Claim: The Minnesota Vikings is a football team.

The Minnesota Vikings are an American football team based in Minneapolis , Minnesota . The Vikings joined the National Football League -LRB- NFL -RRB- as an expansion team in 1960 , and first took the field for the 1961 season . The team competes in the National Football Conference -LRB- NFC -RRB- North division ; before that , the Vikings were in the NFC Central , and before that they were in the NFL 's Western Conference Central Division . The team has played in four Super Bowl games , but lost each one . The team plays its home games at U.S. Bank Stadium in the Downtown East section of Minneapolis .