Claeys said he is open to the Gophers playing a game in the Vikings’ new home

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MNGoldenGophers1 said:
I'd felt a lot better if it had been a donation.
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I'd feel a lot better if I felt like the stadium was actually an improvement. Sure the screens bigger and it has some windows which are nice... but if half of the experience is ruined by the concourses, foods lines, and bathroom lines not sure why people would continue to pay to go when they could just watch at home.
 

bottlebass said:
I'd feel a lot better if I felt like the stadium was actually an improvement. Sure the screens bigger and it has some windows which are nice... but if half of the experience is ruined by the concourses, foods lines, and bathroom lines not sure why people would continue to pay to go when they could just watch at home.
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I'll give it a little more time I remember TCF being a **** show opening night too. Concessions were awful, but that will get adjusted with time as they figure out inventory. Hopefully food quality is better too. heard the bathrooms were a **** show, but I thought concourses were wider than the old dome, but what made the dome unique was you could exit on the upper deck, at Ziggy world with everyone leaving in the same spot that's not the case. The sight lines were better, it'll be great for vikes games and for March Madness about as good as it can get for hoops in a dome. The skyline view was good, seats were cheap somebody broke there's off in my section on Wednesday and was holding up like a $5 bits of broken chair trophy
 

bemidjigopher said:
I'll give it a little more time I remember TCF being a **** show opening night too. Concessions were awful, but that will get adjusted with time as they figure out inventory. Hopefully food quality is better too. heard the bathrooms were a **** show, but I thought concourses were wider than the old dome, but what made the dome unique was you could exit on the upper deck, at Ziggy world with everyone leaving in the same spot that's not the case. The sight lines were better, it'll be great for vikes games and for March Madness about as good as it can get for hoops in a dome. The skyline view was good, seats were cheap somebody broke there's off in my section on Wednesday and was holding up like a $5 bits of broken chair trophy
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I was there Wednesday and can't believe how cheap the seats were. I kept waiting for mine to break. They are also smaller than TCF Bank Stadium's seats.

They run into the same concourse issues TCF does. Yes, they are twice as wide, but there are twice as many people because there is only one main concourse. Add to that you basically have the same number of vendors you'd have in a typical Dome concourse, all the lines are bound to be longer.

I was pretty disappointed overall. I got Club Level tickets, and I expected nicer seats, a dedicated concourse w/ dedicated vendors, etc. (you know, like every other stadium I've been to that has a Club Level) Nope, it's basically just a glorified upper level. You have to use the main concourse, the seats are identical, etc. So what did we pay for????

The worst is there is a major choke point in the concourse to the left of the main entrance you come in from the light rail. You could see it from a mile away when you were in your seats (unless that was behind you). I don't know how they will ever improve that. The concourse narrows to something like the Dome width for a stretch. It was backed up even during the game!

I had no issue with hitting the biffy (never had a line when I went), but getting to and from was rough. Getting a beer was beyond painful, and the selection outside of one booth on the opposite end of the stadium was awful. The bar to the right of the light rail entry was manned by some of the most incompetent people I've ever seen. Wow. No sense of urgency, no knowledge of pricing, just unbelievable.

I'm sure the food and the beer will be figured out eventually. But those seats are a joke and I don't see how they can improve flow. They made very poor choices with the designs. It's like they never talked to the folks at the U to see what they would change about the Bank.

Oh, and the names of the gates? Victory, Legacy, are you kidding me??? How do I know where Legacy is relative to Victory? Dumb.

So far it does not compare favorably to TCF Bank Stadium, let alone the top NFL stadiums like AT&T Stadium to which it doesn't even compare. Not even remotely close. I would definitely prefer to watch a game in TCF Bank Stadium. At least I wouldn't feel like my seat was going to collapse at any moment.
 

Didn't go to the game, but did get in for the open house. Couldn't believe the manual flush urinals and push button faucets with just a few paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms. There was just 4-5 people in the whole bathroom and there was a line for paper towels!


