Metrodome era

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IrishGoph55

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I have been to the Metrodome for Vikings games but I never made it for a Goph game.
Been to TCF a bunch of times and love it. How is TCF compared to the dome?
Did the dome feel like Gopher football or always felt out of place like step children?
I feel bad for Pitt.
 

IrishGoph55 said:
I have been to the Metrodome for Vikings games but I never made it for a Goph game.
Been to TCF a bunch of times and love it. How is TCF compared to the dome?
Did the dome feel like Gopher football or always felt out of place like step children?
I feel bad for Pitt.
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To us Gopher fans, we felt like our Gophers were treated like step children. There were a few games that were electric at the Dome, but most of them felt kind of dead. Not a good college football atmosphere.
 

I had season tickets for both. The dome never felt like "home" for the Gophers - at least for me. There's a distinctive vibe I get from watching college football that's different from the pros, and the dome never provided that for me.
 

Generally it was really quiet and NEVER felt like a college football game.

The whole college football feel changed DRAMATICALLY when we went to TCF.
 

I don't think many fans miss the Metrodome much. The energy could be good at the dome if there was a packed house, but it had all the charm of an operating room. I've been to some NSIC games there, and with only about 3000 was like a tomb. Put 3,000 people in a stadium that seats 3,000 and you have a great time, but in a 60,000 seat stadium, there was no life. But it wasn't just the empty seats. The Metrodome roof made it a constant twilight. I've only been in the Vikings stadium for a baseball game, but the fact that it lets in natural light makes it far better than the dome was. At TCF Bank Stadium, even if it's only 3/4 full, it's a much better environment than the Metrodome was. The Metrodome was sort of oppressively bland. Like Wonder Bread - few people really like it, but I guess it will do.
 


I grew up going to Gopher games at the dome, so there is some nostalgia for me in it, but it was objectively a bad stadium that no one should shed many tears over.
 

The U did its best but the dome was just really sterile...really for all teams playing there...except for how loud it could get. It got very loud at times during Holtz and Mason years. There were a few games where it was like walking out of a rock concert...where you really noticed when you got outside.
 

BeerFueledFF said:
I grew up going to Gopher games at the dome, so there is some nostalgia for me in it, but it was objectively a bad stadium that no one should shed many tears over.
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It is hard to deny being able to put your feet up and spread out as it was rarely packed ... but ... obviously that only happens if not gud things are happening too.
 

I had season tickets for both.

Metrodome was pretty bad. As others have said it didn’t feel like home.

* sea of blue seats
* in an attempt to personalize it, vinyl maroon/gold signs put up everywhere with Velcro. Looked soooo cheap.
* band sounded worse under the echos of the roof and microphones to put their sound over the speakers.

On the flip side the student section was better and better attended in my opinion. Ironic considering it was off campus and the kids had to take shuttle busses.
 



We were a distant third tenant behind the Vikes and the Twins. Sometimes I think the Sports Facilities Commission cared more about Tractor Pulls than the Gophers. The dome had it's moments and in the early days helped us get on TV because of the night games. But, all things considered, it would've been better to remodel memorial stadium.
 

As I always used to say, "Everyday is a gray day at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome."
 

Schnauzer said:
I had season tickets for both.

Metrodome was pretty bad. As others have said it didn’t feel like home.

* sea of blue seats
* in an attempt to personalize it, vinyl maroon/gold signs put up everywhere with Velcro. Looked soooo cheap.
* band sounded worse under the echos of the roof and microphones to put their sound over the speakers.

On the flip side the student section was better and better attended in my opinion. Ironic considering it was off campus and the kids had to take shuttle busses.
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My first year at the U was 2003. This is actually how I feel. Student turnout seemed better than now. Considering I had to take the bus there and it was a PIA after the game I'm confused why student turnout is so poor now. There just seems to be a lack of hype/enthusiasm

My buddy was just commenting walking into TCF Saturday night that how awesome it would have been to have TCF when we lived at University Village
 

I do miss the feelings of the stands about to collapse in the student section when everyone stomped their feet before the game.
 



I also have some nostalgia over the Metrodome because I attended so many Gophers, Twins and Vikings games there over the years. Although it had to go, I do have some fond Gopher memories.

1. My first game was in 1987 against Michigan and I got to witness Darrell Thompson scamper 98 yards for a TD. A Big Ten record that still holds today.
2. From 1999-2008 I sat next to the same couple and they were fantastic fans. Unfortunately the guy got sick and missed the final 2 home games in 2008. I gave my contact info to his son-in-law and instructed him to have him get in contact with me so we could try and sit together at TCF....it never happened. Every game I still hope to bump into them in the concourse somewhere but it never happens. I don't even know if they still have season tickets. I am still searching for that perfect seat neighbor in TCF. BilldGopher is in the same section, that's the closest I've got.
3. I was in the front row of the student section by the tunnel from 1997-1998. Back then they had assigned seats so I could always count on my primo seats. In 1998 when we beat MSU in the closing seconds, I got to see Glen Mason jump into the pile in the endzone and then get run over by his own team. I'm surprised me survived that one.
4. The Metrodome was the last time I got to witness us capturing the Axe in person
 

And, of course, the greatest thing about the Dome -

Leaving the place after the game and getting propelled out the door by that gust of wind at your back, so you stumbled out onto the steps and tried to get your balance.

And, FWIW, the Dome Dog was a decent value.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
And, of course, the greatest thing about the Dome -

Leaving the place after the game and getting propelled out the door by that gust of wind at your back, so you stumbled out onto the steps and tried to get your balance.

