Vikings Ready To Kick Off Two-Year Stint At TCF Bank Stadium

The Vikings on Friday night against the Raiders kick off a two-year stint playing home games at TCF Bank Stadium, where the "costliest change was the installation of a hydronic heating system under the field and the purchase of a new FieldTurf playing surface." Other changes include adding bleacher seats to raise the venue's capacity to 52,525. The Norseman logo "will be painted at midfield before every Vikings game and the end zones will be purple." The team is "confident" that the changes "will give fans a better experience than the Metrodome" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 8/8).

There will be "beer sales throughout the stadium for Vikings games" and fewer points of sale for alcohol at Univ. of Minnesota games, "but still far more than there were last year" (STARTRIBUNE.com, 8/7). While temperature at kickoff is expected to be about 80 degrees, the Vikings have "talked about trying to really make TCF an advantage when games are played outdoors late in the season in frigid temperatures" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 8/8).