KRFO-AM logo
Enter your number to get our free mobile app

The amount of money needed to build Rochester's new middle school is almost the same amount of money it cost to build a famous Minnesota stadium-- kind of.

You didn't read that incorrectly: The same amount of money taxpayers in the Rochester School District are spending to build a new middle school is very nearly the same amount of money spent taxpayers in the Twin Cities once spent to build the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis!

Of course, the difference is that the Metrodome was built nearly 40 years ago, back in 1982, and, yeah, the value of a dollar has changed just a little bit since then! (note the sarcasm font used in that last sentence.)

Still, though, the figures are the same. Which, according to the Rochester School District, will be in the neighborhood of $55 million. That's the estimated amount it'll cost to open the Med City's newest middle school, now under construction off 65th Avenue Northwest in Rochester.

And, according to this construction website (which has some interesting facts about what it took to DEMOLISH the Metrodome to make room for U.S. Bank Stadium), $55 million was also the amount it took to build the 'Dome in the first place back in 1982.

But there's that little thing called inflation at play here. While the amounts are the same, the value is WAAAY different. When you plug those figures into this handy inflation calculator, we see that spending $55 million in 1982 is the equivalent of spending $148 million in today's dollars. (Which still looks like quite the deal, seeing as the estimated cost of building U.S. Bank Stadium was nearly $1 billion!)

And, conversely, the inflation calculator says spending $55 million here in 2020 would have been closer to spending $20 million back in 1982. (Which still seems like a LOT for a middle school, even with the 62% depreciation rate.)

Either way, chalk it up to a coincidental quirk that the actual amount of construction costs for both are almost the same amount. (And hat tip to the Post Bulletin's Jeff Pieters for the original idea too.)

You can check out what that new middle school will look like in the video below, and while we're on the subject of 1982 and things, like the Metrodome, that are no longer around, keep scrolling to check out some of our favorite chains from back then that have called it quits and aren't around anymore, either.

Listen to Curt St. John from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5
and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 103.9 The Doc

WOW: Check out 50 of our favorite retail chains that no longer exist!

More From KRFO-AM