Vikings players get a peek at their home away from Dome

Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen played high school football at Detroit Lakes and college football at Minnesota State Mankato. Like many football players growing up in this state, he thought the Metrodome was pretty cool.

That is, until he saw U.S. Bank Stadium. Thielen and several Vikings teammates got their first look at the recently completed football palace Thursday, and their reviews were as expected.

"This blows [the Dome] out of the water," Thielen said. "I've played in a lot of stadiums, but standing on field level … I've never seen anything like this. When they first said it was going to be built, I was just hoping I would make it to this point so I could actually see it and play in it."

Indeed, everything from the locker rooms to the video boards to the concourses have been upgraded. Though the Vikings haven't played at the Dome since 2013, anyone who got used to a certain lived-in feel there will have a transition period at the new place.

New Vikings offensive guard Alex Boone went through a similar change in San Francisco, going from the older Candlestick Park to Levi's Stadium in 2014.

"We were used to Candlestick. That was the place. You were always guaranteed to see at least one fight, it was going to go down," Boone said. "Then all the sudden, you move into Levi's and you see people drinking wine and eating cheese and it's kind of like, 'How are we going to make this home?' But you just put your stamp on it."

Every player queried Thursday mentioned the natural light coming through the transparent roof at U.S. Bank Stadium as a standout element.

It feels like the outdoors, but inside it will always be 70 degrees with no wind. Not every player likes that, but Sullivan made a case for it.

"If you feel like you're going to be one of the best teams in the NFL … let's take the potential harsh weather that tends to equalize things and take that out of the equation and get rid of that variable and just let football happen on the field," Sullivan said.

The Vikings will get their first chance in a real game Sept. 18, when they face the Packers on "Sunday Night Football." Boone said it's a game that could "set the tone for the whole year," while Sullivan said having that as the regular-season home opener is "amazing."

It will shine a certain spotlight on Minnesota — and Boone says that's just fine.

"People say, 'I'd rather go under the radar and show up at the end of the year,' " Boone said. "Why? You want everybody to know who you are right away. You want to be proud of that. You want to go into a game knowing what you can do. So I think for the expectation level, it just means we have to achieve it."