ARLINGTON, Texas — A Vikings executive says the Dallas Cowboys have the best stadium in the NFL.

That is, until U.S. Bank Stadium opens next season.

While preparing to build their new stadium, Vikings officials took several close looks at AT&T Stadium, which opened in 2009. That included being given a private tour in 2013 by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.”

“This is the most incredible stadium in the world, until the Vikings stadium,” executive vice president of public affairs and stadium development Lester Bagley said after Minnesota’s 28-14 preseason win over Dallas on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium. “It’s a great stadium, but ours will top it.”

Dallas-based architectural firm HKS designed AT&T Stadium as well as U.S. Bank Stadium. The original construction cost for the Cowboys stadium, which has a retractable roof, was said to be $1.3 billion while the Vikings new indoor stadium is projected to cost $1.06 billion.

AT&T Stadium seats 85,000 and is expandable to 105,000 while U.S. Bank Stadium will seat 65,000 and be expandable to 73,000. Bagley said the Vikings stadium will be 1.8 million square feet compared to about 3.2 million for AT&T Center, but believes that will be advantageous.

“I think it’s going to be more intimate and louder (than AT&T Stadium), with the 40-percent hard roof in our new stadium and the 60-percent, the clear transparent fabric, polymer fabric,” Bagley said. “The engineers tell us it’s more acoustically reflective than the Metrodome (the Vikings’ stadium from 1982-2013), so we think it’s going to be louder.”

AT&T Stadium is known for its massive video board, which weighs 1.2 million pounds, has screens that span 25,670 square feet and hangs over the field. Bagley said the screens at U.S. Bank Stadium will be about two-thirds as large but he believes they will be better positioned, with one over each end zone.

“We like ours in the end zone, so you don’t have to move your head, you can just move your eyes and see,” Bagley said. “You don’t have to look up. It’s lower (than at AT&T), in the end zones, so almost in your natural line of sight.”

Bagley was among a group of Vikings officials, including owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, who got a private tour of AT&T Stadium from Jones before Minnesota first played at the venue, a 27-23 loss on Nov. 3, 2013. Bagley said Jones was “very generous” and he came away impressed how players entered the field on the 50-yard line, the turf suites, the art collection in the stadium and the “use of glass and natural light.”

Vikings officials haven’t finished touring stadiums to get ideas for their new venue. With Minnesota opening the regular-season Sept. 14 at San Francisco, officials will get a good look at how the 49ers handle game days at second-year Levi’s Stadium.

“We’re going to look a little bit at their technology, but we’re always going to look at their game-day experience, game-day activation,” Bagley said. “How you engage your fans on game day. So that’s kind of where we’re focused.”

Follow Chris Tomasson at twitter.com/christomasson.