Team data shows more than 80% of fans are in their seats 15 minutes before kickoff. The Vikings have encouraged fans to arrive early, partially for entertainment purposes, since U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2016, but the team’s elaborate pregame productions are also geared toward getting fans to be loud right away.
Justin Jefferson, who knows a thing or two about showmanship, sees the benefits of the big show.
“It gets the juices flowing for the fans, you know?” said Jefferson, who paused in the tunnel before he was the last player introduced against the Bears on Dec. 16 so the team’s video crew could get a 360-degree shot of him before running onto the field. “I mean, at the end of the day, it’s a show — giving the fans a show. So the lights, the music, all of that stuff plays a part for those fans to be screaming as loud as we want them to be. As long as we’re giving something for them to cheer about, we’re making those plays, we’re getting those turnovers, they’re always going to be into the game the way we want them to be.”
Harper, in his 21st season with the Vikings, oversees a department that’s grown from six to 46 people, including 35 full-time employees. The Vikings produce all of their pregame show in-house from their sprawling studios on the second floor of the TCO Performance Center.
By the time U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2016, he had 12 years of notes from conversations with industry professionals and fan feedback about what they wanted from a gameday experience. The Vikings’ owners approved an expanded department that pulled in people like Marquette and Kuh (who’d worked for the Twins and Wild) and Pinter, who’d worked at Florida and Texas after finishing a graduate degree.
“Something we’re really proud of is, everything that we’re now producing in stadium, we’re producing in-house,” Kuh said. “You’re not finding that [with most teams].”