The Vikings say goodbye to training camp Thursday and host their first pre-season game Friday. Mankato has been the pre-season home to the Vikings for 44 years.
Tiffany Moe says, "It gets to be long living in the dorms and you know it's not ideal for anyone but they make it work, but I'm sure they are ready to get out of there as much as we are."
But luckily the hard part is behind them.
Shane Bowyer says, "The hardest part is the setup and the coordination of that and getting everything in place.
The teardown goes relatively fast we can do that in about a day and a half."Part of those helping hands include around 25 sport management interns from various colleges across the Midwest."
U of M student Adam Dawson says, "Growing up admiring the Vikings and finally getting to work for them is just a huge opportunity."
With the large turnout of fans and the pleasant weather, organizers say overall it was a great camp.
Shane Bowyer says, "The crowd seemed to be pretty steady with the autograph sessions in the morning and the full pads in the afternoon it really spread the crowds out which was nice and the weather was great, it wasn't too hot and only one day of rain and other than that it was a great camp."
Another successful training camp in the books, and high hopes for the future.
Dawson says, "We always want to make sure that it's a good experience for everyone here so they can come back."
The Vikes will be back in action Friday at Mall of America Field taking on the Buffalo Bills at 7 p.m.
