Just curious. What is your agenda for the opener?

[gopherdudepart2]

Benedryl Brownies

you know what this means Benadryl Brownies, call in a substitute to take your place at the open house.
If you have a lacky or back-up make them work the open house. How many home openers are there?

 

[lexicalNinja]

game time

I was going to try this too.
Any idea how it may go either way? I suppose we could park somewhere for a few hours and hit the bars til 2.
I bet they don't know what to do and just let us in anyway.

We are seriously going to pull into the lot entrance and see what they say. At the worst, I'll probably drop off the Lieutenant to hold the LZ in the lot, but you know how LT's are.

I really can't see them doing much more than telling us to wait like the early games or telling us to go drive around until 2. If nothing else, there are plenty of bars nearby.

 

[patrick08]

go to work leave early go to bank watch game go home go to sleep happy after gopher win

 

[MinneStoa]

go to work leave early go to bank watch game go home go to sleep happy after gopher win

Hopefully you're not skipping your Punctuation Night School to go to the game.

 

[Dr.Don]

right now, GopherHolers have adrenline flowing waiting for the game. Can you imagine the work Coach Kill has to do to keep his players under control?????

 

[Parski1]

right now, GopherHolers have adrenline flowing waiting for the game. Can you imagine the work Coach Kill has to do to keep his players under control?????

Nelson is the one Kill needs to work on...need to keep him from getting too amped up. At least he doesn't show his nerves to the team and puke his brains out before games like Shortell did.

 

[patrick08]

Hopefully you're not skipping your Punctuation Night School to go to the game.

i obviously am and i am just so excited go gophers

 

[wait!what?]

Nelson is the one Kill needs to work on...need to keep him from getting too amped up. At least he doesn't show his nerves to the team and puke his brains out before games like Shortell did.

never happened.

 

[station19]

never happened.

I wouldn't expect a reply anytime soon.

 

[Ole]

We are seriously going to pull into the lot entrance and see what they say. At the worst, I'll probably drop off the Lieutenant to hold the LZ in the lot, but you know how LT's are.

I really can't see them doing much more than telling us to wait like the early games or telling us to go drive around until 2. If nothing else, there are plenty of bars nearby.

If I had to bet, and this is an unfortunate prediction, I'd bet whoever is at the parking booth at noon in lot 37 will have absolutely no clue there's a game that day. We'll pay 6$ or whatever and whip out our pass at 2:00.

I also can't even imagine the chaos around 3-4:00 when the lot starts filling up and there are no spots left due to workers cars still being there. I'll be there drinking a beer and laughing at the rent a cop parking staff squawking on their radios trying to placate the guy that rolls in an hour before kickoff who paid big money to park and has to wait 100 cars deep til some lab tech gets done with his work at 630.

I hope this thing blows up in Norwood's face so bad it hurts, and hurts bad.

I also hope I'm wrong and everything will go swimmingly.

 

[dpodoll68]

I also can't even imagine the chaos around 3-4:00 when the lot starts filling up and there are no spots left due to workers cars still being there. I'll be there drinking a beer and laughing at the rent a cop parking staff squawking on their radios trying to placate the guy that rolls in an hour before kickoff who paid big money to park and has to wait 100 cars deep til some lab tech gets done with his work at 630.

I hope this thing blows up in Norwood's face so bad it hurts, and hurts bad.

So you're moving on to Teague from Maturi as your whipping boy?

What exactly do you suggest they do? This is a multi-billion dollar institution of higher learning that happens to have a football team, not the other way around. They're not going to shut down campus at noon (or whatever) to cater to your precious tailgating.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

So you're moving on to Teague from Maturi as your whipping boy?

What exactly do you suggest they do? This is a multi-billion dollar institution of higher learning that happens to have a football team, not the other way around. They're not going to shut down campus at noon (or whatever) to cater to your precious tailgating.

Schedule the games on a weekend because they have to work around a multi-billion dollar institution of higher learning that happens to have a footbal team, and they're not going to shutdown campus at noon to cater to our precious tailgating.

 

[Ole]

So you're moving on to Teague from Maturi as your whipping boy?

