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Sep 8, 2009 7:20 pm US/Central
New Maroon & Gold Stadium Actually Green
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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The TCF Bank Stadium is on the verge of becoming the first LEED environmentally-certified football stadium in the country. And a former gopher football player helped design some of it. (File)
CBS
When football kicks-off at the new Gopher stadium, fans probably won't notice an important part of the design. The maroon and gold facility is actually green.
The TCF Bank Stadium is on the verge of becoming the first LEED environmentally-certified football stadium in the country. And a former gopher football player helped design some of it.
Back in 2005, fullback Jason Lamer scored his final touchdown as a Gopher on the last game of the season.
"I was very fortunate to be able to play for the Gophers for four years and then to go on and finish my master's degree in landscape architecture with an environmental focus," said sustainability consultant Lamers.
His master's degree led to a job designing an eco-friendly storm water drainage system for the new Gopher stadium.
"We're routing it into a half-acres of turf grass. In this turf grass we have the capacity to store 132,000 gallons of water," said Lamers.
So fans will literally be walking on water with synthetic reinforcements in the soil to minimize wear and tear.
"It prevents compaction because the product naturally has a reflex-action to it," said Lamers.
The water gets treated and filtered underground to remove pollutants and it then runs into this pond and ends up in the Mississippi River.
That's just one feature of the green Gopher stadium.
"Energy-efficient lighting, energy-efficient plumbing ... the steel in the stadium is a 90-percent recycled domestic steel," said stadium project manager Brian Swanson. "More than 95 percent of the construction waste from the site was recycled."
On opening game day, when hundreds of fans will gather on the grassy areas Lamers helped design, he will be inside on the turf taking part in pre-game festivities
"I get to go out on the field before the game to welcome the 2009 team out to start the season and to kind of debut the new stadium," he said. "I don't think I'm going to have a smile leave my face the whole day."
Fans going to Saturday's Gopher game at the TCF Bank Stadium will notice a lot of recycling bins throughout the place for bottles, cans and paper. That's something scarce at the Metrodome.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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