#VikingsinUK

That's the hashtag being worn on T-shirts throughout Mankato right now in conjunction with a Meet Minneapolis push to elevate excitement for the Vikings' late-September trip to London play the Steelers. As part of that effort, a London-style red phone booth is present in the Vikings' training camp village in Mankato with fans attending practices allowed to have their picture taken inside. The phone booth will move to downtown Minneapolis next week when the Vikings return to town for their preseason opener with Houston.

But the partnership between Meet Minneapolis and the Vikings has also produced an eye-opening sweepstakes on www.go.minneapolis.org that will send two fans to London to attend the game against the Steelers.

Included in that grand-prize getaway are two Club Level tickets to Wembley Stadium for that game plus two round-trip Delta flights from Minneapolis to London as well as a four-night stay at the Radisson Blue Edwardian and entrance to a pair of NFL parties.

Additional details for the sweepstakes can be found at the Meet Minneapolis web site. And in addition to the grand prize drawing, there will be additional weekly giveaways for Vikings' games in the Twin Cities.

On Thursday, the CEO of Meet Minneapolis, Melvin Tennant, popped through camp to discuss the promotion and noted that the majority of Viking season-ticket holders are from the five-state area of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota.

"That's exactly where we want to draw visitors from," Tennant said. "So our marketing team came up with this promotion that will really allow a lucky winner to get over to the game on Sept. 29 and be treated royally during that whole week."

The grand-prize winner will be announced at the Vikings' final preseason game Aug. 29 against Tennessee at Mall of America Field.

"Can't be a Packers fan," Tennant joked. "Actually I don't know if we're allowed to say that. But we hope."