What exactly do you suggest they do? This is a multi-billion dollar institution of higher learning that happens to have a football team, not the other way around. They're not going to shut down campus at noon (or whatever) to cater to your precious tailgating.

I just don't understand why they refuse to think outside the box on this stuff. I'm not paid alot to promote gophers athletics like them. Many here have had better ideas than the status quo.

I get that they're not going to shut campus down on a thursday for a football game, but why can't they create some sort of alternative plan. It seems like they just are ignoring the fanbase and the game. They assume everything will just be fine and they've already sold the tickets and parking passes so what are the fans going to do?

In the bigger picture:
I believe a vibrant and fun tailgating scene is important to improving gameday on campus.

I believe an improved gameday atmosphere is necessary to expand the fanbase.

I believe that expanding the fanbase will lead to more support statewide, more money rolling in for the athletics programs, and more goodwill towards the university.
This fanbase is getting older not younger. It's a problem if they are not seeing recent grads buy season tickets. Maybe they are and will starting with the freshmen of 09' this year and next. I hope so.

More support statewide, more money for athletics, and more goodwill towards the university will allow for many doors to be opened and many "issues" that have plagued the U for along time to be solved.

JMO, and I had hoped we'd get more leadership from Teague on this stuff than an ancient yes man Joel Maturi.

 

[dpodoll68]

I get that they're not going to shut campus down on a thursday for a football game, but why can't they create some sort of alternative plan. It seems like they just are ignoring the fanbase and the game. They assume everything will just be fine and they've already sold the tickets and parking passes so what are the fans going to do?

How much time do you spend on campus aside from going to athletics events?

I spend 260 days a year here (not accounting for football Saturdays, vacations, and holidays), and let me tell you, parking is at a premium. They can't just shuffle people off somewhere, because there is nowhere to shuffle them off to. It's easy to tilt at windmills and bitch about what they aren't doing. If there were some simple or easy solution, you don't think they would've thought of it? It can "seem" like whatever you want it to "seem" like, but the fact is that there really isn't a feasible alternative plan with the current parking lot/ramp/etc. situation. Everything is pretty close to capacity as-is on an average work day, and they can't just shove an extra 30,000 (or whatever) people in and have it go hunky-dory. Someone is going to be inconvenienced. If you're going to inconvenience someone, do you inconvenience the people who are here for you 260 days a year, usually for decades of steadfast and devoted service, or the people who are here 7 Saturdays a year and whose attention/$/passions are fleeting? The choice seems pretty easy to me.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

How much time do you spend on campus aside from going to athletics events?

I spend 260 days a year here (not accounting for football Saturdays, vacations, and holidays), and let me tell you, parking is at a premium. They can't just shuffle people off somewhere, because there is nowhere to shuffle them off to. It's easy to tilt at windmills and bitch about what they aren't doing. If there were some simple or easy solution, you don't think they would've thought of it? It can "seem" like whatever you want it to "seem" like, but the fact is that there really isn't a feasible alternative plan with the current parking lot/ramp/etc. situation. Everything is pretty close to capacity as-is on an average work day, and they can't just shove an extra 30,000 (or whatever) people in and have it go hunky-dory. Someone is going to be inconvenienced. If you're going to inconvenience someone, do you inconvenience the people who are here for you 260 days a year, usually for decades of steadfast and devoted service, or the people who are here 7 Saturdays a year and whose attention/$/passions are fleeting? The choice seems pretty easy to me.

It certainly seems like a rational decision to inconvenience the group that you have bolded. However, if that is the U's stance, the U should hardly be surprised when the attention/$/passions continue to flee and those people decide to spend their 7 Saturdays a year elsewhere. The U has to inconvenience someone, but that doesn't mean that the people they inconvenience have to be happy about it.

South Carolina is playing a 6 oclock home game on the same Thursday. I would be very curious to know (a) what, if anything, the tailgaters are losing relative to what they would have on a normal Saturday game and (b) what, if anything, the rest of the University is giving up (closing early, relocating any employees, etc.).

 

[station19]

How much time do you spend on campus aside from going to athletics events?

