Minnesota Vikings to Move Training Camp to Eagan, Minnesota in 2018

July 18, 2017

Contact:
Brent Cory, President & CEO
Eagan Convention & Visitors Bureau
651-675-5544
brent@eaganmn.com

For Immediate Release

Minnesota Vikings to Move Training Camp to Eagan, Minnesota in 2018

Eagan, MN – The Minnesota Vikings announced today the news of moving Vikings Training Camp to Twin Cities Orthopedics (TCO) Performance Center in Eagan beginning in 2018. Kevin Warren, Vikings Chief Operating Officer, shared this via conference call Tuesday morning. TCO Performance Center is slated to open in March of 2018, just in time for the off-season and training camp preparations.

The new headquarters and indoor training facility are being built on 40-acres east of Dodd Road and south of Interstate 494. It will include five outdoor practice fields, a 6,000-seat stadium and an 88,000-square-foot full-service orthopedics center. Outside of the 40-acre campus serving as the Vikings headquarters and practice facility, the additional 160-acres will serve the community through a mixed-use development for residential, retail, restaurant spaces, and hotel/conference center spaces that are expected to transpire over the next several years.

Today’s decision makes this 52nd year the final one on the fields of Blakeslee Stadium at Minnesota State University, Mankato. To commemorate the 52-year run, the Vikings have created an annual scholarship program called the Vikings Lasting Legacy as well as a commemorative poster and training camp “playbook”. There will also be a recognition ceremony and a community thank you event taking place.

“Over the past 52 years we have formed incredible relationships with Minnesota State University, Mankato, the city of Mankato, and the entire community, and those partnerships made this decision difficult,” Vikings COO Kevin Warren said in a statement.

The 2018 Vikings training camp is proposed to be open to the public as previous years, according to Lester Bagley, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, and may last three weeks. More than half of all NFL franchise teams host training camp at their home facilities and the Vikings will now add to that number.

The City of Eagan and the Eagan Convention and Visitors Bureau are pleased with this latest announcement and look forward to 2018.

“We’re thrilled that Eagan will be one of only 32 cities in the country to have the honor of hosting an NFL Training Camp, and our hospitality community plans to roll out the Purple carpet beginning in 2018,” said Brent Cory, President and CEO of the Eagan Convention and Visitors Bureau. Cory also noted that in addition to attending training camp, Vikings fans from the Midwest and beyond will inevitably want to keep coming back to Eagan for the concerts, great dining, shopping and other amazing amenities that will ultimately comprise Viking Lakes.

About the Eagan Convention and Visitors Bureau:
The Eagan CVB is the official marketing organization for the City of Eagan and works to aggressively promote Eagan as a year-round business and leisure travel destination to domestic and international travel markets in an effort to generate a greater economic impact for the community. For more information about the Eagan CVB, please visit eaganmn.com or

call 651-675-5546.

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