Somebody screwed up big time with the band

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josh087 said:
I'm sure if it was up to PJ it would be there. He genuinely likes the band. He loves the band's energy - which is not surprising. That was always something I appreciated about Mason, too. He would stop by and talk to the band at least once a year, and really enjoyed directing the rouser. He actually did a somewhat decent job of it too.
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Makes sense.

PJ doesn't stop.... and on gameday that band is out there long before the game and after the game too.... they have a LONG day.
 

I wish no ill will on the band, but why do they think they have a right to the axe? In the thread about ticket renewals people are bitching about the poor marketing at the U; can't we all agree it is better that the axe was at the Viking game? Tailgaters and the student section put in a long day too which adds to the atmosphere, do they get to have the axe as well?
 


Clark W. Griswold said:
I wish no ill will on the band, but why do they think they have a right to the axe? In the thread about ticket renewals people are bitching about the poor marketing at the U; can't we all agree it is better that the axe was at the Viking game? Tailgaters and the student section put in a long day too which adds to the atmosphere, do they get to have the axe as well?
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They didn't want it at the concert INSTEAD of it being at the Vikings game, or anywhere else for that matter.

The concert was at 2PM. The football game was at 7:20PM. The venues are 1.9 miles apart. Hell, you could have crawled the axe from the concert to the game in plenty of time.

If the axe was somewhere meaningful Sunday afternoon - fine. But they were told it wasn't. It was just sitting at US Bank.
 

Clark W. Griswold said:
I wish no ill will on the band, but why do they think they have a right to the axe? In the thread about ticket renewals people are bitching about the poor marketing at the U; can't we all agree it is better that the axe was at the Viking game? Tailgaters and the student section put in a long day too which adds to the atmosphere, do they get to have the axe as well?
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PJ said that the axe was for everyone, not just the team. The band has had the other trophies at band events in the past, so this isn't some sort of new precedent they are trying to set. I don't mind that the axe went to the Vikings game, but we haven't gotten an answer as to why it had to be there 5hrs before the game. When the band performed at the vikings halftime show, all 320 of us got there after the game started, so its not a logistics issue.

I expect the axe will be travelling around MN for fans to take pictures with it, and the fact that athletics seems to be snubbing the band (who put so much time into game day) is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
 


Seems like Mark Coyle could have ran it down there without incident and made everybody happy.

That said, between this and the angst over the team switching sidelines we’ve reached Peak First World Problems.
 

swelna said:
PJ said that the axe was for everyone, not just the team. The band has had the other trophies at band events in the past, so this isn't some sort of new precedent they are trying to set. I don't mind that the axe went to the Vikings game, but we haven't gotten an answer as to why it had to be there 5hrs before the game. When the band performed at the vikings halftime show, all 320 of us got there after the game started, so its not a logistics issue.

I expect the axe will be travelling around MN for fans to take pictures with it, and the fact that athletics seems to be snubbing the band (who put so much time into game day) is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
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We still only have the story from the band's side of things so have to be careful about jumping to conclusions. It seems unlikely that athletics would go out of their way to snub the band so there probably is more to the story.

Plus it was just one event, it is not like the band was told they would never get to see the Axe or have access to it. There were a lot of things in play in a really short period of time, I'm sure everyone was scrambling to a certain degree.

I could certainly be wrong and athletics may have set out to snub the band but I don't really see what is gained in that.
 

Clark W. Griswold said:
I wish no ill will on the band, but why do they think they have a right to the axe? In the thread about ticket renewals people are bitching about the poor marketing at the U; can't we all agree it is better that the axe was at the Viking game? Tailgaters and the student section put in a long day too which adds to the atmosphere, do they get to have the axe as well?
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No, can't agree that it was better at a Vikings game over a U of M event. It is a U of M thing first.
If the Vikings game would have been at noon and the band wanted it at 2 pm, it still wouldn't matter. It should be at the U of M event first.

Having said that, either way it could have been at both without too much difficulty.
 

MNVCGUY said:
We still only have the story from the band's side of things so have to be careful about jumping to conclusions. It seems unlikely that athletics would go out of their way to snub the band so there probably is more to the story.

Plus it was just one event, it is not like the band was told they would never get to see the Axe or have access to it. There were a lot of things in play in a really short period of time, I'm sure everyone was scrambling to a certain degree.

I could certainly be wrong and athletics may have set out to snub the band but I don't really see what is gained in that.
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I personally don't think they are trying to "snub" anyone. That seems like a accusation without knowledge of the entire situation. The only thing I know is that there wasn't a good explanation provided to them (at least not on Sunday afternoon) why the axe couldn't be brought there when it was just sitting 1.9 miles away.

It just seems weird that if there was a good reason it needed to be at US Bank all afternoon why they wouldn't just share that with the band.
 



MNVCGUY said:
But....but....but....it is so much easier to be outraged and assume there is an evil intent behind it. Until someone can come out and prove they did it just to spite the band I am going to continue working under the assumption that there was probably a good reason why they couldn't honor the request.
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Not outraged, per se, but I am continually bothered by this crap that the U pulls all too often. The U is all too often inflexible when it comes to traditions and rules that should be relaxed.