I spend 260 days a year here (not accounting for football Saturdays, vacations, and holidays), and let me tell you, parking is at a premium. They can't just shuffle people off somewhere, because there is nowhere to shuffle them off to. It's easy to tilt at windmills and bitch about what they aren't doing. If there were some simple or easy solution, you don't think they would've thought of it? It can "seem" like whatever you want it to "seem" like, but the fact is that there really isn't a feasible alternative plan with the current parking lot/ramp/etc. situation. Everything is pretty close to capacity as-is on an average work day, and they can't just shove an extra 30,000 (or whatever) people in and have it go hunky-dory. Someone is going to be inconvenienced. If you're going to inconvenience someone, do you inconvenience the people who are here for you 260 days a year, usually for decades of steadfast and devoted service, or the people who are here 7 Saturdays a year and whose attention/$/passions are fleeting? The choice seems pretty easy to me.

Many times when people are complaining all they need to do is spend five minutes listening to someone that is involved and actually knows all the facts and figures. Their usual response is; "I didn't realize that."

 

[Ole]

How much time do you spend on campus aside from going to athletics events?

I spend 260 days a year here (not accounting for football Saturdays, vacations, and holidays), and let me tell you, parking is at a premium. They can't just shuffle people off somewhere, because there is nowhere to shuffle them off to. It's easy to tilt at windmills and bitch about what they aren't doing. If there were some simple or easy solution, you don't think they would've thought of it? It can "seem" like whatever you want it to "seem" like, but the fact is that there really isn't a feasible alternative plan with the current parking lot/ramp/etc. situation. Everything is pretty close to capacity as-is on an average work day, and they can't just shove an extra 30,000 (or whatever) people in and have it go hunky-dory. Someone is going to be inconvenienced. If you're going to inconvenience someone, do you inconvenience the people who are here for you 260 days a year, usually for decades of steadfast and devoted service, or the people who are here 7 Saturdays a year and whose attention/$/passions are fleeting? The choice seems pretty easy to me.

I'm actually on campus quite a bit for work. I know parking is at a premium.
Look, I hope everything goes great on Thurs. I just have a bad feeling it's going to be a mess and it's on someone upstairs in the admin to figure out an alternative.
It's going to be a burden on the workers too, more of a reason to come up with a better plan.
The green spaces on campus are vastly underutilized. The private lots around campus could be rented out perhaps. I've always wondered why the open air sections of the parking ramps can't be opened up for tailgating.
I don't have a perfect solution, but I'm not AD. I'm a fan, and a pretty compulsive one.
Do you forsee things going smoothly? Is this the best solution you can come up with?

 

[dpodoll68]

It certainly seems like a rational decision to inconvenience the group that you have bolded. However, if that is the U's stance, the U should hardly be surprised when the attention/$/passions continue to flee and those people decide to spend their 7 Saturdays a year elsewhere. The U has to inconvenience someone, but that doesn't mean that the people they inconvenience have to be happy about it.

You are right. They don't have to be happy about it, but they should be capable of understanding that the U is between a rock and a hard place. You can't be thrilled to market all of the advantages that an urban market has to offer, and then expect none of the drawbacks (namely, space) to ever manifest themselves as a problem. Probably, the right answer is that you can't hold weeknight games in a major urban area on a major urban campus - at least not while expecting people to refrain from exercising their right to piss and moan about everything.

 

[Iceland12]

If the St.Paul Lot was available there'd be WAY less problems. The problem is the Fair Board DOES own that lot and they do own a section of the transit way. We can keep going round-and-round on this but if the Gophers want to play a Home Opener they can't plan on any cooperation from the Fair Board to get that done. One wonders why some of our resident and lurking "Media Types" don't talk to the Fair Board and find out why they won't cooperate.

It would be interesting to see if the Fair Board or the U would even talk about it. The Fair Board because they'd see no "upside" for them, the U because of worries they'd lose the lot or transit way. The only thing we've "learned" is that a whole lot of Gopher Fans thought that the U can just "throw their weight around" and get things done. That's been a fallacy going back to the decision to build the Dome.