And, FWIW, the Dome Dog was a decent value.
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I still can sing the Hormel Row Of Fame song by heart. When I do, my kids think I've gone completely insane.
 

My first game was 1984 versus Rice to begin the short Holtz era. Gophs won a close a game and I remember there being fireworks after the game and thinking how weird that was, I mean it was Rice. The dome was a terrible venue, for any sport, but as college kid we made the best of it as fans and always had a big group form our fraternity that attended every game.

I continue to be amazed at the lack of student support at games but it is a different time.

In the end, the metrodome era of Gopher football was about as low as low can get. TCF hasn't turned out to be the magic cure for Gopher football but I think that tide is turning. TCF stadium adds so much to the campus. So glad to watch football on campus.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
And, of course, the greatest thing about the Dome -

Leaving the place after the game and getting propelled out the door by that gust of wind at your back, so you stumbled out onto the steps and tried to get your balance.

And, FWIW, the Dome Dog was a decent value.
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Wrong...The greatest thing about Gopher football at the Dome was you could get beer. I believe it was the only stadium in the B10 at the time that allowed you to do that.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
And, of course, the greatest thing about the Dome -

Leaving the place after the game and getting propelled out the door by that gust of wind at your back, so you stumbled out onto the steps and tried to get your balance.

And, FWIW, the Dome Dog was a decent value.
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Man I miss the blown out the door thing.

That was great.
 



I felt like it was good from 84-87. Students still attended and it filled up for Wisconsin and Iowa. Terrible thereafter.
 

pharmacygopher said:
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My first year at the U was 2003. This is actually how I feel. Student turnout seemed better than now. Considering I had to take the bus there and it was a PIA after the game I'm confused why student turnout is so poor now. There just seems to be a lack of hype/enthusiasm

My buddy was just commenting walking into TCF Saturday night that how awesome it would have been to have TCF when we lived at University Village
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Same here. First year was '03 and I would agree the students, compared to present day, showed up much better when I was a student STH at the Dome.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
And, of course, the greatest thing about the Dome -

Leaving the place after the game and getting propelled out the door by that gust of wind at your back, so you stumbled out onto the steps and tried to get your balance.

And, FWIW, the Dome Dog was a decent value.
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Dome dogs were pretty great. Also, almost lost my hat once walking out of the dome from that gust haha.

I've been lucky enough to see all my Gopher football at the Bank, so I only saw the Twins and Vikings at the Dome. For the Vikings, the energy worked, but just from the layout and what I imagine the attendance was, I can't imagine the Gophers had a real home feeling. I've watched videos like MN winning the Axe in 03 and it looked like a great time there, but the atmosphere and NFL design appear to strip the college stadium feel. Again, I never saw the Gophers in action there, so this my view is all educated guesses.
 

IceBoxGopher said:
Dome dogs were pretty great. Also, almost lost my hat once walking out of the dome from that gust haha.

I've been lucky enough to see all my Gopher football at the Bank, so I only saw the Twins and Vikings at the Dome. For the Vikings, the energy worked, but just from the layout and what I imagine the attendance was, I can't imagine the Gophers had a real home feeling. I've watched videos like MN winning the Axe in 03 and it looked like a great time there, but the atmosphere and NFL design appear to strip the college stadium feel. Again, I never saw the Gophers in action there, so this my view is all educated guesses.
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I went to US Bank stadium. It is a neat / ugly thing... and has as much character as the dome did...
 

Like Houston and Tulane, who left domes shared with pro teams to build on-campus stadiums, we felt the venue was really for the Vikings. Also, it didn't have the autumn feel of college football (a friend of mine called the Dome, "basically, a TV studio"). I remember once leaving a beautiful October afternoon to enter the Dome for a Gopher game - it didn't seem right. Its one appeal was on really cold or rainy days - it was always 72 inside. But unlike Memorial Stadium, it didn't seem like home. Still, there were some exciting games played there, especially at night - Michigan in '03 perhaps the most exciting.
 

I'm little bit nostalgic for the Dome, because that's literally where I became a Gopher football fan in the late 1990's and early 2000's. It was really convenient for people from the Western suburbs, and the tickets were incredibly cheap. I remember Bruegher's running a promotion offering a free Gopher ticket if you bought HALF A Dozen bagels. Not even a dozen!

Also, as people have commented, it could get really loud in there when the Gophers were going good. Mason's teams were really fun to watch on offense, and occasionally even on defense. Maroney and Barber in the same backfield, with Khaliq to make the defense pay for focusing too much on the run!

Oh, and absolutely the wind tunnel doors were a huge plus, if you were either a child or a somewhat immature adult. (I loved them, and I was not a child.)

All that being said, I also would endorse pretty much every negative described above. The gloomy, grey oppressive feel of the place was awful. And, because old wounds are there so you can always pick at them one more time: Michigan 2003; Wisconsin 2005. WHY???????????????
 

The dome was an awful place to watch the Gophers play. I remember going to an Ohio state game and I think the score was 60 something to 10. I went with my dad and even the Ohio state fans felt sorry for us. We also never leave games early. The dome was ugly with its purple seats and a lot of empty chairs.
 

The Dome and Holtz tie together. He did influence the Regents to continue on playing there.
 

BucktheFadgers said:
Wrong...The greatest thing about Gopher football at the Dome was you could get beer. I believe it was the only stadium in the B10 at the time that allowed you to do that.
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And boy, did we need a lot of it!
 

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