If you're stadium is smaller than 60K, "you're mainly along for the ride"

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I think he has a point if you're only considering the long term. If you put a serious commitment into the program, in the long term you'll start winning more, ticket demand will go up, and you'll expand your stadium to meet demand. The reason why the Gophers only had to build a 50,000 seat stadium is because the commitment hadn't been there for years and it showed on the field and in ticket sales. However, this ignores the short term re-commitment we've made to our football program, which will take time to affect performance and ticket demand (and therefore stadium size).
 

loki said:
Pre 1961 equals gopher football only game in town. Post 1961 equals pro sport takeover. Pre 1961 equals 7 national champions and many big ten championships. Post 1961 equals no national championships and 1 big ten championship. The man has a point. Gopher fans became pro sports fans, corporate money went to pro sports, the media went to pro sports and the u of m surrendered.
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And yet there are GH posters who say the Vikings have no effect on the Gophers.
 

Monty519 said:
He's got a point. But in our case, the fact that we just built a brand new stadium does kinda offset that whole "commitment" thing. Our problem here has been the administration in the past hasn't shown hardly any true level of commitment to get the program going, or just had no clue on how to support the program. I feel like we're finally seeing evidence that's starting to take place. If it continues, I think we'll see ourselves at least elevate into the level where every few years we can expect to compete for the division (and in turn the conference title I suppose). But it's gotta be a full on effort from ALL levels of the program, administration all the way to fans and students.

Hopefully we'll join the 60K club in the next decade and things can just keep building from there.
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I sincerely hope you're right. I believe our basketball and football programs will receive enough support to remain in the B1G and nothing more.
 

Dr.Don said:
Then it is time for Teague, Kill, and Pitino to Storm the Bastille and take over this state.

GO GOPHERS...
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They are just the next group of scapegoats. Don't think 18th Century France, a better example is trying to defeat the Holy Roman Empire. The State of Minnesota is not the enemy.
 

TCF Stadium holds about 51,000 and was designed for easy expansion for even more seating. I would say that was a very strong commitment by the U. Now lets get a better game day Experience and get more yu dents in the stadium.
 


Go4Broke said:
Congrats, oleboy. You are the only one who understood the Nebraska guy's point. Standford and Oregon have demonstrated a huge commitment to their football programs even though they don't have large stadiums. Can anyone say the same thing about the Gopher football program? The Nebraska sportswriter was right on the money. Don't shoot the messenger.
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Stanford has made a huge commitment to their football program? By doing what?
 

station19 said:
And yet there are GH posters who say the Vikings have no effect on the Gophers.
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I'm on the fence on this, but the absolute number #1 reason for the shift was the prominence of the black athlete and his gradual acceptance in the South starting in the late 60s.

-Minnesota has 6 halfbacks in the college football HOF, all of them played before 1953, and all of them are white. That simply doesn't happen today.

-Bobby Bell and Carl Eller were both from segregated schools in North Carolina. Now they would be accepted at any SEC or ACC school they wanted.

Nebraska was able to create a pipeline to Texas to thrive as a college football program in an almost entirely white state, Boise State has done the same thing with California, and there are other examples as well. But, that's the elephant in the room, and anyone who doesn't see that is either naive or overly politically correct.
 


Interestingly, from the Shama article in another thread on here..........Miller was first employed by the Gophers in 1986 when John Gutekunst took over as head coach succeeding Lou Holtz who in 1984 and 1985 ignited a passion for football in Dinkytown not seen since. The Gophers had about 56,000 season ticket holders after Holtz worked his magic with state football fans.
 



fan of Ray Williams said:
Interestingly, from the Shama article in another thread on here..........Miller was first employed by the Gophers in 1986 when John Gutekunst took over as head coach succeeding Lou Holtz who in 1984 and 1985 ignited a passion for football in Dinkytown not seen since. The Gophers had about 56,000 season ticket holders after Holtz worked his magic with state football fans.
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And what did the corporate sponsors, the media, the fans and the administrators do with that 56,000 season ticket base? Right off the bat, General Mills started buying out unsold Viking tickets so that every home game would be televised during years when Viking ticket sales lagged, for what ever reasons. Remember, when the dome came into existence, the Vikings were moving from a 47,000 seat capacity stadium to the 64,000 seat dome. Eventually, and with the help of General Mills and other corporate sponsors, the Vikings season ticket buying fan base "grew and expanded" into the 17,000 more season ticket holders than the Vikings had in the old MET STADIUM. The nfl blitzed America selling their product and televising every game into the home state markets. The Gophers could not compete with the advertising dollars thrown around by the nfl locally and nationally. The administration "whiffed" on Bobby Ross as a replacement coach and went with Gutty. Ross, within a couple of years won a NC at Georgia Tech...the job he took rather than having the Gopher job offered to him. There are a LOT of reasons why the 60,000 seat stadium argument holds water.

