor to Bird Deaths?
OutdoorHub Reporters 03.03.17
US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis, opened its doors last June and cost more than $1 billion of mostly taxpayer money. It’s an incredible stadium: big, beautiful, and according to some, a deadly hazard to birds.
A report presented by a trio of Minnesota conservation groups says that the stadium’s glassy exterior is indistinguishable from the sky, and birds are fatally slamming into the 200,000-sq. ft. structure. In the 11-week period that bird enthusiasts were conducting their study, 74 birds of 21 species were recorded, 60 were killed and 14 were observed stunned on the ground outside the stadium.
Now, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, which owns the stadium, is facing pressure to make costly changes to the exterior of the stadium.
Where do you stand on this issue?
Development of any sort (buildings, roads, and yes, even football stadiums) comes at a cost. And what about our way of life? Do we stop driving cars because our windshields kill hundreds of millions of birds each year? No.
And get this: When it comes to human-related killers of birds, windshields aren’t even in the top two. Second place goes to windows in small buildings. The No. 1 culprit? Cats. Yes, cats kill an estimated 1 billion (with a “b”) birds each year.
Suddenly is seems like the new Minnesota Vikings stadium isn’t so bad after all.
