40 Fun Facts About U.S. Bank Stadium

Which Minneapolis-born star was in talks to play U.S. Bank Stadium's first concert before his death in April 2016?

Prince was in early talks to open the stadium he never saw finished. A lifelong Vikings fan, he wrote the team a fight song, Purple and Gold, in 2010.

Conservation groups say the reflective glass walls of U.S. Bank Stadium have killed large numbers of which animals?

Migrating birds strike the glass because the stadium sits on a major flyway. Groups had asked for less reflective bird-safe glass, and the designers declined for the sake of looks.

What made the Metrodome's roof deflate in December 2010, reviving the push that led to U.S. Bank Stadium?

A heavy snowstorm piled 17 inches on the roof until three panels tore open. TV cameras left running overnight filmed the snow pouring onto the field.

Which team won its first Super Bowl title at U.S. Bank Stadium in February 2018 as an underdog?

The Philadelphia Eagles won 41–33 behind a backup quarterback, ending a championship drought that had lasted since 1960.

Which singer headlined the Super Bowl halftime show at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2018, joined by a local marching band?

Justin Timberlake shared the stage with the University of Minnesota Marching Band. It was his third Super Bowl halftime appearance.

Minnesota's governor named August 31, 2018 after which pop star, marking her two nights at U.S. Bank Stadium?

Taylor Swift Day honored her two sold-out Reputation tour shows, which together drew nearly 99,000 fans to the stadium.

Which Vikings receiver scored the last-play touchdown known as the Minneapolis Miracle at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2018?

Stefon Diggs caught a 27-yard pass, stayed upright when a defender missed the tackle and ran in for 61 yards. No NFL playoff game had ever ended on a touchdown as time expired.

Long before U.S. Bank Stadium, the Vikings played at Metropolitan Stadium, whose site now holds which landmark?

Mall of America opened there in 1992. A brass home plate set in the floor of its amusement park marks where the old ballpark's plate sat.

The Skol chant heard at U.S. Bank Stadium was adapted from a clap made famous by which nation's soccer fans?

Iceland's supporters made the slow overhead clap famous at Euro 2016. Vikings fans took it up the same year, shouting skol in place of the original grunt.

Through renewable energy credits, which source covered all of U.S. Bank Stadium's electricity for its first five years?

Wind power met 100 percent of the stadium's needs on paper. The building is also lit entirely by LEDs, field lights included.

The Metrodome, which stood where U.S. Bank Stadium is now, was named for which vice president from Minnesota?

Hubert Humphrey, once the mayor of Minneapolis, died in 1978, the year before construction began, and the dome was named in his memory.

U.S. Bank Stadium's predecessor is the only venue to host a Super Bowl, Final Four, MLB All-Star Game and which event?

World Series games were played under the Metrodome's fabric roof in 1987 and 1991, when crowd noise was measured close to the threshold of pain.

Which team did the Vikings beat 17–14 in their first regular-season game at U.S. Bank Stadium, in September 2016?

The Green Bay Packers lost 17–14 on September 18, 2016. Three weeks earlier the Vikings had won a preseason game there, the stadium's first NFL game of any kind.

Which team lost the first playoff game at U.S. Bank Stadium on a 61-yard touchdown as time expired?

The New Orleans Saints had erased a 17–0 deficit to lead 24–23 with 25 seconds left, then lost on the final snap.

In July 2017 U.S. Bank Stadium became the first NFL stadium to host which summer action sports event?

X Games Minneapolis was also the first summer edition held in the Midwest, and the stadium kept the event for three straight years.

Which school won its first men's basketball national title at the 2019 Final Four in U.S. Bank Stadium?

Virginia beat Texas Tech in overtime, one year after becoming the first top seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed.

Which backup quarterback caught a touchdown pass on a trick play in the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium?

Nick Foles became the first player to both throw and catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl, and was named the game's most valuable player.

Which quarterback threw for a record 505 yards in the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium and still lost?

Tom Brady broke his own Super Bowl passing record that night, and his offense never punted once in the defeat.

Which country singer played the first concert at U.S. Bank Stadium, a sold-out show in August 2016?

Luke Bryan opened the stadium's concert life on August 19, 2016, one night before a heavy metal show filled it again.

Which heavy metal band played U.S. Bank Stadium on its opening weekend in 2016 and returned for two nights in 2024?

Metallica's two 2024 nights drew more than 107,000 fans combined, with a different pair of support bands each night.

