Just Got Home, Madtown Could Be Best USA College Town

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akgopher said:
My gushing over Madison went past the football experience. No doubt, the football experience is not that of an SEC school. I've been on campuses in the north, south, and both coasts, Ivy League to Notre Dame- and there is something special about Madison. The size of the city, the cleanliness, the lake, rolling hills, the neighborhoods that all seem to look like Pill Hill in Rochester, the capitol, all the bars near campus and The Great Dane and The Old Fashioned by the capitol, close to Chicago, the activist-minded student body, and most important to me the progressive vibe on campus and around the city. It is just a happy place!
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I guess I just don't see how all of the things that you're speaking of aren't at just about every single good college campus in the country. The Great Dane is normal, typical bar. There are literally hundreds in college towns throughout the country. Most college campuses are progressive.

I don't understand how someone could go to a game in Austin and think Madison was better. But we can agree to disagree.
 


akgopher said:
Alvarez just woke up the lion that is Madison. I've been to Madison in the past, but never on game day. Parties in yards and full bars a mile deep in each direction. The next time Tubby whines about The Barn being too old to recruit to, just point to Camp Randall. Bottom line, it's going to be tough to get a kid with a Wisconsin offer, even if he is a local kid.

I was impressed with Iowa City and felt it was a level ahead of Dinkeytown, well Madison is two levels ahead of us. At least you can argue that Iowa City is isolated and not very diverse to recruits. There is nothing other than their coach being a total tool going against Wisconsin.

The campus is as close to perfect as I've experienced. The housing around Dinkeytown requires an up to date tetanus shot, and even though the new apartment buildings have saved the campus from being the glorified University of Phoenix it was during the 80's, 90's, and early 00's- they are still pretty stale. Not to mention the sparse bar scene- other than the 2 standouts.

I'm thinking Northwestern is the proper aspiration for Teague and Kill at this point. Madison just isn't going to happen. They have too many built in advantages. 16-2 in the last 18 match-ups speaks for itself. Not a rip on the U, but more of being in awe of Madison. It is what it is.
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Don't do it. Madison has some positives. I get it. So does the U of Minnesota. The University has been a national leader in many areas before. It can be again. What has made it a leader in the past is the willingness to be unique to "be uncommon". Copying UW Madison will not work. We need the University of Mn. to be the University of Mn. and be that well.

There are enough players that love and will play in an urban environment. Things are starting to come together around campus. With continued support I believe we will get back to winning football and a winning and unique environment that is only at the University of Minnesota. I believe this is the type of environment that will breed success and attract more top notch players that want to be here first.
 

I'm not sure why anyone should feel the need to emulate the same kind of atmosphere as Madison. Mad-Town is fun and a great game day atmosphere, no doubt, I've been there several times (I liked if better when success was still somewhat new to Badger fans aka The mid 90s, and there was fewer arrogant jerks trolling around), and had a great time.

But the Twin Cities is a whole different animal, and has its own vibe and style. That alone separates it from the typical college Friday/Saturday night in Madison, Iowa City, or Ann Arbor. It's bigger and better. Fans can reload for a weekend Twins series, a Vikings game, or the Wolves/Wild. Granted, that's not much consolation given those teams' lack of recent success, but this is something no other city in the Big Ten can offer (sans maybe Evanston). Our urban campus setting should set us apart and be considered a strength not a drawback. I know it pulled me right in when I showed up on campus for my visit.

Don't emulate, strengthen and endorse what great things we already have.
 


Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
I'm not sure why anyone should feel the need to emulate the same kind of atmosphere as Madison. Mad-Town is fun and a great game day atmosphere, no doubt, I've been there several times (I liked if better when success was still somewhat new to Badger fans aka The mid 90s, and there was fewer arrogant jerks trolling around), and had a great time.

But the Twin Cities is a whole different animal, and has its own vibe and style. That alone separates it from the typical college Friday/Saturday night in Madison, Iowa City, or Ann Arbor. It's bigger and better. Fans can reload for a weekend Twins series, a Vikings game, or the Wolves/Wild. Granted, that's not much consolation given those teams' lack of recent success, but this is something no other city in the Big Ten can offer (sans maybe Evanston). Our urban campus setting should set us apart and be considered a strength not a drawback. I know it pulled me right in when I showed up on campus for my visit.

