Author: David Shama

David Shama is a former sports editor and columnist with local publications. His writing and reporting experiences include covering the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Gophers. Shama’s career experiences also include sports marketing. He is the former Marketing Director of the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL. He is also the former Marketing Director of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Section. A native of Minneapolis, Shama has been part of the community his entire life. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He also has a Master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas. He was a member of the Governor’s NBA’s Task Force to help create interest in bringing pro basketball to town in the 1980s.

Critics Speak Up on U Stadium Branding

Posted on July 7, 2021 by David Shama

The rebranding of the University of Minnesota’s on-campus football stadium has prompted strong criticism from Golden Gophers fans and former players. The announcement last week that TCF Bank Stadium will now be Huntington Bank Stadium included the news Huntington’s green and white logo will be displayed at the facility. That doesn’t sit well with some M men and fans accustomed to the maroon and gold look of the TCF logo.

University officials have been working with Huntington for awhile on the transition, and the renaming was officially approved by the school’s Board of Regents last week. A couple of days later a trail of emails was sent to Sports Headliners including this from former Minnesota governor Arne Carlson:

“…If our leaders love green and white so much, they can go to Michigan State or North Dakota for their paychecks. I would be perfectly willing to kick in a contribution toward some billboards advertising this appalling lack of loyalty. This would also deeply concern Huntington in that it harms their brand.”

Former Gophers football captain Jim Carter started the email trail sent to many former U players and others like Carlson who are passionate about Minnesota football. Carter, a critic over the years of U leadership in both athletics and school administration, wrote the following:

“The Board of Regents had the authority to ask Huntington to follow what TCF did and use the traditional maroon and gold colors in the signage and branding of the stadium. There was a motion made at a recent…meeting to negotiate with Huntington to NOT use green and white, but to continue our proud tradition of using maroon and gold. The board defeated the motion 8-3. …”

In a telephone interview Carter said he understands the importance of corporate sponsorship to U athletic revenues (the original $35 million long-term deal with TCF Bank is still in place) but he’s an ongoing critic of the Board of Regents who he believes “rubber stamp” agenda items offered by school leaders. To Carter, the U and Gophers athletics are symbolized by maroon and gold, and he didn’t see the passion by regents or other school leadership to fight for the school colors.

“The maroon and gold is a tradition that I think should be protected at the U,” Carter said. “…The folks that are now serving on the Board of Regents and the administration don’t think of it the way many of us care about it.”

TCF Bank entered into a naming rights agreement for the stadium before the facility opened in 2009. This year TCF merged with Huntington which will operate 80 branches in the Twin Cities area. The Columbus, Ohio based-bank will introduce its branding at the U stadium before it’s unveiled at Minnesota banks in October, according to Danny Olsen, a communications executive with Huntington.

Olsen, who is based here and formerly worked for TCF, told Sports Headliners that TCF’s logo colors of red and yellow were “tweaked” to look more maroon and gold at the stadium, creating “perfect colors” to match Minnesota’s. In the minds of critics, including those who have voiced their feelings on fan forum GopherHole, the green and white will be a startling look to what they have seen in the past.

The Huntington logo will be on the front and back of the large scoreboard at the stadium’s open end. The logo will also be on the field in two places, just like the TCF logo was between the 10 and 20 yard lines. Olsen said field logos weren’t in the original naming rights deal but were added more recently when TCF agreed to help with funding for the Athletes Village project.

The Huntington green and white will be displayed on ATM machines in the stadium’s interior. The logo will also be seen in the interior in any previous places where major sponsors like TCF, Coke and Dairy Queen had visibility. The words Huntington Bank Stadium (not the logo) will be in prominent lettering on the outside of the stadium in the blend-with-brick style TCF Bank Stadium used.

Olsen didn’t acknowledge any criticism he has received about Huntington and the stadium. He pointed out Coke and Dairy Queen, both of whom use red and white in their logos, have been displayed for years on the scoreboard. He said Huntington’s green and white colors are “not unlike having your normal logo if you’re a sponsor at a stadium.”

