Dan Barreiro, Paul Allen, Matt Thomas and Joe Schmit Comment on TCF Bank Stadium

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In our seemingly never-ending effort to deliver to you Gophers/TCF Bank Stadium coverage that is second to none, we elicited help from some of the foremost media authorities in town. OK, we got who we could. Below is analysis from local media members about the impact of TCF Bank Stadium from their perspective, and ideas on how long the stadium honeymoon will last.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1051
 

What an uplifting group of comments. "Off the beaten path" I don't think Ann Arbor, Columbus, Lincoln, Iowa City, etc. are on any larger path than MSP. The only issue is having a recent history of winning. If Minnesota can increase the amount of wins they will be noticed just like any other school in any other location. It has nothing to do with the physical location of a program.
 

Thanks for nothing, Doogster. Most of us couldn't care less about what the local sports media thinks about the new stadium. We all could have predicted that Barreiro and PA would make some half-hearted comments about how great the new Brickhouse is, and then take the opportunity to tell us something that everyone in GopherHole already knows - that Brewster needs to start winning football games.

At least for the next week how about keeping your GH posts on a more positive level? For someone who claims to be a Gopher fan that should not be a hard thing to do during what will be one of the most memorable weeks in Gopher football history. So-called objective sports commentary is less than useless to most sports fans. We already know what to think about our favorite sports teams without reading or listening to under-informed crap spewed out by "sports journalists".

GopherHole is the top Gopher Football fan site anywhere. The large majority of people who regular post in GH are in no way connected to the semi-illiterate neanderthals that post on the Strib's web site. We want facts and information about the Gophers from the local sports media, and nothing more. That is all they are qualified to do.
 


Wow. Just amazing. Not exactly Gopher Hole at its best. I think the fact that these guys use the question of a new stadium as a reason to continue to spew their negativity about the Gophers says a lot about them and how objective they are about the program. They can't even say positive things about the stadium without taking a shot at the team, the "diehards", the coach, and the alcohol issue. It's like the guy that wins millions in the lottery and spends his all time talking about all the taxes he has to pay because of it. It's simply amazing that we have "leading sports journalists" like this in the hometown of our team. It's even more amazing Gopher Hole would waste the time and space to put it up here.
 



PA .......dork

barreiro.....double dork

who gives a flying ----
 

Yeah, let's break out the wet blankets. Whose brilliant idea was that?:)

These guys seem to have missed the point that bringing the team back to a new stadium on campus with new Gophers game-day activities will squeeze out the casual fans and replace them with loyal U of M fans that will ride out the bad times and help get the good times back.

Casual fans are front-runners that love the Gophers when they're in the top 25 rankings and don't think the team is worth their while otherwise. They'll make good TV fans now.
 

Why would you even ask

Barreiro and Koko's opinion on anything gopher football. They are two of the biggest ant-gopher people in this town, we are only missing ruesse opinion. The only thing I would have liked to hear from Koko is his prediction that we lose every game, we would go undefeated with his GREAT MIND!
 



I love that Doogie still thinks bringing in an "objective" opinion is valuable or wanted. Try again Darren!
 

More negative crap from guys who know little about college football - I'm surprised they didn't ask Pat for his thoughts on Brew...:mad::mad:
 

I don't understand all the negativity about this. The GH people have written story after story on the stadium and its impact. Most of them have been pretty interesting. And they are being ripped for this?

The people on this board constantly rip on the lack of coverage about the Gophers in a crowded Twin Cities sports market.

I've come to the conclusion that people don't really want coverage, they want constant praise, boot-licking and affirmation that the Gophers are the greatest thing ever. Real coverage features good and bad, positive and negative. That is the reality.

I guess I don't understand the ripping on Doogie for this. He has written a lot about the Gophers both on here and on his startribune.com blog. This was an attempt to provide some other perspectives.

If you want constantly positive coverage and praise, then you should simply go to gophersports.com and stay there. If you want a little bit of realism, then stay here.
 

In all fairness, emails were sent out to a number of others (at least 5-10 more with a couple reminders) and these are the individuals who replied...Rob, who does a marvelous job with this site and needs to praised endlessly for the package of TCF stuff, suggested this angle...would've loved to get a few more responses, but the issue = many media people in town couldn't care less about college football/the Gophers.
 



the responses seem pretty dead on. It seems strange to be focusing on when people think the honeymoon will end before the opener though. Doogie, is that the question you asked?
 

That was some of it, and I added, give me anything and everything you want that entails the team moving back onto campus, will it help? If so, for how long?, etc...told them to give me as much or as little as they wanted.
 

I'm kind of surprised of the comments about this piece. It's a common debate - talking about the media being negative...and instead of speculating, Doogie went right to the source (s). Let's remember, the people on this board are the die-hards. We'd all probably still have season tickets for the next 10, 25, 50+ years - regardless of how the team does or where they play. We are the minority. How many season ticket holders did we have at the Dome, 25K or so? That's our hard core fan base that will always support the team. The other 1/2 of The Bank, will be people excited about the Stadium, being outdoors, the hype, etc. That means if we don't do well, they get cold outside, or just can't ration spending the $ for a long period of time...they could bolt at any point.

