Norwegian World Cup fans turned Citi Field’s right-field bleachers into a full Viking longship on June 24, flooding the seats in red kits and horned helmets during a Mets-Cubs doubleheader.
The Viking Row celebration – a synchronized clap-and-row sequence rooted in Scandinavian supporter culture – took over the bleachers while a sparse matinee crowd looked on in genuine confusion and delight.
Mr. and Mrs. Met even got involved, which is exactly the kind of cross-cultural chaos New York was built to produce.
How Norwegian Fans Turned Citi Field Into Their Own Turf
The bleachers were effectively painted red before first pitch, with Norway supporters launching a conga-style dance line before transitioning into the full longship formation that’s been going viral at venues across the United States this summer.
MLB.com ran a feature flagging the center-field takeover, noting that fans were adapting Let’s Go Mets chants into Norwegian while still actively learning baseball’s rules.
Then came the moment that made the broadcast genuinely unforgettable.
Dansby Swanson hit a game-changing three-run homer for the Cubs, and the camera immediately panned to the right-field stands – where Norwegian fans were mid-Viking Row, rowing ecstatically at a Mets home game.
The comedic timing was immaculate and completely unintentional.
The Mets lost 10-3, extending a four-game skid. The Norwegians stayed loud the entire time. Full stop.
Norway’s World Cup Run Has Brought a Viking Army to New York
Norway clinched progression to the knockout stage with group-stage wins over Iraq and Senegal – their first knockout-round appearance since 1998 – which explains the size and energy of the traveling support flooding into the New York area.
The stakes are real, and the fans are acting accordingly.
This is part of a broader pattern the 2026 FIFA World Cup has produced across the country.
Scotland’s Tartan Army created the best atmosphere at Marlins Park since the World Baseball Classic after an earlier stop at Fenway Park that had national broadcasters openly marveling at the noise.
OutKick’s Ian Miller called it “a tremendous success,” with much of the credit going to American hospitality – and that framing holds up at Citi Field just as cleanly as it does anywhere else.
New York was always going to absorb global soccer culture differently than any other host city, and the bleachers at Citi Field on June 24 proved exactly that.
The Internet Responded Exactly as Expected – Then Some
The SNY broadcast team and the Mets’ social channels had already been actively inviting Norwegian supporters to bring the Viking Row to Citi Field, which helped amplify the clip the moment it hit.
The Swanson homer cutaway became the defining image – soccer fans celebrating a Cubs home run inside a Mets stadium during a World Cup summer is the kind of sentence that writes itself into a highlight reel.
It fits neatly alongside other viral New York sports moments from this stretch, including Jazz Chisholm’s Blow Pop moment on the YES Network – proof that New York stadiums are producing shareable content at an unusual rate this summer.
The World Cup has given the city an extra layer of electricity that’s showing up in unexpected places.
Norway faces France in New England in their next high-stakes match, and the traveling Viking support is already expected to stage another large-scale activation in the region.
Keep an eye out on NYSD for further updates on the Norwegian World Cup run and the ongoing fan takeovers at New York-area venues as the knockout rounds develop.
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