Huntington Bank plans a marketing effort at Minnesota’s opening game against Ohio State September 2 at the stadium. In attendance will be executives from Columbus. Huntington isn’t involved with sponsorship of the Buckeyes or other Big Ten programs.

Worth Noting

Before becoming a college athletic director Joel Maturi was a high school coach. The now retired U AD told Sports Headliners teams he coached had an extra focus when the opening game was against a prominent opponent. Highly ranked Ohio State will certainly deserve the attention of Minnesota players this summer.

“I think…every Gopher in that locker room knows who they are playing,” Maturi said. “They’re going to be playing the No. 1, 2, 3 ranked team in the country in Huntington Bank Stadium for the first game and they’re going to be prepared as such.”

Dick Jonckowski, the Gophers former public address announcer for basketball and baseball, is booking emcee and speaking engagements as the pandemic eases. Sometimes he does both at events and pronounces: “Here is a guy who needs no introduction.”

Jonckowski recovered from lymphoma cancer earlier this year and is feeling fine.

The Collegiate Preferred Seating Exemption provision in the Tax Bill that passed that passed in the state legislature last week will benefit the budgets of Minnesota universities and colleges. Included is the University of Minnesota with predicted savings of more than $1 million per year to help fund scholarships and other programs for athletes, according to the Maroon and Gold Rising nonprofit that advocated for the exemption. Legislative leadership came from Representative Mohamud Noor and Senator Greg Clausen.

Former Gophers administrators Beth Goetz, now AD at Ball State, and John Cunningham, AD at Cincinnati, might draw interest to fill the Nebraska athletic director opening.

Football great Herschel Walker, whose career stops included with the Vikings, may run for U.S. Senate in his native Georgia.

Best guess is everyone on the disappointing Minnesota Twins roster is subject to possible trade this summer. Put an asterisk before the name of No. 1 starter Jose Berrios, with the disclaimer it will take what team brass considers a mega return for the right hander.

The club’s pitching is underwhelming, but the American League All-Star Game roster includes former Twins pitchers Kyle Gibson, Liam Hendriks, Lance Lynn and Ryan Pressly. That’s one-third of the 12-man pitching crew for the July 13 game against the National League in Denver.

KARE 11 sportscaster Eric Perkins announced on Twitter this morning he is leaving the station after 25 years. He didn’t detail future plans but mentioned he is looking forward to more time with family.

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100-Year-Old Swain a Gopher Treasure

Posted on July 5, 2021July 5, 2021 by David Shama

Tom Swain owns eight season tickets for University of Minnesota home football games. That might prompt a yawn, but here is the rest of the story: he or his family have owned season tickets every year except one since 1921.

“The year of my birth,” Swain told Sports Headliners.

This is birthday celebration week for the U grad, class of 1942 with a business and accounting degree. He celebrated his 100th birthday with family on Sunday. The U’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs will host a celebration Wednesday afternoon at the McNamara Alumni Center, and admirers will pay tribute to their friend whose professional career has crisscrossed the private and public sectors including the state’s flagship university. On Saturday he will be recognized for his milestone birthday, military service and dedication to climate change before the Minnesota Twins game at Target Field.

What does 100 feel like? Swain lives independently in a Lilydale care facility. He has spinal stenosis and uses a walker. He has peripheral neuropathy and difficulty with his larynx. But he is an articulate, active, humble and grateful centenarian.

“There are such few people that get there (to 100), I feel very gratified,” Swain said. “I am very fortunate to have made it this far because growing old is a privilege denied to many. I am not sure why I deserve to get to 100 but I am very grateful.”

Swain is a believer in staying active and finding a cause. “It gives you something to wake up for and get involved in,” he said.

When people asked what he wanted to do for his birthday, he brought up climate change. He describes it as the most important issue facing the world and believes much has to be done to avoid “an ominous end to this planet.”

The Swain Climate Policy Fund has raised over $300,000 to create awareness and pay for speakers and programs at the U. At Wednesday’s party attendees will learn more about the initiative that is particularly focused on making younger generations more aware of the climate change story and issues ahead.

