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Minnesota Vikings: U.S. Bank Stadium could be louder than Metrodome

By Dan Zinski

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A big part of the Minnesota Vikings’ home field advantage at the old Metrodome was the intimidating level of crowd noise generated inside the tiny enclosed space (a level of noise that some allege was artificially amplified).

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Since the Vikings moved out of the Dome they haven’t enjoyed that noise-related advantage. But next year when they move into their new home at U.S. Bank Stadium, the roar of the crowd rising to unnerve the opposition should once again be a factor.

If you believe the Vikings, that crowd noise factor could be greater at U.S. Bank than it was even at the Metrodome.

Though the interior of U.S. Bank will be much more spacious than the Metrodome, the composition of the roof could allow for the crowd noise to reach even higher volumes than in the now-obliterated facility it’s being built to replace.

The roof of the new stadium is made of a substance called ETFE, a space-age compound that allows light to come through while still providing the structural strength necessary to stand up to harsh winter conditions.

And incidentally, this ETFE stuff apparently absorbs less sound than Teflon, the substance used in the Metrodome roof (via mprnews.org):

"ETFE is considered more acoustically reflective than Teflon, so this place could be even louder than the Metrodome.“We may not know ultimately until our first game, but we believe and have been advised that this building will be loud and bring that home-field advantage we want,” [Vikings exec Lester] Bagley said."

The loudness war in NFL stadiums has become a real thing thanks to places like Seattle and Kansas City where the fans compete to see who can reach the highest decibel values.

If these reports on the noise-reflecting properties of the U.S. Bank Stadium roof are accurate, then the Vikings might soon have both Seattle and Kansas City beat when it comes to breaking eardrums.

Whether that advantage ultimately translates into wins is another question altogether. The Vikings certainly got some help from the crowd back in the Dome, but in all those years they still never managed to ride those sound waves into the Super Bowl.

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