The Vikings are playing psychological games with the Lions

The Minnesota Vikings are doing everything they can to ensure the Detroit Lions' home-field advantage for Sunday night's massive game is watered down. Minnesota reportedly spent nearly $2 million purchasing 1,900 tickets on the secondary market and selling them to season-ticket holders to ensure more Vikings fans are in attendance.

All of this is legal according to the NFL, who was made aware of the scheme by the Lions. The kicker in the Vikings' plan is the tickets they purchased are all behind Minnesota's bench, which might make communicating on the sidelines easier in the most charged environment of the season in one of the loudest venues in the league.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Front Office Sports (@frontofficesports)

These 1,900 tickets are in addition to the 600 road-team tickets mandated by the league, meaning at least 2,500 Vikings fans will be in attendance for the biggest regular season game of the year.

“Given the uniqueness of this game, we wanted to offer our stakeholders—staff, family, season ticket members and team partners—an opportunity to attend,” said team spokesman Jeff Anderson in a statement to SI.

Sunday night's game between the two NFC North rivals will be the first regular season game featuring two teams with 13 or more wins. The division and home-field advantage are on the line, with the winner clinching the division and the NFC's No. 1 seed while the loser gets the No. 5 seed and has to go on the road next week. If the Lions win, they'll clinch the top spot in the conference for the first time in franchise history, whereas a win by Minnesota will get them the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the first time since 1998.

Kickoff is scheduled for 8:20 at Ford Field and the game will be broadcast on NBC and streaming on Peacock.