The Gophers have an opportunity...

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mnsportsgeek

mnsportsgeek

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I realize it's only the first half of the Vikings game, but we all knew this was going to happen. The Gophers have to take advantage of these next few years and win back some fans. They have a real opportunity to make some noise in MN. It could be fun to see the atmosphere we can create if the Gophers start winning with the Vikings struggling heavily.

It will be very interesting to see what happens if we can bring home Floyd and the Axe.
 

There are a lot of empty seats

today at the vikes game. They may come back to win this game, but the town knows they are in for a rough season with the vikes.
 

A football fan is a football fan. Most people aren't fans of one but not the other. They'll cheer for (and spend time and money on) whichever team is more exciting to watch.

We don't need to make Gophers fans out of Minnesota football fans. We just need to get them in the habit of paying attention to the Gophers.
 

Not sure of the best place to put this. Take it with a grain of salt.

Tweet from Fuller:

The competition has something to do with it. But interesting that Gophers lead Big 10 in offense & defense pass efficiency (180.8 and 75.7)
 

Well, the Vikings just ripped defeat out of the arms of victory.....again.

The Badger kicker may save the day?
 


Wow... as bad as we are. This is a great ball game.
 

Vikes win!

I know some here disagree, but I'll always be a fan of both Minnesota teams.

Glad to see both off to winning starts.
 

Ben Nelsen said:
Vikes win!

I know some here disagree, but I'll always be a fan of both Minnesota teams.

Glad to see both off to winning starts.
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Same, when Gopher fans cheer against the Vikings I find it very annoying. Makes me wish I could pick these hacks out in a crowd. :mad:
 

For the record, I am in no way trashing the Vikings. I am a huge Viking fan and Gopher fan as well. I'm simply stating, that it is a great time for the Gophers to pick up some much needed season tickets.
 



Not really. Vikings fans will want tickets in the new stadium so they will stay (or jump) on board regardless of the product on the field.

Face it. This is not a college football town. I'm watching Kare 11 news as we speak and the lead story is the Vikings win today. The have a whole 10 minute "Vikngs Extra" segment. They beat you over the head with it.
 

I agree with Art.

This is a Vikings town. If you talk to a bunch of people about the weekend in football, almost everybody you meet will be referencing the Vikes.
 

I am totally lost by this sentiment, the Vikings have to struggle for people to be Gophers fans, if you're a Minnesotan, why would you want the Vikings to struggle so more people would pay attention to the Gophers, here's a weird concept, I'm a Minnesotan, and i'm BOTH A VIKINGS AND GOPHERS FAN!!!!!! and Twins, Wild and Timberwolves, heck even Lynx. Stop with this dribble about "having to capture the moment while the vikings are struggling to bring attention to the Gophers". It's a pathetic thing to say. If the Gophers win, they may or may not bring more fans. I has NOTHING to do with the Vikings or any other damn team.
 

It isn't a zero-sum game. Ticket holders aren't at all likely to switch from one team to another. Vikings season ticket holders are the fans most devoted to the Vikings. Getting more people in the stands for Gophers games does not involve getting Vikings fans to switch, but to get people from the couch to TCF.
 



IMO the best way for the Gophers to grow their fanbase is to get current students to the games and vested in the program to the point where they will be willing to invest time and money in the team after they graduate. I think its unlikely that the Gophers will be good enough and the Vikings bad enough that they will convince people to give up on the Vikings to concentrate on the Gophers. Even if some fans did switch they would be the first ones to jump off the Gopher ship when the waters get rough.
 

Ron Johnson Super Fan said:
IMO the best way for the Gophers to grow their fanbase is to get current students to the games and vested in the program to the point where they will be willing to invest time and money in the team after they graduate. I think its unlikely that the Gophers will be good enough and the Vikings bad enough that they will convince people to give up on the Vikings to concentrate on the Gophers. Even if some fans did switch they would be the first ones to jump off the Gopher ship when the waters get rough.
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I agree with this. The fans of these respective teams are pretty much two different species, at least at the level of the truly ardent.
 

The best way for this to be a Gopher town is to win. Blaming the Vikings for the U's football problems is like blaming South Dakota for Minnesota taxes. The issue is and always has been leadership, resources and expectations from the Administration on down. I wasted a lot of years blaming the Vikings for the Gophs problems, I was completely wrong and it is a negative small view of the world.Tthe only harm the Vikes did the Gophs was the metrodome, and given that the U leadership at the time never would have had the guts to build a new stadium on campus, even that was not competley their fault.
The Vikes have never hired a nitwit Goph coach, never set the lowest FB salaries in the B1G, never hired a Goph AD that cared more about the Directors Cup than a B1G championship in FB or BB. Never had an irrascible old lady running the Goph academic counseling program that was so bad they had to let a basketball coach have his own academic counselors.
Even Joel M was a big improvement over anyone before him besides Dienhart. Basically, U presidents before Bruininks did not want to be bothered with the AD and it showed.
.
 

I don't agree that there is this gulf between Vikings fans and Gophers fans. An awful lot of the people who are in the stands at TCF on Friday are watching the Vikings on TV on Sunday.
 

Gopher028 said:
I am totally lost by this sentiment, the Vikings have to struggle for people to be Gophers fans, if you're a Minnesotan, why would you want the Vikings to struggle so more people would pay attention to the Gophers, here's a weird concept, I'm a Minnesotan, and i'm BOTH A VIKINGS AND GOPHERS FAN!!!!!! and Twins, Wild and Timberwolves, heck even Lynx. Stop with this dribble about "having to capture the moment while the vikings are struggling to bring attention to the Gophers". It's a pathetic thing to say. If the Gophers win, they may or may not bring more fans. I has NOTHING to do with the Vikings or any other damn team.
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Completely agree!
 

RodentRampage said:
I don't agree that there is this gulf between Vikings fans and Gophers fans. An awful lot of the people who are in the stands at TCF on Friday are watching the Vikings on TV on Sunday.
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The supposed gulf is just talked about by some of the more vocal anti-Viking fans on this site, I think you are correct that most fans of Gopher football are fans of the Vikings (aside from students/alums from Wisconsin or something)
 

If they want to win back fans they need to be a regular bowl goer and sometimes contend for the conference title.
They can start by winning the next game which puts them half way to a bowl game.
 

Gopher_Ace said:
Same, when Gopher fans cheer against the Vikings I find it very annoying. Makes me wish I could pick these hacks out in a crowd. :mad:
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Ha - scary little red face guy.

You do realize people attend the university that aren't from this state, right? Why would all gopher fans be vikings fans?

My emotion: :eek: Or wait, maybe it's :eek:
 

Sweaty Frasier said:
Ha - scary little red face guy.

You do realize people attend the university that aren't from this state, right? Why would all gopher fans be vikings fans?

My emotion: :eek: Or wait, maybe it's :eek:
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Sweaty - i second your emotion. it amazes me that some posters believe that to be a gopher fan you must also hate everything from the state of wisconsin. some of the biggest gopher fans in the world are from wisconsin and - gasp - root for the packers on sunday.

inversely, most of the badger fans i know are minnesotans that went to uw and - gasp - still root for the vikings on sunday.

go gophers.
 

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