You want a Season Opener at Home? It's got to be a Saturday game. No St.Paul parking, but more available on Campus at least.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

I'm actually on campus quite a bit for work. I know parking is at a premium.
Look, I hope everything goes great on Thurs. I just have a bad feeling it's going to be a mess and it's on someone upstairs in the admin to figure out an alternative.
It's going to be a burden on the workers too, more of a reason to come up with a better plan.
The green spaces on campus are vastly underutilized. The private lots around campus could be rented out perhaps. I've always wondered why the open air sections of the parking ramps can't be opened up for tailgating.
I don't have a perfect solution, but I'm not AD. I'm a fan, and a pretty compulsive one.
Do you forsee things going smoothly? Is this the best solution you can come up with?

I don't know the first damn thing about parking for UofM Gopher football games and I've never even set foot in TCF, but I know one thing;

The first event like this of ANY kind, in any arena/stadium, for any season, almost ALWAYS has issues. It's the nature of the beast. Doesn't matter what sport, what city, what arena; It's likely the first game EVER for the parking lot attendants, it will be the first game ever at TCF for many people, and it will be the first football game for ANYONE at TCF since November of last year. Memories get short, people don't remember from last year how to get around, where they want to go, etc.

I have no doubt that you have a point, but to speculate that things might be a little chaotic next Thursday isn't exactly going out on a limb.

 

[dpodoll68]

I'm actually on campus quite a bit for work. I know parking is at a premium.
Look, I hope everything goes great on Thurs. I just have a bad feeling it's going to be a mess and it's on someone upstairs in the admin to figure out an alternative.
It's going to be a burden on the workers too, more of a reason to come up with a better plan.
The green spaces on campus are vastly underutilized. The private lots around campus could be rented out perhaps. I've always wondered why the open air sections of the parking ramps can't be opened up for tailgating.
I don't have a perfect solution, but I'm not AD. I'm a fan, and a pretty compulsive one.
Do you forsee things going smoothly? Is this the best solution you can come up with?

I don't foresee things going smoothly, and I agree the U really needs to go to bat to open up tailgating more in the private spaces and green areas around campus, and to foster a more raucous and active tailgating/party scene for football Saturdays.

That being said, this isn't really a tailgating issue - it's a parking issue. We're a nation of cars, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. I think that, even if people could park offsite and bus/train/taxi it into campus and tailgate practically anywhere they pleased on campus, they would still bitch and say "I want to park my own car right here in my parking lot for the full time promised to me, and I should be able to do that, and the U are a bunch of inconsiderate useless pricks if they won't let me."

 

[BoneLakeMafia]

I am thinking of upgrading from the Oak St Ramp to Lot 33 for this game and some others.
a couple of questions....Is that lot enjoyable? what are any of your thoughts on how this will be if I get there 3:30 next Thurs. Thanks!

 

[Tim Riggins]

How much time do you spend on campus aside from going to athletics events?

I spend 260 days a year here (not accounting for football Saturdays, vacations, and holidays), and let me tell you, parking is at a premium. They can't just shuffle people off somewhere, because there is nowhere to shuffle them off to. It's easy to tilt at windmills and bitch about what they aren't doing. If there were some simple or easy solution, you don't think they would've thought of it? It can "seem" like whatever you want it to "seem" like, but the fact is that there really isn't a feasible alternative plan with the current parking lot/ramp/etc. situation. Everything is pretty close to capacity as-is on an average work day, and they can't just shove an extra 30,000 (or whatever) people in and have it go hunky-dory. Someone is going to be inconvenienced. If you're going to inconvenience someone, do you inconvenience the people who are here for you 260 days a year, usually for decades of steadfast and devoted service, or the people who are here 7 Saturdays a year and whose attention/$/passions are fleeting? The choice seems pretty easy to me.

While I realize parking is at a premium, the people that are there 260 days per year, will continue to be there 260 days a year and if they continue to alienate those of us that are there 7 Saturdays per year, there will be less of us, less money and less interest overall. If the logistics are/were that difficult, leave the game on a Saturday.

I realize not everyone can take the day or 2 off but I am curious, with a long holiday weekend coming up, how many U employees will actually be working.

