The Vikings have not made an announcement about whether there will be fans at U.S. Bank Stadium when the Vikings host the Packers in Week One, but head coach Mike Zimmer hinted about what that announcement will be when it comes.
Zimmer said Friday that “it looks like we’re not going to have any fans in there early” and said that “really stinks” because of how involved the team’s fans get during games. Crowd sizes in Minnesota are limited to 250 people at the moment and Zimmer said it didn’t make sense to open the building to that number of people.
Other places have less stringent rules governing crowd sizes and Zimmer took issue with the lack of uniformity when it comes to having people in the stands for games.
“I think there are some unfair things going on around it as far as some teams can have fans and some teams can’t,” Zimmer said, via Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “So I think there is a competitive disadvantage in some of those areas.”
Zimmer said the team will scrimmage at the stadium next Friday with “the scoreboard going and the lights and all the stuff, and the crowd noise that they’ll hear during the game” so that players are used to it before facing the Packers.