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This is reminiscent of when the dome opened. Do not be fooled by this plastic thing called US Bank. We have a great college stadium on campus and there is no need to go to US Bank unless we are in the post season and Zyggi is able to land a game there.
 

Criteria #1 is the ability to sell 65,000 seats guaranteed.

Choices are Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Notre Dame, and maybe Oklahoma or BYU? it has to be the right time of year, not against the state fair, turn on the local fans, visiting team with a travelling fan base, good chance to win for the Gophers, ...

Not a slam dunk unless it's one of the conference opponents. Would the extra 15,000 seats pay for the fixed costs of one less game at TCF that you'd need to absorb?
 

Schedule Gophers vs Wisconsin there in a year when Wisconsin is the home team. A lot of the extra seats will be their fans anyway. Then we don't lose the home game.
 




They would sell 65,000 seats against NDSU

badgergopher said:
Criteria #1 is the ability to sell 65,000 seats guaranteed.

Choices are Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Notre Dame, and maybe Oklahoma or BYU? it has to be the right time of year, not against the state fair, turn on the local fans, visiting team with a travelling fan base, good chance to win for the Gophers, ...

Not a slam dunk unless it's one of the conference opponents. Would the extra 15,000 seats pay for the fixed costs of one less game at TCF that you'd need to absorb?
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Cripes against NDSU in the crummy Metrodome those were 60,000 plus person crowds. Would take NDSU going division 1 FBS for us to be able to play them again. I said it I want to play NDSU at the US bank stadium, and see the Gophers spank those turds. When were finally getting our better teams, we cannot play the Bison-turds. Would like to see the Gophers put a beating on them and see them limp back to Fargo with there Gameday signs up their behinds!
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
Cripes against NDSU in the crummy Metrodome those were 60,000 plus person crowds. Would take NDSU going division 1 FBS for us to be able to play them again. I said it I want to play NDSU at the US bank stadium, and see the Gophers spank those turds. When were finally getting our better teams, we cannot play the Bison-turds. Would like to see the Gophers put a beating on them and see them limp back to Fargo with there Gameday signs up their behinds!
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Yea, no desire to play NDSU. They are beneath us now, nothing to gain by lining up against them.

Maybe if they decided to go FBS we could schedule them again, but I'm not holding my breath for that.
 

Alabama @ Minnesota September 14th, 2019 at US Bank Stadium. Book it.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
Cripes against NDSU in the crummy Metrodome those were 60,000 plus person crowds. Would take NDSU going division 1 FBS for us to be able to play them again. I said it I want to play NDSU at the US bank stadium, and see the Gophers spank those turds. When were finally getting our better teams, we cannot play the Bison-turds. Would like to see the Gophers put a beating on them and see them limp back to Fargo with there Gameday signs up their behinds!
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I'd like to see it but I don't think it would happen, even without the rule. There's little upside for the Gophers. I also think they're a good team and while I think the Gophers would win, there'd be a 1 in ten chance of whipping them like all Gopher fans fantasize about.

No reason NDSU couldn't schedule someone else there. They can't do home & home with big time teams, but maybe they could do USB and home if they guaranteed enough gate for the opponent. I would be displeased if this happened.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Alabama @ Minnesota September 14th, 2019 at US Bank Stadium. Book it.
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Not a chance. I'd much rather play them outside at TCF, in November. They can schedule it in place of Alabama's lst season cream puff game.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Not a chance. I'd much rather play them outside at TCF, in November. They can schedule it in place of Alabama's lst season cream puff game.
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I can tell you with 100% confidence that this will never happen. Notre Dame usually plays at USC late in the season but USC will only play at Notre Dame earlier.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I can tell you with 100% confidence that this will never happen. Notre Dame usually plays at USC late in the season but USC will only play at Notre Dame earlier.
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Exactly. I was joking about Alabama. But there is a hole in the schedule September 14th/21st, 2019.

