UW recap and thoughts on our gameday/department (long)....
A few observations and thoughts from an alum and longtime season-ticketholder.
In the stadium: This was my 5th Madison trip and once again I was very impressed with their crowd. Not as energetic as previous visits, but still into it. Everyone was in red, from little kids to the old bluehairs. The student section was about 40% full at kick-off, full by half and I thought was around 40% full at game end. Varsity was neat and it was nice to see more fans than the students singing their alma mater. 5th quarter was nice, but I think it's overrated generally. Fans around us in the lower deck were by far more friendly and courteous than they have been in my previous 4 trips to the Camp. Not a fan of the video board's and the fact that no scoreboard graces the UW Field House any longer, but it is still an impressive facility. I've spent some time in formerly communist East Berlin and can attest to some similarity in the design of the Camp and that city but it is still a great place to see a game. Concessions were not great, but considering I hadn't done much other than drink in the previous 24 hours, even a crappy brat was pretty good. Bathroom lines were not horrible, but nowhere as smooth as at the Bank. Access to the facility was seamless, no Q & A with security, no pat downs, just a well run machine. My kudos to their staff for a well done gameday there. The announcer was annoying, our guy is great by comparison. Their PA guy sounded like the announcer for our band show at the half, way to happy. They don't get blasted with PA advertising like we do, but they do get hit plenty hard there. Jump Around was not the same as it was in my last visit there in 2002. It was pretty much students only and the song was truncated to make room for above referenced PA advertising. Too bad.
Around the Stadium: Once again, everyone in red. Great mix of families, students, alums and seniors. We encountered no problems at the Stadium Bar across the road. Beer garden there was lots of fun, the drinks were strong and there was plenty of mingling of gold with red. The beer garden there is only open for football games according to the owner who we chatted up at the outside bar. The dance deals with the Bud Light girls and Bacardi girls on the elevated DJ stage behind the bar was a nice bonus. Kudos to the owner, he knows how to hire... our bartender was as attractive as she was effective behind the bar. The drums passing through to play a quick show was excellent. Post game outside, no issues there either- a few idiots flipping us off from the safety of their bus, but otherwise no biggie. The University could learn a few things from UW's gameday atmosphere around the stadium. Lots of house parties, people enjoying themselves. Police were around, but they were not stopping by bars and tailgates looking for things to crack down on. Well done.
Friday night Madison: Cabs were pretty easy to get and there was plenty of attractive talent walking around. While the "U" gets a bad ranking compared to UW for the party scene, I think Friday night in Dinkytown is just as fun.
Sota Social: Brew and Maturi seem tired. Two guys who seem to know they are on the way out and are just hoping to ride out the season with whatever pride and energy they can muster. I shook hands with Brew and wished him luck and he didn't seem to have the same intensity or desire to engage that I've seen in the limited times I've greeted him in the past. The overall mood was more downcast, although that may have had something to do with the sectioned off nature of the party room/restaurant. Not a lot of enthusiasm there. To me that was troubling for the program. We need a more energized and motivated base and if that isn't the die hards or donors, we are in real trouble.
Bottom Line: UW puts on a great gameday, my hat is tipped to them. I love to beat them more than any other opponent, but they do things right on gameday, we could learn plenty from them. Our stadium is light years nicer though, so we got that going for us. Their home fans are much better than their visiting crew in Minneapolis. Not sure if its the fact that for many of their fans that live in MSP that it is their one chance to cheer the Badgers every two years so they cut loose on the booze and A-Hole quotient or if their larger numbers here embolden them, but I find their fans in Madison much classier and fun to be around.
Side notes: I am not an insider, but have had the occasional good fortune to speak to some people who are. One thing I find interesting is that many of them speak of the frustration that they encounter on making our gameday atmosphere better. Spoke with one of them regarding the UW drum deal at the bar across the road and was flatly told, "we would never allow that at Minnesota." Was told that the internal fight to eliminate pat downs was extremely difficult and that most of the internal staff felt that we had the tightest entry security in the country, including pro venues, but that the central admin doesn't care what the fans think. To me, this again speaks to the difficulties we face in building a winning program that can maintain gameday and attendance success through the inevitable down cycles we face (like the current 50 year famine). As we left I felt a great appreciation for the rank and file AD staff who work hard and want to do the right thing for our gameday against extremely hostile opposition within central administration and the faculty. As we look to replace our President next year (hopefully our AD and Coach sooner), I really think we need a strong executive who is willing to openly challenge the central admin and faculty ala Donna Shalala at UW in the late 80's, early 90's. Someone needs to set them straight that the athletic department and football in particular are the front window of a school. Schools like UW, Michigan, Ohio State and Florida have shown that a school can maintain academics and athletics successfully together, it is NOT a zero sum game. OSU and Florida especially should show you how you can use athletics to raise the funds that allow you raise your academic programs as well. Both of these schools have raised that academic profile significantly (surpassing us I might add in several rankings) over the past 10 years. I also have come to the opinion that we need an "M" man running the show as AD at least. We need someone who has the passion and conviction to build off the good things Maturi has done (stadium, merging athletic departments, balancing budgets) and take things to a new level. This will take a personality that doesn't fear confrontation and will take a strong hand. If I were king for a day- that would mean cutting several programs, firing underperforming coaches and retasking my resources to potential profit generating programs. All very elementary stuff. The problem at Minnesota is that it will take an executive of tremendous
strength to do these things while battling the opponents of the athletic program. In the meantime, I hope everyone continues to support our players by showing up and cheering on what promise to be some very challenging Saturday's ahead. I am very concerned about our future, IMO the answer is not as simple as hiring the right football coach. Lots of hurdles and we need a strong President, AD and Coach to get beyond them. Sorry for the length, I have some more thoughts but I'll let it go here. Ski-U-MAH!