Don't emulate, strengthen and endorse what great things we already have.
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I pretty much agree, but the Game Day itself atmosphere needs to be improved and the University needs to take steps to make it so (i.e. opening up more inexpensive tailgate lots, closing some streets, etc.). Otherwise, you will be like Northwestern (only a favorite because it is close and close to Chicago) - a weekend in a metro area with a football game in there somewhere as an afterthought. And, frankly, Minneapolis-St. Paul doesn't hold a candle to Chicago as a metro area (and this is from someone who happily lived in Mpls for several years).

You do need to figure out what makes the Twin Cities unique and build on it. The street party that was part of the Frozen Four was great - maybe something along those lines? I also think the light rail could be an asset, if you can figure out how to use it effectively. Maybe a light rail ticket + game ticket gets a discounted purchases at the street party?
 

Don't emulate, strengthen and endorse what great things we already have.

What is great about any Gopher sports other than women's volleyball and hockey?
 

Unbias opinion here. Seeing how I've been to Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin campuses Madison is by far the best College atmosphere. Its young and offers a lot for people to do. However, when you are in your 30's or 40's going to these games, do you really want to deal with this type of behavior. We can't all be college students forever. The older I get, the more I would prefer to something much more mature like Minnesota campus.
 




akgopher said:
Don't emulate, strengthen and endorse what great things we already have.

What is great about any Gopher sports other than women's volleyball and hockey?
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I might argue what is great about going to a game where there's about a 35% chance someone wearing red polyester vomits on your shoes, but I wasn't specifically referring to Gopher athletics, rather the City itself and the nearby surrounding assets. But for one thing, we have a GREAT stadium, lots for tailgating (open more and lower the price so they fill up every game weekend), a very cool athletic complex area central to the hoops, hockey and football teams, the Alumni center, etc. The tie-in to light rail could be very unique to our game day experience as TAW suggested. The food truck scene seems to really be taking off - maybe close off a street and line those panel trucks up pre-game somewhere. We're also great (and unique) in that we will serve up beer in our on-campus stadium.

As far as the in-stadium atmosphere goes, unless you prefer a student section that barely shows up in full until halftime and then cleverly utters 'eat sh*t, f*ck you' The Bank already been proven to have great game day atmosphere. That is, when the conditions are right and the fans come out - i.e. Air Force, MSU, and most recently Syracuse. Win more consistently, and this solves itself and day games become more like the night ones.

You think Camp Randall was a real hot spot of great college sports atmosphere when it took a jittery Utah State kicker to bail the Badgers out of a upset loss at home? We start winning more consistently, and not leaving our own fans slackjawed when we drop the opening kick off and spot the opponent 7 points, leaving people to say 'same 'ol Gophers', and a lot of this will help take care of itself.
 

NuttyBuckeyes said:
Unbias opinion here. Seeing how I've been to Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin campuses Madison is by far the best College atmosphere. Its young and offers a lot for people to do. However, when you are in your 30's or 40's going to these games, do you really want to deal with this type of behavior. We can't all be college students forever. The older I get, the more I would prefer to something much more mature like Minnesota campus.
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I think that Madison is a much better atmosphere than Iowa City or the U. It's not even close. That said, that doesn't make it the best in the country. You can't compare Madison to the U and then say that gives any validity to the statement that it's the best in the country.
 

akgopher said:
Alvarez just woke up the lion that is Madison. I've been to Madison in the past, but never on game day. Parties in yards and full bars a mile deep in each direction. The next time Tubby whines about The Barn being too old to recruit to, just point to Camp Randall. Bottom line, it's going to be tough to get a kid with a Wisconsin offer, even if he is a local kid.

I was impressed with Iowa City and felt it was a level ahead of Dinkeytown, well Madison is two levels ahead of us. At least you can argue that Iowa City is isolated and not very diverse to recruits. There is nothing other than their coach being a total tool going against Wisconsin.

The campus is as close to perfect as I've experienced. The housing around Dinkeytown requires an up to date tetanus shot, and even though the new apartment buildings have saved the campus from being the glorified University of Phoenix it was during the 80's, 90's, and early 00's- they are still pretty stale. Not to mention the sparse bar scene- other than the 2 standouts.

