Coach Mike Zimmer and the Vikings better dust off their passports.
The NFL announced Tuesday that the Vikings will be heading back to London next season to play a regular-season game against the Cleveland Browns. It will be one of four NFL games played in England next year.
The game, the Vikings' second across the pond, will take place at London's Twickenham Stadium in Week 7 or Week 8. The exact date and time will be announced along with the rest of the team's schedule this spring.
"We are honored to once again represent the NFL on a global level and help grow the game of football," Vikings owner/President Mark Wilf said in a statement. "This is a unique opportunity to continue highlighting the Vikings brand on an international stage and to give our fans around the world another opportunity to see their favorite team up close."
The Vikings will be the road team, so they won't lose a home game.
This will be the second time the Vikings play in London. In 2013, they beat Pittsburgh 34-27 in front of 83,518 fans at Wembley Stadium. Matt Cassel made his first Vikings start in that game, passing for 248 yards and two touchdowns before they held off a late Steelers rally.
The Vikings also have played — and won — four international preseason games, including one in London in 1983. Their others were in Sweden, Germany and Japan.
Since the NFL began playing regular-season games in London in 2007, 23 teams have played 17 total games in the United Kingdom. The fan base there now includes more than 13 million people, according to the NFL.
Before this season, all of the London games had been played at Wembley Stadium. This year, the New York Giants beat the Los Angeles Rams at Twickenham Stadium, which will be the site of two games in 2017.
Twickenham Stadium, the home of the English rugby union team, has a capacity of 82,000.
The other three 2017 matchups in London will be Baltimore vs. Jacksonville, New Orleans vs. Miami, and Arizona vs. Los Angeles.