If they were going to play a non-conference game against a helmet school at US Bank in the next 4 years, it would fit well in that time period. The Gophers avoid Michigan, Michigan St, and Ohio St. that year, and have South Dakota St already on the non-conference schedule. Our very good incoming recruiting class will also be upperclassmen. So if it happens, I'll bet on it being then.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I can tell you with 100% confidence that this will never happen. Notre Dame usually plays at USC late in the season but USC will only play at Notre Dame earlier.
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That was partly my point...they won't. None of those SEC teams will play up here late in the season. Think it's worth asking and making public though, to let them make excuses. Too bad, because it would probably put pretty big dent in the SEC superiority mystique.
 

I visited the U.S. Bank stadium yesterday as part of an open house for USB employees. I share a lot of thoughts regarding what I've read so far. The concourses are smaller than I expected and largely closed off. Plus the concourses are mostly drab gray concrete like the Dome was. Part of the charm of TCF is that you have no doubt when you walk around that you are in the Gophers stadium. From what I hear about "Jerry's World", every dang thing in that place has a Cowboys star. Walking around USB stadium, other than a few banners here and there, it doesn't scream at you "This is the Vikings home". There aren't as many bathrooms as I thought, they weren't clearly marked and they weren't as big as I thought. I can't imagine the line that will happen on gameday. The seats are extremely cheap. They've only had 1 event there but most of them are already scuffed, stained and wobbly. I can't imagine what will happen after the Metallica concert. Finally, some of the concessions are not spaced well. There is one instance where a concession stand was right at the bottom of where an escalator goes up/down. I can't fathom the cluster that will happen when you have a long concession line coming up against an entrance and exit line from an escalator. Ugh.

Enough criticism. The facility itself is impressive.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
I visited the U.S. Bank stadium yesterday as part of an open house for USB employees. I share a lot of thoughts regarding what I've read so far. The concourses are smaller than I expected and largely closed off. Plus the concourses are mostly drab gray concrete like the Dome was. Part of the charm of TCF is that you have no doubt when you walk around that you are in the Gophers stadium. From what I hear about "Jerry's World", every dang thing in that place has a Cowboys star. Walking around USB stadium, other than a few banners here and there, it doesn't scream at you "This is the Vikings home". There aren't as many bathrooms as I thought, they weren't clearly marked and they weren't as big as I thought. I can't imagine the line that will happen on gameday. The seats are extremely cheap. They've only had 1 event there but most of them are already scuffed, stained and wobbly. I can't imagine what will happen after the Metallica concert. Finally, some of the concessions are not spaced well. There is one instance where a concession stand was right at the bottom of where an escalator goes up/down. I can't fathom the cluster that will happen when you have a long concession line coming up against an entrance and exit line from an escalator. Ugh.

Enough criticism. The facility itself is impressive.
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What do you expect for only $1B? :rolleyes:
 

PMWinSTP said:
That was partly my point...they won't. None of those SEC teams will play up here late in the season. Think it's worth asking and making public though, to let them make excuses. Too bad, because it would probably put pretty big dent in the SEC superiority mystique.
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And you wouldn't find any Big Ten Coach who'd want to subject his team to a Non-Conference game like that during the Conference season. Toward the end of the season no less.
 

Personally I like the Bank. I don't want to pass up an early season out door game for indoor game

but if it were away/away series with neutral location, I could get behind it
 

Iceland12 said:
And you wouldn't find any Big Ten Coach who'd want to subject his team to a Non-Conference game like that during the Conference season. Toward the end of the season no less.
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Oh, I think you'd be surprised at the interest.
 



PMWinSTP said:
Got it...you now agree with me.
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Nope. Unless you'd be surprised how few, if any Big Ten Coaches would want to play a big time opponent with 2-3 games left in the Conference schedule. Then we'd be in agreement.
 

Iceland12 said:
Nope. Unless you'd be surprised how few, if any Big Ten Coaches would want to play a big time opponent with 2-3 games left in the Conference schedule. Then we'd be in agreement.
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I see...you would be surprised.
 

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