Dave Lee can't stop talking about Gopher football... attendance.

[station19]

Of course this is true. The idea is to minimize the bandwagon nature of the fanbase or (in the ideal scenario) to build up the demand enough so that a breakthrough season can hopefully get you to the point that a wait list can be created to better sustain attendance as interest from fence sitters begins to wane (another in the line of simple ideas that the U failed to implement when TCF opened).

Looks like the vikes might be suffering from the same syndrome. 'Possible' blackout this week.

 

[wdgold]

Of course this is true. The idea is to minimize the bandwagon nature of the fanbase or (in the ideal scenario) to build up the demand enough so that a breakthrough season can hopefully get you to the point that a wait list can be created to better sustain attendance as interest from fence sitters begins to wane (another in the line of simple ideas that the U failed to implement when TCF opened).

I really hope Kill can get this program to a point where there is a waiting list for season tix, that would be awesome!

 

[GoAUpher]

I really hope Kill can get this program to a point where there is a waiting list for season tix, that would be awesome!

Yes it would!

I don't want to sound like had the U started a wait list in '09 that things would be awesome now. Because the U would be past the waitlist and in to empty seats already. But the fact that they didn't start the process when the demand (albeit extremely fleeting) was actually there blew my mind.

 

[disco]

Nonsense. He was not treated badly at all. He's not entitled to doing the play-by-play for the Gophers. He may have been a first class guy, but the play-by-play is much better now. There was nothing unprofessional or classless about it. They didn't frogmarch him out of the press box, they just changed stations.

Correct. Plus, Dave is first and foremost an employee of WCCO. When the U made the decision to change stations, I can't imagine that his CCO contract would have allowed him to work on another station.

Plus he flat out stunk at play by play. The whole broadcast package is so much more professional now.

 

[Schnauzer]

It makes one wonder how WCCO could have created such a bad broadcast package for Gopher Football with no improvements at a time when they had already lost the Vikings and Twins. You'd think they'd pour effort into the Gopher broadcasts to have it serve as an example of the high potential available to recover some of the earlier lost broadcast rights. Instead it sounded like a KNUJ production of MIAC football. The irony that WCCO is now the St. Thomas "flagship" is not lost on me.

 

[husker70]

When will you people realize this station is owned, managed, formated and even branded as CBS Minnesota. These decisions are being made in New York City. CBS radio made a decision years ago to buy up radio stations in Major markets. Chicago, Detroit, Saint Louis. They low balled bids for sports. KMOX, Saint Louis was your home for Cardinals Baseball. CBS buys the station and 50 years of branding went down the Mississippi. You can talk about the radiated power of the former CCO. But one of the keys to Cardinal baseball was 50,000 watts of clear channel throughout the south. If you were below that Mason Dixon line you got Cardinal Baseball. CBS New York's format is weather and traffic on the 8's. and blather for 3 miuntes and commerical breaks for 6. CBS Minnesota and any sport is a bad fit. Who is going to break in and give the traffic. And how many times was the Basketball shipped up the dial to some odd FM channel. It was not by accident everyone fled this New York Management. I think I see the Timberwolves will now be on WCCO. The Timberwolves and Saint Thomas. New York wouldn't want Dave chiming on the attendence at a Wolves game, but his broadcast of Saint Thomas makes me think I will get to a Saint Olaf game and heckle him.

 

[station19]

It makes one wonder how WCCO could have created such a bad broadcast package for Gopher Football with no improvements at a time when they had already lost the Vikings and Twins. You'd think they'd pour effort into the Gopher broadcasts to have it serve as an example of the high potential available to recover some of the earlier lost broadcast rights. Instead it sounded like a KNUJ production of MIAC football. The irony that WCCO is now the St. Thomas "flagship" is not lost on me.

Might be because CBS took over full ownership in 1992. Local ownership was gone. CBS has taken the station downhill ever since. The worst was they paired Steve Cannon with Ruth Kozalack. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

EDIT I started this post about an hour before I completed it. Before Husker 70 posted. I had a long phone call in there. Didn't mean to piggy-bank.

Just another example of poor quality because of non local ownership.

 

[harley_gopher]

Bottom-line....Dave Lee was not qualified for play-by-play broadcasting at any level. He was in way way over his head and did not make any progress through those years. It is funny that WCCO is big on St.Thomas now and how they keep backing themselves into smaller and smaller corners. How many people actually care and/or listen to a St.Thomas football game...seriously.

 

[RodentRampage]

Does anyone know that the ratings were for St. Thomas football on WCCO? What CBS needs to do is to restore local control to WCCO, give local people the power to respond to the local market instead of turning it into a cookie cutter. Why would I want traffic on the 8s? A metro station with less power is more suited for that. WCCO's signal goes WAY out of the metro area, and that traffic report is of no use whatsoever to people out of the metro area. It might make sense on CBS New York, but not here.

 

[tjgopher]

When will you people realize this station is owned, managed, formated and even branded as CBS Minnesota. These decisions are being made in New York City. CBS radio made a decision years ago to buy up radio stations in Major markets. Chicago, Detroit, Saint Louis. They low balled bids for sports. KMOX, Saint Louis was your home for Cardinals Baseball. CBS buys the station and 50 years of branding went down the Mississippi. You can talk about the radiated power of the former CCO. But one of the keys to Cardinal baseball was 50,000 watts of clear channel throughout the south. If you were below that Mason Dixon line you got Cardinal Baseball. CBS New York's format is weather and traffic on the 8's. and blather for 3 miuntes and commerical breaks for 6. CBS Minnesota and any sport is a bad fit. Who is going to break in and give the traffic. And how many times was the Basketball shipped up the dial to some odd FM channel. It was not by accident everyone fled this New York Management. I think I see the Timberwolves will now be on WCCO. The Timberwolves and Saint Thomas. New York wouldn't want Dave chiming on the attendence at a Wolves game, but his broadcast of Saint Thomas makes me think I will get to a Saint Olaf game and heckle him.

1) I wouldn't be so quick to blame CBS national. There are no fewer than 50 professional and D-I sports teams that have their games broadcast on CBS owned and operated stations right now, including in major markets like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Detroit, and San Fran.

2) Local management at WCCO has been living in the past. They haven't adjusted to the way new media works yet. Many other CBS stations around the country have. CBS owned stations are among the best in Chicago, San Francisco, LA, New York, St. Louis.

3) KMOX has the Cards again.

4) If WCCO is really going to take a shot at attendance, shouldn't they be careful about how they approach it? Someone might want to remind the fine folks at the Good Neighbor that the official attendance of the St. Thomas PLAYOFF game that was promoted and broadcast on WCCO on the same day as the aforementioned Gopher-Illini game was: 1775. Yes, that's a total of 1775 fans for the Tommie game.