Timberwolves president Chris Wright told Sports Headliners the new basketball floor at Target Center won’t be in place until the team’s opening regular season game on October 29.
Wright said the Wolves have renewed about 76 percent of their full season tickets. Seats that weren’t renewed are available to new purchasers. He expects season tickets of about 5,000 and with partial season packages total of about 6,000, similar numbers to last year.
The Wolves have some $20 per game lower level season tickets available.
Former Pioneer Press Timberwolves beat writer Rick Alonzo, now covering the Vikings for the St. Paul newspaper, predicts the Wolves will win 33 and lose 59 next season, an 11 game improvement over 2007-2008.
The Wild reported that 96 percent of its season ticket holders have renewed for the 2008-09 NHL season. The Wild will offer approximately 2,000 tickets per game for all games at Xcel Energy Center. Over 7,500 people are on the Wild Warming House season ticket holder waiting list, according to a franchise news release.
The Gophers open their Big Ten Conference season at Ohio State on Saturday and the Buckeyes lead the series 40-7. Ouch.
The Gophers’ Big Ten schedule is favorable, not having to play Penn State, perhaps the conference’s best team, and dark horse Michigan State. Plus, the Gophers play three of the more beatable teams at home, Indiana, Northwestern and Iowa. If quarterback Adam Weber and wide receiver Eric Decker stay healthy, the Gophers could win two or more conference games after being winless last season.
In 2009, for the first time in memory, the Gopher football team will open its Big Ten Conference home schedule against Wisconsin.
Another scheduling oddity has Tubby Smith’s Gopher basketball team opening its conference schedule at home on New Year’s Eve of this year. Michigan State will be the opponent.
Former Gopher football player Mark Dusbabek, is a PGA rules official.
Three football coaches with Minnesota ties who could be job hunting by January are Scott Linehan, Ty Willingham and Mitch Browning. Linehan, the former Vikings offensive coordinator, is 0-3 as head coach of the St. Louis Rams after being 3-13 last season. Willingham, another former Vikings assistant, is off to a 0-3 start at the University of Washington where his career record is 11-28, according to Wikipedia.org. Browning, the Gophers offensive coordinator under Glen Mason, has the same title at Syracuse where the Orange is 1-3 including a loss to Akron and win over Northeastern. Head coach Greg Robinson has a 7-31 record at Syracuse, according to Wikipedia.org.
The Minnesota Thunder was undefeated in its last six games and now has earned the seventh and final playoff spot in the USL First Division. The Thunder will play the Vancouver Whitecaps in a two-game aggregate score series on Friday in Vancouver, and on Sunday, September 28 at the National Sports Center starting at 5:05 p.m. Each ticket purchased in advance of Sunday’s game is $2 off. For ticket information, call 651-989-5151 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
“The team really did what they had to do down the stretch,” Djorn Buchholz, Thunder general manager, said via e-mail. “To go unbeaten in our last six games with three of them being wins is exactly what we needed. We’re playing our best soccer of the year right now and hopefully that carries us far into the playoffs.”
Trivia answer: Ed Marinaro.