Vikings Say Goodbye to Stadium, Then to Another Coach Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press The Vikings" game Sunday was the final one at the Metrodome, which is being demolished. EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - Leslie Frazier knew. Late in Sunday's 14-13 victory against Detroit, concluding the final season for the Minnesota Vikings in the utilitarian Metrodome, Frazier, Minnesota's coach, started hugging and thanking his players, presuming he would not be back next season. At 7:59 a.m. Central time Monday, about an hour before a team meeting here, the Vikings emailed a statement announcing Frazier's firing, the first on the N.F.L."s so-called Black Monday. By lunchtime, Frazier's counterpart on the sidelines Sunday, Detroit's Jim Schwartz, had also been let go. "We have the utmost respect for Leslie and what he's brought to this organization, but we have to look for consistency year in and year out," General Manager Rick Spielman said at a news conference. That's what we're going to be looking for when we bring in a new head coach. That sends the Vikings into a transitional period seeking their fourth coach since Zygi and Mark Wilf bought the team in 2005. Minnesota will play the next two seasons outdoors at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium while the 31-year-old Metrodome is demolished and a new, $1 billion fixed-roof stadium is built on the site. The team departs the Dome with a crumbling defense, no dominant quarterback and few impact players beyond running back Adrian Peterson and the rookie wideout/returner Cordarrelle Patterson. Frazier managed one winning record in three seasons and part of a fourth, going 21-32-1 as a first-time N.F.L. head coach. The firing of Frazier leaves only two black head coaches in the N.F.L.: Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis. Frazier appeared on shaky ground after last season. Though the Vikings finished 10-6 and lost to Green Bay, 24-10, in an N.F.C. wild-card playoff game, the Wilfs picked up only Frazier's 2014 contract option while declining to extend it further. This season, the Vikings fell to 5-10-1, topping the N.F.L. in points allowed (480, 4 short of the club record) and blowing five leads in the final minute. The third-year quarterback Christian Ponder, a first-round pick in 2011, struggled so badly that the Vikings claimed Josh Freeman on waivers from Tampa Bay in October. Freeman started one game, a 23-7 loss to the Giants on Oct. 21, and never played again. Ponder finished the season on the bench as Matt Cassel started the last four games. "It's a quarterback-driven league," Frazier said after Sunday's game. And if you don't have that position functioning the way you need to, I don't care what you need to do in the other areas of your team, you're going to be fighting uphill. The defensive problems fell on Frazier, who had been Minnesota's defensive coordinator before succeeding the fired Brad Childress as head coach after 10 games in 2010. In recent interviews, the Wilfs declined to discuss Frazier's future. "I was hoping we would get a chance to finish what we started," Frazier told KMSP-TV on Monday outside the team's Winter Park complex. We were so close to where our guys have been battling, I thought if we fixed a couple things this off-season, we'd be right back in the thick of things. Frazier was so well-liked and respected by his players that many, including Peterson, publicly lobbied Sunday for the Vikings to retain him. "It stinks," Ponder told reporters Monday. As players, we know that we could have done better, and basically that's the cause of what happened. Zygi Wilf spoke briefly at an afternoon news conference but took no questions, leaving the hows and whys to Spielman. "This was an emotional day and an extremely difficult decision," Wilf said. For those who know of who have worked with Leslie Frazier, you know that he is a true professional and a very giving person. Spielman acknowledged the need for a franchise quarterback and improving an aging defense that may lose end Jared Allen and tackle Kevin Williams as unrestricted free agents. For the next coach, Spielman said he would consider varied candidates. "We're not going to be boxed in by, He has to be this," Spielman said. It's got to be the guy we think is the right fit.