I'm thinking Northwestern is the proper aspiration for Teague and Kill at this point. Madison just isn't going to happen. They have too many built in advantages. 16-2 in the last 18 match-ups speaks for itself. Not a rip on the U, but more of being in awe of Madison. It is what it is.
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ha! this is nothing but a stupid ass attempt at a flame post/thread trying to get some people riled up. just an idiot. F MADISTAN AND F BECKY! madison is a joke. a silly ass, state government dependent town, run by annoying, bureaucratic, uber liberals. over flowing with even more annoying hipster d-bag students and career students.
 

akgopher said:
My gushing over Madison went past the football experience. No doubt, the football experience is not that of an SEC school. I've been on campuses in the north, south, and both coasts, Ivy League to Notre Dame- and there is something special about Madison. The size of the city, the cleanliness, the lake, rolling hills, the neighborhoods that all seem to look like Pill Hill in Rochester, the capitol, all the bars near campus and The Great Dane and The Old Fashioned by the capitol, close to Chicago, the activist-minded student body, and most important to me the progressive vibe on campus and around the city. It is just a happy place!
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ha! stick my finger down my throat. sounds like hipsterville, u.s.a. is your happy place. move to portland already and you will be in your silly liberal, progressive, activist utopia. portland.....where young people go to retire. :rolleyes:
 



The lake??? I'm laughing at that. Go swim in it, and when your privates
fall off, tell me how much you like it
 

supadupafly said:
ha! this is nothing but a stupid ass attempt at a flame post/thread trying to get some people riled up. just an idiot. F MADISTAN AND F BECKY! madison is a joke. a silly ass, state government dependent town, run by annoying, bureaucratic, uber liberals. over flowing with even more annoying hipster d-bag students and career students.
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Seems to have worked.
 

UW-Madison was the only campus other than the U of M that I visited when deciding where to attend college. While there's certainly plenty to do in Madison, and the area right on the lake is quite scenic, I came away completely unimpressed with the campus, and was reminded of that while walking around after the game on Saturday. At most parts on the U of M campus, you almost forget you're in the middle of a major metro area (the section along Washington Ave. from Coffman to Moos being the main exception). At UW, it's a concrete jungle almost everywhere you go. Yes, State Street is fun...but no more so than Iowa City or a handful of other places in the Big Ten. Camp Randall Stadium is a dump, though I'm sure the suites that were added in recent years are nice. What it all boils down to is atmosphere - UW has it after two decades of winning, and we don't.
 


Jike Spingleton said:
UW-Madison was the only campus other than the U of M that I visited when deciding where to attend college. While there's certainly plenty to do in Madison, and the area right on the lake is quite scenic, I came away completely unimpressed with the campus, and was reminded of that while walking around after the game on Saturday. At most parts on the U of M campus, you almost forget you're in the middle of a major metro area (the section along Washington Ave. from Coffman to Moos being the main exception). At UW, it's a concrete jungle almost everywhere you go. Yes, State Street is fun...but no more so than Iowa City or a handful of other places in the Big Ten. Camp Randall Stadium is a dump, though I'm sure the suites that were added in recent years are nice. What it all boils down to is atmosphere - UW has it after two decades of winning, and we don't.
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You should check out the lakeshore part of campus sometime. Memorial Union, Langdon, Ag Hall, Bascom Hill, Observatory Drive, etc etc.
 

Has no one mentioned the arts that we have at the U? Does Madison have the Weisman Art Museam? I didn't think so! Recuiting tools like Weisman make the U a football recruiter's dream.
 


Chitown_Badger said:
You should check out the lakeshore part of campus sometime. Memorial Union, Langdon, Ag Hall, Bascom Hill, Observatory Drive, etc etc.
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I did say "the area right on the lake is quite scenic." It's the rest of campus that I find depressing.
 

I think Madison is the type of place that some people just really love. Fortunately, I'm not that sort of person.

The University is covered in brutalist architecture, think half a campus of Moos Towers. The lake is nice if you can catch a glimpse in between the buildings. As Jike says, for the most part the place is a concrete jungle.

The city is crawling with bums and seems to be frozen in time, not much has changed in the ten years I've been going to games there.

I never would have attended school in a college town after growing up in one, but I definitely prefer the quaintness of Iowa City's ped mall. I also greatly prefer Ann Arbor and State College to Madison.
 

I have been to 4 games at TCF, 6 at Camp Randall, one at Iowa City, and two at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. I would take Lincoln over Madison, although I think Madison is a lot of fun. I agree that the bigger city changes the atmosphere and the city does not revolve around the College Teams like they do in smaller towns.