That why this is a fan message board - because we love the Gophers, most unconditionally. The media needs to report both sides.
 

Doogie said:
That was some of it, and I added, give me anything and everything you want that entails the team moving back onto campus, will it help? If so, for how long?, etc...told them to give me as much or as little as they wanted.
Click to expand...

Doogie, if you want an angle for a story, how about something with regards to what the incoming freshmen think of the new stadium. Did an on-campus football stadium and the idea of "college football Saturdays" influence their college decision, and if so, how?

How did the freshmen week visit to TCF and making of the M affect those that attended?

Are sales of Gopher merchandise up in the bookstores/around town?

How many freshmen purchased student season tickets this year? Is that more or less than previous? If the opportunity to purchase is based upon seniority (seniors having first chance), how many were available for freshmen?

Why focus on the freshmen? Because this is a whole new era. The impressions made on these kids are the ones that are going to influence next year's, the year after that, and the year after that.

Too much focus has been put on the past; how about looking to the future and focusing on those who are going to make it, rather than Barreiro, PA, etc, who themselves have zero interest in Gopher football other than how said topic will affect their ratings (and were easy interview opps for you).

If you want to be taken seriously as a journalist, do the legwork.
 

if you've ever heard PA or barreiro talk gopher football.......you'd realize they couldnt name a player outside of weber

gawd............

you know this too doogie
 

I thought it was another interesting angle to check out and it grabbed responses for sure. I don't know if that is what my man Doogie was going for but if it was it worked. Anyway,

Dan B's comments were not surprising, it was what I expected.

Thought Joe S's comments were interesting.

PA gave about what he seems to be capable of.

Thought Matt Thomas was pretty brutal though, that was a little surprising that he went that way to comment considering all the great things involved with this new era of Gopher athletics.
 

Lots of the season left to pursue many story angles...there's never a lack of stuff, just a matter of time/willingness to go out and get...now, keep in mind on the Freshmen angle, guys are off-limits to reporters unless they have officially played in a game.
 

GopherLady said:
I'm kind of surprised of the comments about this piece. It's a common debate - talking about the media being negative...and instead of speculating, Doogie went right to the source (s). Let's remember, the people on this board are the die-hards. We'd all probably still have season tickets for the next 10, 25, 50+ years - regardless of how the team does or where they play. We are the minority. How many season ticket holders did we have at the Dome, 25K or so? That's our hard core fan base that will always support the team. The other 1/2 of The Bank, will be people excited about the Stadium, being outdoors, the hype, etc. That means if we don't do well, they get cold outside, or just can't ration spending the $ for a long period of time...they could bolt at any point.

That why this is a fan message board - because we love the Gophers, most unconditionally. The media needs to report both sides.
Click to expand...

GopherLady;

A spot-on summary but maybe a mixed conclusion.

"That why this is a fan message board - because we love the Gophers, most unconditionally."

Doogie went "right to the source" and confirmed that they're mostly negative. Uh, "we already know that"!

That's why we don't need to read the opinions of professional "crowd-baiters" like Barriero or Matt Thomas. They are not journalists anymore,in any true sense of the word. They are entertainers if "snarky" qualifies as entertaining. Going to them for opinions on the Gophers is like going to Rush Limbaugh for an opinion on Obama's Heath Care plan or Keith Obermann for his take on O'Reily! Barriero famously wished on air that he wanted the Gophers "to be crushed" in an upcoming game and HE'S the guy you lead with?! Were Ruesse or Bret Beilema not available?

It's a very strange situation when anybody who's optimistic is labeled a "homer" but anyone who's constantly negative is being "objective". How the hell does that work? That means the standard reply of "so you only want to hear praise then?" doesn't work.

That's similar to the morons who dismiss any NBA guard by saying "but can he guard LaBron or Kobe" or the dipsticks who look at any improvement with the Gophers by saying "but does that make them as good as USC or Florida?"

The answer to all three questions is "No, but that's a stupid question". That would mean that the NBA would have to shut down because they'd only have four or five guards, the nation woud have five or six football teams and the country would only be able to listen to Fox News or MSNBC!

But on a Gopher board where many people as you state "love the Gophers" we may expect to read many diverse opinions ranging from negative to unfounded praise. We don't need to give another forum for guys to show-off there disparagement of the "home team". They have their own shows to do that or they can head to an Iowa or Wisconsin board.

Remember that much like Soucheray, Barrerio use to proclaim hmself a "Liberal" on the radio before they each either had a true change of heart :)rolleyes::rolleyes:) or they found the other side more acceptable and profitable.

They may honestly hate the Gophers or find making fun of the Gophers is a hell of a lot easier then trying to be objective. Whatever brings the most numbers.
 