Swain has four children, seven grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. He spent most of Sunday with family and he learned his grandkids have been writing to their representatives in Congress urging them to create better national policy. “The future is pretty bleak for my great grandchildren unless we get involved in more vigorous solutions,” he said.

Tom Swain (Photo credit University of Minnesota)

Swain grew up in Minneapolis and attended Washburn High School. When he was 17 years old his father vanished and no one ever learned what happened to him. Swain drove his dad to the Milwaukee Depot train station for a business trip to Madison, Wisconsin. That was the last he saw of a father who left behind a wife and four children. This was during the devastating U.S. Depression. Resourcefully, Swain’s mom became a successful life insurance agent at a time when women were mostly homemakers and less than 20 years after women were granted the right to vote in the United States.

Swain financed his education at the U by working in the Gophers’ ticket office. When he eventually earned the lofty sum of 50 cents per hour, he was supposedly one of only four students on campus rewarded that much for their jobs.

Swain loved Gophers football as a young man. While he was a student at the U, coach Bernie Bierman’s powerhouse teams won national titles in 1940 and 1941. Swain got to know the players, who were his peers at the U. His life changed, though, when he joined the Army Air Corps during World War II. In 1946 his military commitment ended and he was unsure of the path ahead.

Turned out his connections to the U Athletic Department opened a door for him. Athletic director Frank McCormick had heard complaints from football players that they needed assistance with school work. Swain became the first academic advisor for athletics at Minnesota. “It was my job to get them in school and get keep them eligible,” he recalled. “Now they got an army (of advisors) doing that.”

During his professional career Swain had 16 salaried positions. And with self-deprecation he said, “I had a lot of jobs, I couldn’t hold them.”

At age 75 he became an interim vice president at the U. Then at 83 he came back to campus with the same title, specializing in communications and government affairs. He’s been an advisor to presidents and athletics directors including Joel Maturi.

As a volunteer member of the athletics advisory board, Swain impressed Maturi. “Tom wasn’t afraid to speak his mind,” Maturi said Sunday. “He always did it respectfully but if he didn’t agree with you he said so. I’ve always respected that and admired that.”

Swain has known most of the Gophers athletic directors and he gave present AD Mark Coyle an endorsement, calling him “extremely capable.” These are challenging times for college administrators including at Minnesota. The financial hit because of the pandemic and other developments has caught Swain’s attention. “I hate to see some of the difficulties they’re experiencing now,” he said.

A longtime resident of Lilydale, the town decreed Sunday, July 4 as Tom Swain Day. At age 85 he was elected Lilydale’s mayor, succeeding a 91 year old in what Swain describes as a “youth movement.” He served two terms as mayor and is still on the town planning commission.

Politics has long interested Swain. He was campaign manager for former governor Elmer L. Andersen, who led the state in the early 1960s. Andersen served just one term, failing to be re-elected in a close election. Swain was charged with heading the Andersen recount effort and joked that some folks held him responsible for his boss becoming an ex-governor because he couldn’t find 91 more votes.

Swain, whose private sector career included executive leadership with insurance companies, wrote a memoir in 2015, Citizen Swain: Tales from a Minnesota Life.

Since then he could certainly add more chapters.

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Double-Whammy for Twins Ticket Sales

Posted on June 23, 2021 by David Shama

The Minnesota Twins, who like their MLB brethren lost millions of dollars in 2020 because of the pandemic, are facing a new challenge selling tickets for home games because of crime in Minneapolis and the disappointing performance of the team.

Murders, shootings, carjackings and other lawlessness have soiled the reputation of a once great city. Much of the crime has been downtown and some of it near the Twins’ Target Field home.

Fans, particularly from the outer suburbs, greater Minnesota and the Dakotas, think twice about coming to the big city now. In fact, many don’t need to think at all about a trip to Minneapolis. They are too frightened to even consider it.

Since 1961, the franchise’s first season in Minnesota, the Twins have relied on fans from outside the Twin Cities for a significant portion of their fan base and revenues. Now countless individuals and families are hesitant (at best) to buy tickets to see their favorite team. A Sports Headliners reader and Twin Cities resident said his elderly father, living in southeast Minnesota, wouldn’t come to Minneapolis “for 10 million dollars.”

Minneapolis violence and headlines like “Defund the Police” scare many Minnesotans and other potential visitors to the city. Attracting people to the state’s flagship city is a mega challenge for not just the Twins, of course, but also downtown restaurants, bars, hotels, retailers, and employers. One can only take a deep breath and hope the leadership of City Hall will improve, prioritizing safe streets and neighborhoods including downtown, Uptown, Dinkytown and the north side.

Public relations authority Dave Mona believes the “Defund the Police” slogan will haunt the Twin Cities’ reputation for years. A long time Twins fan and civic leader, Mona knows first hand the front office is concerned about getting fans back into the ballpark. He said the club has “done a lot of research” about the issue.

While Mona said he feels safe attending games, he recognizes the apprehension of other fans and the predicament the franchise faces in losing part of its historically important fan base. Combined with the team’s performance on the field, a lot of fans have been staying away from the park.

Mona recognizes the situation as a “double whammy” for ticket sales. “…When the Yankees come to town and you don’t draw 20,000 people, you gotta scratch your head because the Yankees were over the years…pretty much fool proof no matter how the Twins were doing, or how the Yankees were doing. Those were series that drew fans. It’s been slow to come back (attendance now versus the past). I am sure they (the Twins front office) are very concerned.”

The Twins hosted the Yankees for three games earlier this month and announced attendance each game was 17,000 to 18,000. Even with a COVID mandate limiting capacity to 80 percent at Target Field, the attendance for the Yankees series wasn’t close to maximum. Starting with games July 5, Target Field will be at full capacity of nearly 40,000.

Hard to say which factor contributes most to the Twins’ “double whammy” situation, but attendance average is among the lowest in club history so far. The Twins are averaging 11,818 fans for home games and rank No. 19 among 30 MLB franchises, according to ESPN.com. There was a time the franchise sold more season tickets than what the club is averaging now. To be fair, the Twins and others in MLB would have better numbers if not for the pandemic limitations and fears.

Minnesota was a preseason favorite to be among the better clubs in baseball. The core of the team had produced consecutive AL Central Division titles, and a win-now attitude was in place. “There’s no question the focus now is on 2021 and we think we’re well positioned to win a lot of baseball games,” Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners before the season began.

The club, though, has suffered through perhaps an unprecedented number of key injuries, particularly to position players, while the pitching staff has faltered badly at times. The bullpen has been unreliable, including falling apart late in games. Starting pitching has been inconsistent, with the ongoing saga of Minnesota trying to find a shutdown ace.

Before the season, the Twins might have been expected to be 10 games over .500 in late June. As of today they are 31-42. Minnesota has produced better results of late, going 11-12 in the last 23 games and winning five straight before losing yesterday to the Cincinnati Reds.

It’s a long climb ahead, though, for the team to become a playoff contender. It will be a challenge hindered now by yet another injury to club MVP Byron Buxton that has him sidelined indefinitely (left hand fracture in his third game back after missing the previous 40).

The Twins have a well-earned reputation for appealing promotions and creating a fan-friendly atmosphere at Target Field, a venue that ranks among the best in baseball. Part of the marketing involves honoring heroes like Twins legends, first responders and war veterans. That recognition deserves applause and plays well to much of the franchise’s target audience, including those living in greater Minnesota, but winning baseball will sell more tickets and so will a perception the streets downtown are safe.

After Labor Day more workers will return downtown as the pandemic eases. Hospitality attractions are expected to be busier in coming months, bringing more people to the city. The First Avenue hot spot near Target Field has already announced a lineup of entertainment for this year and next.

More people on the streets will help lessen fears about downtown. There is certainly increased confidence in being one of 100 people walking from the Nicollet Mall to Target Field than being alone or in a small group.

“People (will) have to feel safe, and they need to tell their friends about it,” Mona said when asked about how the city and Twins eventually get beyond the current environment. “People need to stick their toes in the water and start coming back downtown.”

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