1st ever Vikings Football Day was spectacular

Saturday April 27^th was a first in Vikings history hoisting an event called Vikings football day. The weather was in the mid 70’s this day and the event was inside Mall of America Field so what kind of crowd would there be? Snow on Monday and 70’s on Saturday should be real interesting to see.

I got my answer real quick as I entered the gates and saw lines and lines of people. They were in line to get a wrist band to meet some of the current and ex-Vikings players in an autograph line.

There were 3 different times scheduled with the names Joe Webb, Harrison Smith, Mistral Raymond, and Chris Kluwe to name a few that were scheduled to make an appearance.

I have met most if not all of the Vikings so I just observed the lines and how long they were. It is an exciting time of year for fans to get a chance to meet the guys they watch on Sunday’s.

The next event was a tour of the dome. I had posted an article for you to read about the 2010 collapse and the tour I took of that.

This one was one I took in as knowing this is the last year of the dome and wanted some memories. We were taken to the football press box located above the Vikings bench. It was here we were given facts and figures about the cost of the dome back then and what it will cost to build the new stadium.

We were talked to about the new roof and how it is better than the roof that was involved in the collapse.

We were then taken to a Vikings luxury box which I have never been in located up in the corner of the end zone where the Vikings come out.

The next step was to go to an elevator and go down to the main level and make our way to the Vikings locker room. We were given a chance to get as many pictures as we wanted in front of the player’s locker. All lockers had the name tags on from last season. The draft choices are not up yet. My wife and I got our picture in front of Adrian’s locker. What an awesome feeling to see where our favorite team gets ready before the big games.

We made our way down the tunnel to the Vikings ship that was inflated. We were given a small square piece of the roof that collapsed in 2010 as a keepsake and then we could make our way through the ship if we wanted to. The tour was over.

The day was considered a family day so it was good to see so many smiling kids’ faces as they had opportunities to climb the rock wall or throw a football.

The voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen was there as well hosting a show from 10-1 with Paul Charchian. They had guests that included Harrison Smith and Chris Kluwe. They were giving Kluwe a little razzing about the possibility of the team drafting a punter. Kluwe had said he understands it is a business. The weird thing was about an hour later after the interview the Vikings took a punter in the 5^th round.

It was family day and with that Paul Allen conducted kids only question and answer session for 15-20 minutes with current players, Fred Evans and Larry Dean. The show was wonderful and the players did a fabulous job of handling the kids questions It was neat to just sit there and see these young kids get behind a microphone and not be shy.

I am not sure what the attendance of this event was but the total between Thursday and Saturday was figured to be around 9000 fans.

It was a great 2 days and I am a little sad it is over. It is just great to be with other fans and discussing the upcoming season.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick