Vikings stadium to accommodate baseball

The Vikings and sports Facilities Authority came to terms in allowing a new football stadium to include dimensions conducive to baseball.

The Minnesota Vikings’ new football stadium will be designed to accommodate a baseball field.

The Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority announced an agreement Friday on a multi-use field configuration for the $975 million stadium.

The Minnesota Twins left the Metrodome for their own new ballpark at Target Field in 2010. But the Minnesota Gophers and other college and prep baseball teams want to play early-season games in the Vikings’ new stadium.

Under the agreement, the new stadium will feature a 26-foot-high right field wall, retractable seats on the north sideline and removable dugouts.

Plans now call for the Metrodome to be torn down early next year and for the new stadium to be ready to open by July 1, 2016.