The Vikings thrived as the 60,000 PLUS seat stadium factor kicked in. The Gophers succumbed to that barrier and the results have demonstrated that impact in so many ways since the 64,000 PLUS football configuration for the dome told a "...tale of two football teams..." in Minnesota. The Gopher's high water mark was 56,000. That did not provide enough to carry the program upward and onward into the future. The 64,000 plus seat sales of tickets and corporate support when needed proved to be enough momentum to paint a different picture...The journalist from Omaha presents some pretty impressive arguments with his thesis statement.

; 0 )
 

Gopherprof said:
I'm on the fence on this, but the absolute number #1 reason for the shift was the prominence of the black athlete and his gradual acceptance in the South starting in the late 60s.

-Minnesota has 6 halfbacks in the college football HOF, all of them played before 1953, and all of them are white. That simply doesn't happen today.

-Bobby Bell and Carl Eller were both from segregated schools in North Carolina. Now they would be accepted at any SEC or ACC school they wanted.

Nebraska was able to create a pipeline to Texas to thrive as a college football program in an almost entirely white state, Boise State has done the same thing with California, and there are other examples as well. But, that's the elephant in the room, and anyone who doesn't see that is either naive or overly politically correct.
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From the 1960s on, I believe this is a contributing factor to our decline. We were slightly ahead of the game with black players (Bell, Eller, Stephens) which allowed us to get back in to the elite game in the early 60s before many Southern schools caught on. But the fact that black players became prominent in college football should not have stopped us from remaining competitive in itself as a reason. Why would a program with a national title in the early 60s and a recent history of success (5 titles in the 25 years previous to that) have a hard time at least being competitive.

You bring up Nebraska, Boise as examples of nearly all-white states with pipelines to talent. What stopped us from doing so? A cycle fed by 2 things: diverging fan interest/dollars spent thanks to 3 major pro sport teams (Mpls Lakers who left in 1960 plus Twins and Vikings in 1961 and the Northstars in 67) and disinvestment by the U administration. The latter would not have happened with a strong, focused fan base calling them out.
 

Weddings and Steak Frys said:
Plenty starting with a $100 million renovation of their stadium, increasing recuiting budget significantly, investing in coaches and expanding their football facility by 27,000 sq ft.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciaj...stanfords-emergence-as-a-football-powerhouse/
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Yeah, I'd say questioning Stanford's commitment from an institutional perspective is a bit silly. I would hardly call the work done a 'renovation' - they completely demolished it and rebuilt it with appropriate supply of seats with better amenities. I'm surprised they did it for $100M and it only took 10 months to do.
 




westcoastgopher11 said:
Wow can we all just agree that it was a stupid column and move on? Thanks.
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Do what ever you want westcoastgopher11. Feel free to ignore anything you don't like. That would probably be a really good thing.

Some people may disagree with your take...and that's all good too.

It's all good westcoastgopher11...People can take...or leave anything they want to take...or leave...

; 0 )
 

westcoastgopher11

imthewalrus said:
Do what ever you want westcoastgopher11. Feel free to ignore anything you don't like. That would probably be a really good thing.

Some people may disagree with your take...and that's all good too.

It's all good westcoastgopher11...People can take...or leave anything they want to take...or leave...

; 0 )
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wren is our champion of our right to say ever stupid thing that you want and to do it multiple times. He is living proof of that. As a result he has been banned from several blogs for improper behavior. But he has never accepted the concept that with freedom of speech comes responsibilities.:rolleyes:
 

MinnMarchDTF said:
Guess we shoulda stayed in the Metrodome, then!
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It sure has some favorable characteristics. Warm, dry, capacity, loud, and paid for. Both the Twins and the Gophers have found that a new stadium (even if built with working taxpayers' money) is not the answer to being uncompetitive. I'll predict the Vikings and their taxpayer-extorting fans will get the same experience.
 

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