File this denial in the way too full cabinet of disappointing things the U does when it clearly should find a way to make it happen. For an institution of creative learning and problem-solving, stories like this are disappointing to say the least.
 



MNVCGUY said:
We still only have the story from the band's side of things so have to be careful about jumping to conclusions. It seems unlikely that athletics would go out of their way to snub the band so there probably is more to the story.

Plus it was just one event, it is not like the band was told they would never get to see the Axe or have access to it. There were a lot of things in play in a really short period of time, I'm sure everyone was scrambling to a certain degree.

I could certainly be wrong and athletics may have set out to snub the band but I don't really see what is gained in that.
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What you said is not true. We don’t have the band’s side of the story. We have some guy who has no current affiliations story. There is no story. An old man went to a concert, noticed the ax wasn’t there, asked why not, another old man said because the athletics department didn’t let them have it
 



Some guy said:
What you said is not true. We don’t have the band’s side of the story. We have some guy who has no current affiliations story. There is no story. An old man went to a concert, noticed the ax wasn’t there, asked why not, another old man said because the athletics department didn’t let them have it
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Now we're getting to the bottom of the story! It was you. What's your gripe? Why are you stirring the pot? We want answers! ;)
 

I really wish the athletic department would address this. Because it sure seems like it could have been at both events. I'm starting to get the feeling that the athletic department was simply too lazy....and yes.....snubbed the band. That's bull$hit and it should be cleared up.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 

stocker08 said:
I really wish the athletic department would address this. Because it sure seems like it could have been at both events. I'm starting to get the feeling that the athletic department was simply too lazy....and yes.....snubbed the band. That's bull$hit and it should be cleared up.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
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For sure. Not responding to a letter they likely never read is definitely an admission of guilt
 

The axe at Vikings game lets it get coverage with Thielen and Sherels and curling guys on all the Vikings social media and can get talked about on TV. That reaches the whole Vikings social media audience and possibly the TV audience. The marching band concert reaches what, 200 people? And likely nobody even cares about it on social media? Saw the editorial yesterday in paper, seems really stupid anyone's making a big deal about it. Band didn't play football
 

I nominate this matter for "non issue" issue of the season.
 

rowdaboat said:
The axe at Vikings game lets it get coverage with Thielen and Sherels and curling guys on all the Vikings social media and can get talked about on TV. That reaches the whole Vikings social media audience and possibly the TV audience. The marching band concert reaches what, 200 people? And likely nobody even cares about it on social media? Saw the editorial yesterday in paper, seems really stupid anyone's making a big deal about it. Band didn't play football
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NOBODY EVEN KNOWS IF THE BAND EVEN WANTED IT
 

Some guy said:
What you said is not true. We don’t have the band’s side of the story. We have some guy who has no current affiliations story. There is no story. An old man went to a concert, noticed the ax wasn’t there, asked why not, another old man said because the athletics department didn’t let them have it
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Bro, I have affiliations. Others on this site can verify this.

I didn't speak to anyone about this except the band staff, specifically the director of the band herself who was the one personally texting with the athletics department. I even know who specifically she was texting, but don't want to involve that person because I have no idea if that person was the one making the decision (likely not).

I wouldn't come on here with this unless it was straight from the horse's mouth.
 


Vandy said:
I nominate this matter for "non issue" issue of the season.
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I agree. In the grand scheme of things this is a very small thing, and really, the band isn't even that upset by it judging from our conversations.

I simply saw a 9-page thread with tons of speculation and people jumping to conclusions, and incorrect things being said, and people blaming PJ, etc - and simply just wanted you all to get the facts of what happened. That is all.

Sorry I didn't see this thread until today or else I could have cleared this up a lot earlier before this thing reached 140 posts.
 
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rowdaboat said:
The axe at Vikings game lets it get coverage with Thielen and Sherels and curling guys on all the Vikings social media and can get talked about on TV. That reaches the whole Vikings social media audience and possibly the TV audience. The marching band concert reaches what, 200 people? And likely nobody even cares about it on social media? Saw the editorial yesterday in paper, seems really stupid anyone's making a big deal about it. Band didn't play football
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So? Do we really want drunk Vikings fans infiltrating the pure Gopher fan base? :cool:
 




stocker08 said:
I really wish the athletic department would address this. Because it sure seems like it could have been at both events. I'm starting to get the feeling that the athletic department was simply too lazy....and yes.....snubbed the band. That's bull$hit and it should be cleared up.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
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That's what I think. I dont believe that the department would want to snub the band. My problem is, I feel like in these situations, our athletic departments attitude is not "is there any way we can make this happen?", its "oh, well, we were planning on taking it to the Vikings game 5 hours early, so I guess since we would have to rearrange some things, it won't work."

This by itself is a very minor thing. But it is reflective of the departments attitude towards its fans andstakeholders. A lot of these little things over the years are why they are so bad at selling tickets.
 

Does the axe fit in your typical hatchback? Perhaps the university doesn’t have ready Sunday access to a vehicle with the required cab or bed space. Surely Coyle could have stuck it out the window of his Smart car.
 

Ten pages! Heard there were big lines at Coffman to see the axe...
 

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