I worked on the Ski U Mah lot and the lot that was to the west (name escapes me), when they were first built, they were nowhere near full. If I had time, I would drive by the Ski U Mah lot at noon, in the middle of the week to see how many cars are actually there. Maybe you can pretend its a plane and take a pic for me! Unfortunately, the lot is a contract (as far as I know anyway) lot so I don't think we'll be able to get in early. Hopefully they will have instructed those working the lot to let people in early if there is space available. I probably won't be that lucky.

 

[MPLSBucky]

Since the opener is on a work day (and the next day is also a work day) and there is nowhere to tailgate, I'll be working til about 4, go home, change, bike to The ATM, then go home. I've never been to TCF and I'm excited to go, but the U really made it hard to enjoy the opener having it on a fking Thursday. This is why big time programs don't have games on Thursdays. They just don't work. It seems Minnesota is not a big time program.

 

[Ole]

I don't foresee things going smoothly, and I agree the U really needs to go to bat to open up tailgating more in the private spaces and green areas around campus, and to foster a more raucous and active tailgating/party scene for football Saturdays.

That being said, this isn't really a tailgating issue - it's a parking issue. We're a nation of cars, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. I think that, even if people could park offsite and bus/train/taxi it into campus and tailgate practically anywhere they pleased on campus, they would still bitch and say "I want to park my own car right here in my parking lot for the full time promised to me, and I should be able to do that, and the U are a bunch of inconsiderate useless pricks if they won't let me."

For one game a year, with plenty of ahead of time communication I bet people would even enjoy that. Some might bitch, but that would at least cater to a broader crowd.

Maybe REALLY open up McNamara, other spots for a "Picnic Tailgate the season in", help people get there, provide ramp parking accordingly and don't overthink it or limit it. There's enough spots to coordinate something of this magnitude.

It could even become a day the workers around the U stop in after their shifts and join in. Does the U have a workers appreciation day picnic/lunch?

There needs to be an "all hands on deck approach from the Board of Trustees down to nutso tailgate-obsessed fans. I haven't seen an effort to get that type of support from the academia and admin portions of the U. That's the type of leadership I was so hoping Teague would bring and Maturi was incapable of.

 

[Dr.Don]

Thread Titled "agenda..." has turned into a parking discussion. Wow!!!

 

[Coolew01]

For one game a year, with plenty of ahead of time communication I bet people would even enjoy that. Some might bitch, but that would at least cater to a broader crowd.

Maybe REALLY open up McNamara, other spots for a "Picnic Tailgate the season in", help people get there, provide ramp parking accordingly and don't overthink it or limit it. There's enough spots to coordinate something of this magnitude.

It could even become a day the workers around the U stop in after their shifts and join in. Does the U have a workers appreciation day picnic/lunch?

There needs to be an "all hands on deck approach from the Board of Trustees down to nutso tailgate-obsessed fans. I haven't seen an effort to get that type of support from the academia and admin portions of the U. That's the type of leadership I was so hoping Teague would bring and Maturi was incapable of.

I think a lot of this can be mitigated once the light rail opens up.

 

[Killjoy]

I think a lot of this can be mitigated once the light rail opens up.

It will be interesting to see what the effect of light rail will be on traffic and parking for football games. It should help but how much is the question. There is limited number of people that can be carried on light rail to and from the stadium so don't expect too much from it. It would interesting to hear what the projections are.

 

[Ole]

It will be interesting to see what the effect of light rail will be on traffic and parking for football games. It should help but how much is the question. There is limited number of people that can be carried on light rail to and from the stadium so don't expect too much from it. It would interesting to hear what the projections are.

It should help, maybe that's what they decided when they scheduled these for Thurs.
Try and figure out something for 2013 then lean on the light rail for transportation help.


OK. I wanted to post this then I'm done.
The South Carolina having a game on a thurs peaked my interest so I checked their site over lunch.
Basically it's a non issue because they have a massive grassy parking area next to the stadium that opens Fri at 2 typically. First come first serve, $20, unless you want premium location closer to the stadium. Plus the city has a massive lot they charge 20$ for overflow parking and there's a shuttle service.
The SEC, a tailgater's heaven.

 

[Unregistered User]

This is why big time programs don't have games on Thursdays...

You might want to tell #6 South Carolina and USC that they are not big time programs since they also play that same night.

Thanks for playing, Bucky.