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We have all of the finalized dates and times for the Minnesota Vikings' 2016 preseason schedule, as well as what it means for the start of this year's Training Camp.
The team's preseason opener will take place on Friday, 12 August, when they travel to the home of WKRP to take on Mike Zimmer's former team, the Cincinnati Bengals. The kickoff time for that game is set for 6:30 PM Central time.
The Vikings will then get a bit of a short week before their second preseason game, which sees them hit the West Coast to battle the Seattle Seahawks. That game will take place on Thursday, 18 August with a kickoff time of 9:00 PM Central.
We then get to go ten full days without a Vikings' preseason game, but the reward for the slightly longer wait will be a featured spot to show off the first Vikings game at the new U.S. Bank Stadium. The game will be between the Vikings and the San Diego Chargers, and the date will be Sunday, 28 August. The game will be featured on FOX, and the kickoff is set for the traditional regular season kickoff time of noon Central.
Minnesota will then finish off their preseason slate with a second consecutive home game, this one coming on Thursday, 1 September against the Los Angeles Rams. Kickoff for that game is set for 7:00 PM Central.
Since we now know the date of the Vikings' first preseason game, we can safely speculate about the start of Training Camp in Mankato. By NFL rules, the earliest that teams can start their Training Camp is 15 days before the preseason opener. Checking the calendar, that would put the Vikings at around Thursday, 28 July. I'm not 100% sure about if that's when teams can have their players report to camp or when they can hold their first practice. So, for now, we'll just say that the players will be reporting to camp on either 27 or 28 July, with their first practice taking place on either 28 or 29 July.
As always, when the Vikings announce their finalized Training Camp schedule, we will have all of the information you need right here.