When visitors stream into U.S. Bank Stadium in the autumn, they won’t only be there to see the Vikings play. They’ll also have the chance to become Vikings football players.
This will be possible courtesy of a “Vikings Voyage” stadium exhibit that is brimming with interactive technology. The football club announced the long-under-wraps project on Thursday.
Football fans can adopt three-point stances to hit a pad defensive-line-style, compare their jumping and running prowess against that of real players, and put on virtual-reality goggles to field passes from a virtual quarterback.
The exhibit’s various hands-on stations will feed wannabe players’ results into electronic displays and lighting strips, then record their stats onto special bracelets that are theirs to keep for future visits.
The 10,000-square-foot exhibit, directly above the team store and also reachable via the Minneapolis skyway, will have much to offer less-active visitors, as well.
This includes:
- An homage to star player Cris Carter featuring 1,000 chrome footballs hanging from the ceiling to symbolize his career catches.
- A “battle armor” exhibit that displays Vikings team uniforms from 1969, 1989 and today, along with a touch-screen brimming with details about uniform features.
- A 40-foot-long space made to resemble the hull of a historical Viking longship, with a 27-foot-long, 7-foot-tall screen displaying Vikings video.
- A “Purple People Eaters” sculpture featuring likenesses of the four seated players from the 1960s and ’70s teams — Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen — as depicted in a now-iconic photograph. There will be room for visitors to sit beside them.
- A “Lore of the North” museum section with historical Vikings football artifacts, such as pieces of the goalposts torn down by fans when the team ended its Met Stadium run.
The Vikings said the “Voyage” exhibit will be available to anyone attending a Vikings game or Vikings-themed event at U.S. Bank Stadium, but visitors will need to reserve a spot in advance. The exhibit will accommodate roughly 250 people at one time.
It will be open before and after games and Vikings events in order to accommodate as many people as possible.
The exhibit is funded entirely with private money, the team said.
