Some 200 world-class athletes will soar and roar inside U.S. Bank Stadium beginning Wednesday with warm up sessions for the X Games, a four-day competition showcasing adrenalin junkies on skateboards, Moto X and BMX bikes.
The green turf inside of the not-quite-year-old stadium has been supplanted with brown and gray — dirt and concrete to create bowls, ramps and tracks for the athletes to bounce, roll, drop and in the parlance of the event — rip — through.
"This event truly shows U.S. Bank Stadium's versatility, utilizing every space associated with the facility in an unexpected and nontraditional fashion," said Patrick Talty, general manager for SMG, the building's operator.
The stadium will be the first in the NFL to host an extreme sports event, he said, adding that the building and Minnesota will be on a "stage viewed by millions around the world."
The X Games are the first in a series of mega-events for U.S. Bank Stadium that include the Super Bowl on Feb. 4, 2018, followed by the Final Four in 2019. This year, both ABC and ESPN will broadcast more than 18 hours from the X Games.
The X Games are a big draw among millennials, but baby boomers and Gen Xers may see competitors as the spiritual descendants of the late Evel Knievel, who mounted his motorcycle to jump ramp-to-ramp more than 20 years before the first Extreme Games took place in 1995.
Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee CEO Maureen Bausch, who has a view of the stadium's west side from her downtown office, will be eyeing the four-day operation.
"I haven't been over to see it yet, but I'm dying to go because I'm hearing it's really cool," she said.