For my money I thought the Nebraska-Texas game I went to in 2010 was about the best I have seen.
But the MN-Michigan game in 2003 (i think) at the DOME was a awesome atmosphere too. Syracuse was great this year. I like the night game atmosphere more.
 

More then half the UW campus is 'by the lake' and is in no way a concrete jungle. If you don't have a class back there, there is no reason to go to that part of it, because it is away from the bars/city part of campus. I am one of those people who preferred the city aspect of the U and that was a factor in why I chose it, but that is just a false charge. Have you been to the west bank recently? It doesn't get more concrete then that.

All in all it is rather pointless to compare the two because they will never be the same. Madison is a large college town, Minneapolis is a large city. It's apples to oranges. That doesn't mean the U can't improve its atmosphere but it will never be a real college town. The key is to make that work to their advantage, which is tough in cities of this size. See Miami/UCLA/Northwestern/Pitt/GT. There is absolutely a way to turn it the U's advantage but looking to UW is not the way.
 

I think that Madison is a much better atmosphere than Iowa City or the U. It's not even close. That said, that doesn't make it the best in the country. You can't compare Madison to the U and then say that gives any validity to the statement that it's the best in the country.

@Bob_Loblaw

I forgot to mention that I've been to Purdue and went to Ohio State as a student. That being said, if I were still in college I would pick Madison. Lots of bars great environment but now that I'm out I like Minnesota a lot more. The campus is nice and there is A LOT of stuff to do in the city. Its the first school I've been to where you can ride the Lightrail downtown and to other places (i.e. Minnehaha falls, mall of america...). While Madison offers a nice college campus environment, the fact that MN is in MPS wins me over. I guess my view is skewed because I've never been to a football game before but I toured the campus and went to a hockey game. I would like to see how it is when there when we play. Sad thing is, I have to wait 4 years before we play the Gophers. :(

Plz switch spots with Wisconsin in the divisions, Gophers are my 2nd favorite team. :p
 

bigdsrip said:
More then half the UW campus is 'by the lake' and is in no way a concrete jungle.
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"By the lake" is your term, not mine, so whatever you define as "by the lake," I'm sure you can include half the campus. I'll do you one better - 100% of the campus is by a lake, either on one side or another. Unfortunately, most of the time, you can't see them through all of the concrete.

bigdsrip said:
Have you been to the west bank recently? It doesn't get more concrete then that.
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I tailgate on the West Bank, in a lot with a large grass area near the Mississippi River bluffs. I actually prefer that to tailgating in the surface lots near the stadium.

bigdsrip said:
The key is to make that work to their advantage, which is tough in cities of this size. See Miami/UCLA/Northwestern/Pitt/GT.
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You just rattled off examples of schools where it doesn't work. Regardless of their varying levels of success on the field, Miami, Northwestern, Pitt and Georgia Tech have awful fan bases, as their attendance in non-winning seasons shows. UCLA (and USC) benefit from being in the second-largest city on the nation, and having no professional football. Washington is the example you were looking for.
 

God, why did I read this thread.. I'm gonna puke now.
 

supadupafly said:
ha! this is nothing but a stupid ass attempt at a flame post/thread trying to get some people riled up. just an idiot. F MADISTAN AND F BECKY! madison is a joke. a silly ass, state government dependent town, run by annoying, bureaucratic, uber liberals. over flowing with even more annoying hipster d-bag students and career students.
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Do you even read what you write before you hit reply?
 

Any campus that has snow sux. my opinion. I want 70 in feb. that's me.
 

tikited said:
Do you even read what you write before you hit reply?
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As the person who that rant was aimed at, I must say this thread become something that I didn't foresee. I didn't say Madison was the best, I simply stated in my humble opinion that it could be. It was amazing and I didn't think I would rile up the insecurities of a few Gopherholers.

The metro area is what we thought it was... a pro sports town. It is easy to see that it is only going to get worse as you do anecdotal observations on the average age of the fans in the seats, especially in Williams Arena. The disconnect between the 30-50 year old base is where I especially see the pro sports mentality. You can hypothesize as to whether than is related to when the U was really a commuter campus or not. It is okay with me. I personally enjoy college sports more than pro sports and benefit from having easy, cheap access to Big Ten sports because of the demand. If the U was a powerhouse in the Big Ten, that wouldn't be the case. I wish the Gophers would make a Rose Bowl appearance and a Final Four that actually is acknowledged, but am grateful to live in a Big Ten environment. Even if it isn't as successful as Madison.
 

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