Which band's 2017 U.S. Bank Stadium show reunited Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan in Minnesota after 25 years?

Guns N' Roses sold all 48,740 tickets that night on the Not in This Lifetime tour, with Deftones as the opening act.

Which object from Norse mythology gives its name to a pregame ritual at Vikings games in U.S. Bank Stadium?

Gjallarhorn is the horn the god Heimdall blows to announce Ragnarök. The Vikings' own horn cracked in two in below-zero cold before a January 2016 playoff game.

Which English club faced AC Milan in the first event ever held at U.S. Bank Stadium, a 2016 soccer friendly?

Chelsea and Milan met in the International Champions Cup two weeks after a public open house drew 190,000 curious Minnesotans.

Which WWE event ran for two nights at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2026, the company's first stadium show in Minneapolis?

SummerSlam returned to Minneapolis for the first time since 1999, when it was held indoors at the Target Center.

Which rapper headlined the halftime show when the Vikings hosted a Christmas Day game at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2025?

Snoop Dogg shared the bill with Martha Stewart, Lainey Wilson, and the tenor Andrea Bocelli with his son Matteo.

The 2018 Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium was billed as the first in the game's history to be what?

Zero waste meant 91 percent of game-day trash, more than 69 tons, was recycled, composted, reused or donated.

U.S. Bank Stadium was the NFL's first new fixed-roof stadium since which venue opened in 2002?

Ford Field once stood in for the Vikings' own home, taking a relocated game in December 2010 while the Metrodome was out of action.

Which club won an MLS expansion place in 2015 over a rival bid to put a team in U.S. Bank Stadium?

Minnesota United won because MLS preferred its plan for a smaller outdoor ground, which became Allianz Field in Saint Paul.

Which New Jersey real estate billionaire, the Vikings' principal owner since 2005, pushed to build U.S. Bank Stadium?

Zygi Wilf wanted an open-air stadium, but the state and city would only fund an indoor one able to host events like the Final Four.

Which Minnesota governor signed the 2012 bill that funded U.S. Bank Stadium after years of failed proposals?

Mark Dayton backed the downtown site over a suburban rival plan, and his deal split the cost between the team, the state and the city.

Which charitable gambling game was meant to cover Minnesota's share of U.S. Bank Stadium but fell far short at first?

Electronic pulltabs were forecast to raise $34 million in their first year. That estimate was cut by 95 percent, and lawmakers plugged the gap with a cigarette tax.

A rival 2011 plan put the future U.S. Bank Stadium on a former Army ammunition plant in which Twin Cities suburb?

Arden Hills lies about ten miles from downtown, and the site was a polluted Superfund cleanup zone. The plan was left at least $131 million short of its cost.

Which Dallas architecture firm, designer of the Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, also designed U.S. Bank Stadium?

HKS beat four rival bidders in 2012 and gave the building a steep, angular roof inspired by traditional Nordic architecture.

Which lightweight material forms the see-through 60 percent of U.S. Bank Stadium's roof?

ETFE plastic film is a resin extruded into thin transparent sheets, which the roof holds in layered, air-filled cushions.

What can five giant glass panels in the wall of U.S. Bank Stadium, each 75 to 95 feet tall, do?

They swing open as doors, billed as the five largest pivoting glass doors in the world. Hydraulic drives push each one to open the stadium toward the downtown skyline.

The 160-foot sculpture outside U.S. Bank Stadium, paved with fans' engraved bricks, takes what shape?

A Viking ship called the Legacy Ship anchors the plaza. Its sail is a curved video board 55 feet tall, and more than 14,000 fans bought bricks for its deck.

Which team was first to do what the 2017 Vikings narrowly missed at U.S. Bank Stadium: play a Super Bowl at home?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers did it three years later. No team had before, and the Vikings fell one win short, losing the conference title game 38–7.

Which school won the first college football game played at U.S. Bank Stadium, beating Eastern Washington in 2023?

North Dakota State won 35–10 before 22,546 fans. A 2020 game between two Minnesota colleges would have come first, but the pandemic cancelled it.

Which college team plays early-season baseball indoors at U.S. Bank Stadium before moving to its campus field in April?

The Minnesota Gophers play up to 15 home games a year there. Their stadium debut in 2017 was pushed back when converting the floor from a Supercross race ran long.

Which pop star sang the national anthem before the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium while ill with the flu?

Pink sang it with flu symptoms, moments after cameras caught her spitting out a throat lozenge that many viewers took for gum.