The Vikings and Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment have "completed the Stadium Preview Center adjacent to the stadium’s construction site in downtown Minneapolis," and it will "be open to the public -- by appointment -- later this week," according to Janet Moore of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. The team is "currently contacting season-ticket holders to arrange appointments, followed by those who are on the team’s waiting list." The Vikings said that the interactive space is the "largest ever built by an NFL team" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 2/25). SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Don Muret reports the preview center "takes season-ticket holders through a Disney-like experience tied to the field-level club" at the new $975M stadium. Van Wagner tomorrow will start "marketing the venue’s 98 suites, 8,000 club seats and 60 loge boxes." The 7,800-square-foot preview center is "large by industry standards, more than twice the size" of the 49ers' 3,500-square-foot marketing center for Levi's Stadium. The Vikings' facility "encompasses two mock suites, a 24-seat club seat mockup and two small models of the stadium." The centerpiece is a "two-minute video simulation that envisions the game-day experience at the new stadium by taking season-ticket holders and potential founding partners down a 90-foot-long corridor lined with eight 84-inch high-definition television monitors" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/24 issue).
THE CATS' MEOW: The Panthers on Friday said that the first phase of the team's $65M Bank of America Stadium renovation project is "on schedule and going well, despite the recent snowstorm." Panthers Dir of Stadium Operations Scott Paul said that workers "started the project five weeks ago and remain on schedule to finish in early July." Paul said the recent snowstorm "set us back a little bit." But he added that Turner Construction "had made allowance for potential delays in the pre-construction schedule" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 2/22).