Its too bad Mark Rosen didn't chime in. Although he is associated with KFAN, he actually does pay attention to the gophers and knows who the players are, he might even go to most of the games. Rosen's sports sunday the other night from the stadium interviewed players and Brew, that was pretty cool.

We all know the vikings basically own KFAN, so that is who those guys pay attention to, youre not going to get anything but gopher pessimism from them until we go to the rose bowl.....actually it will be really annoying to listen to them jump on the bandwagon, with the rest of this town, when we do go to the rose bowl in a couple of years....thats right, I said it.
 

Here are some more that may have an opinon on TCF

Let's hear from the following local semi celeb's:

1) CJ. After all, we may need to know what Don Shelby eats at TCF Stadium.

2) Alex Kindall. Cute as a button. What does she have to say.

3) Will Steger. Maybe we could have made the scoreboard solar and wind powered.

4) Prince. Does he think we need more purple?

5) Garrison Keillor. Too many people all gathered in one place?

Ugh. Where is Dave Christensen?
 

Iceland12 said:
GopherLady;

A spot-on summary but maybe a mixed conclusion.

"That why this is a fan message board - because we love the Gophers, most unconditionally."

Doogie went "right to the source" and confirmed that they're mostly negative. Uh, "we already know that"!

That's why we don't need to read the opinions of professional "crowd-baiters" like Barriero or Matt Thomas. They are not journalists anymore,in any true sense of the word. They are entertainers if "snarky" qualifies as entertaining. Going to them for opinions on the Gophers is like going to Rush Limbaugh for an opinion on Obama's Heath Care plan or Keith Obermann for his take on O'Reily! Barriero famously wished on air that he wanted the Gophers "to be crushed" in an upcoming game and HE'S the guy you lead with?! Were Ruesse or Bret Beilema not available?

It's a very strange situation when anybody who's optimistic is labeled a "homer" but anyone who's constantly negative is being "objective". How the hell does that work? That means the standard reply of "so you only want to hear praise then?" doesn't work.

That's similar to the morons who dismiss any NBA guard by saying "but can he guard LaBron or Kobe" or the dipsticks who look at any improvement with the Gophers by saying "but does that make them as good as USC or Florida?"

The answer to all three questions is "No, but that's a stupid question". That would mean that the NBA would have to shut down because they'd only have four or five guards, the nation woud have five or six football teams and the country would only be able to listen to Fox News or MSNBC!

But on a Gopher board where many people as you state "love the Gophers" we may expect to read many diverse opinions ranging from negative to unfounded praise. We don't need to give another forum for guys to show-off there disparagement of the "home team". They have their own shows to do that or they can head to an Iowa or Wisconsin board.

Remember that much like Soucheray, Barrerio use to proclaim hmself a "Liberal" on the radio before they each either had a true change of heart :)rolleyes::rolleyes:) or they found the other side more acceptable and profitable.

They may honestly hate the Gophers or find making fun of the Gophers is a hell of a lot easier then trying to be objective. Whatever brings the most numbers.
Click to expand...

word. couldn't have said it any better.
 

If we won the Rose Bowl, they would say it's not the Bowl it used to be. The competition is getting to watered down. IF Brewster won a National Championship, they would say,"Yes, but can he maintain the program at that level and will recruits tire of his optimism."
 

In reading their comments, the only real disappointment I have is that their perspectives are completely predictable. They don't add any new thought to the discussion. In other words, once you understand their backgrounds, you could guess with greater than 80 percent accuracy what each was going to say.

Obviously, the aforementioned "honeymoon period" will disappear after two years if everything stays status quo. It doesn't take a whole lot of insight to realize that. But that's where taking advantage of this unique opportunity comes in. It's up to the program to seize the opportunity, especially between now and three years from now (the "honeymoon period" if you will). That's the real question here: What will the U football program, from Brewster on down to the players, do in order to try and take advantage of the opportunity afforded them?
 

Of the 30 articles this would be ranked 31st. Great articles until this doozie. Rather than rave about a gorgeous new on campus facility and all the benefits it will provide they all have to be negative...Joe Schmitt not so much.
 

Wow, And I Wonder Why Minnesota Sports Fans Are So Negative About Their Teams

Sounded like they were all under "enhanced interrogation techniques", given the responses.

:rolleyes:
 

For some reason Doogie asked them how long the honeymoon will last. Of course they all said it will last a couple years but eventually we will need a breakthrough season. What other response was possible to "how long will the honeymoon last?" Odd question to be considered 6 days before the opening game but really who cares?
 

Chief Wahoo Does Underwhelm From Time to Time

Rotundo said:
For some reason Doogie asked them how long the honeymoon will last. Of course they all said it will last a couple years but eventually we will need a breakthrough season. What other response was possible to "how long will the honeymoon last?" Odd question to be considered 6 days before the opening game but really who cares?
Click to expand...

Everyone hacker duffs one or two in that round of 96.
 

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