Gopher Fans in Attendance

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The Arizona Diamondback baseball operations staff, who some I talked to were part of, did a very good job with aspects of the game. There was clearly a decent amount of attention to detail put into it. Being part of the Fiesta Bowl that may play into it. The baseball stadium idea is pretty flawed in general, but I liked the effort put into it.

The PA announcer was as professional as it gets, and I liked the open roof idea with the skydivers from the Army, rain or no rain. In fact I was sitting at the edge of the covered seats pregame, and right in the rain and it was great when the skydivers landed.

This bowl also let the Bands get in their time on the field and play a lot during the game. There were some pretty nice ad-hoc premium areas set up for any fan to walk into on the lower level.

One the bad side, the ushering was way too strict considering all the empty seats. I had to get creative to move into, and "squat" in the better 1/3 full seating areas I spent much of the game in. We had a couple cranky old female ushers with a sort of Target Field, prime seat ticket checking approach.

The beer selection was pretty suspect, but at least they had the elusive 24 OZ can we have yet to see at the former TCF, which they also had at Colorado. One of the better parts of the game, much like at home games, was socializing at the beer areas of the concourse with other Gopher fans as we looked down on the action from the concourse.

The stadium for the most part is pretty obsolete by modern baseball standards. There are way too many seats in the giant upper decks, with no premium areas to be found for the upper deck peons. It looked a lot like the desolation of the upper deck at Target Center up there. The lower areas were OK.
 
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PJ Fleck did a very nice compliment to the bowl organizers. That was very nice.

The one thing that probably changed the game a little is the slippery turf from the rain. Some of the key miscues were the result of the condition of the playing surface. Luckily there were no serious injuries to players on both teams as a result. If they have to do it over, I'd like to see the Guaranteed Rate Bowl Game played in a football stadium.
 


I had a different experience. Seats at the 15 yard line, 3B side. Row 23 aisle. Fans were fun, mom and dad from Eau Claire, but both boys U grads. We laughed that our Gopher Points were nearly identical.

Well, that made sense with our seats. I think the bad start took a little edge on the festivities. The open roof and rain (hardest downpour of the night was during the parachutes and NA) was actually hilarious. At the virtual ending “home of the brave…” we all started shouting “close the roof! Close the roof!”

We chatted, cheered, and took home a win and 9 game win season.

I think any criticism of the “age” or “attitude” of the crowd is total BS, as they paid the money and showed up.
 


highwayman said:
I had a different experience. Seats at the 15 yard line, 3B side. Row 23 aisle. Fans were fun, mom and dad from Eau Claire, but both boys U grads. We laughed that our Gopher Points were nearly identical.

Well, that made sense with our seats. I think the bad start took a little edge on the festivities. The open roof and rain (hardest downpour of the night was during the parachutes and NA) was actually hilarious. At the virtual ending “home of the brave…” we all started shouting “close the roof! Close the roof!”

We chatted, cheered, and took home a win and 9 game win season.

I think any criticism of the “age” or “attitude” of the crowd is total BS, as they paid the money and showed up.
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The fans were fine, there just was not the energy seen at the former TCF Bank Stadium. This was not the Outback Bowl, I get it; no intent to target the older fans, they did well enough.
 

I'd love to attend a bowl game but my work doesn't allow last minute vacations so unless I preplan to take the last week and half of December and beginning of January off there's little chance I am going to a bowl game anytime in the near future.
 





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