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.

Wild Owner Talks Needed Upgrades

Posted on August 11, 2020August 11, 2020 by David Shama

Personable Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold spoke one-on-one with Sports Headliners yesterday via telephone. The club’s hopes of a Stanley Cup run ended in a qualifying series loss to Vancouver last Friday. Leipold spoke to that disappointment and more in the following interview, with questions and answers edited for clarity and brevity.

The Wild lost the series 3-1 after winning the first game. What is your reaction to how the team played in the series?

I thought our first game that we played was maybe our best game of the year. I am not disappointed in the effort. I think we played hard. I think we’re as good a team as Vancouver is. There were a lot of good things that came out of that series.

Why do you think the Wild had difficulty holding leads?

That’s a tough one. Losing Ryan Suter (late in game three and unavailable for game four) that hurt us. They (the Canucks) are a good team and they have a lot of really fast young scorers. We knew that we had to play really well defensively and offensively in order to win that series, and we just couldn’t get it done.

What happened with Suter not playing?

He got a puck (hit) in the same area (right ankle) that was damaged two years. The coaches and medical (staff), out of caution, didn’t want him to take a chance that there was something really wrong with it. He might have been ready for the next game (last Sunday) but we didn’t have an MRI back for that Friday game and just out of an abundance of caution they thought it was best to hold him out.

I think Wild fans look at the franchise and say general managers change and coaches change but the club can’t make a deep playoff run? Are you as frustrated as they are?

Yeah, I think we all are. Five, six years ago we had some really pretty good teams but our first round matchup was against the best team in the NHL, Chicago. They were winning the (Stanley) Cup and we just couldn’t get past them. We need to get past the first round, second round in order to really become as good as we think we can be.

What will it take to change things?

We need to be better right down the middle. We need a good first line center—I think is going to be important to us. I think our goaltending needs to improve. Last year (season) it was not good. That needs to be better. I think if both of those (center and goalie) are better for us, I think we’ll be a better team.

How do you see the goalie competition going forward?

Frankly, we’ve had no conversation on that. That’s going to be up to Billy (GM Guerin) and what direction that goes in. I am certain that’s something Billy is going to take a good look at.

Suter and Parise were paid a lot of money several years ago on their contracts that brought them to Minnesota. Have they been worth the money?

I get asked that question at the end of every season. I would do it over again in one second. It changed our franchise. They’re not the reason that we haven’t gone as far as we would like to be. Ryan continues to be the mainstay of our defense. Great defensive player, gobbles up a lot of minutes for us. Zach Parise was still our leading scorer last year.

As you watched the series in person did you feel the chemistry was right on the ice?

I thought our chemistry on the team was fantastic. I had the pleasure of seeing all the players everyday…all the time. The chemistry between all the players, the leadership in the locker room and the camaraderie that they have I think is absolutely fantastic. I am really encouraged by how our players play together, both on and off the ice, and how they feel about each other.

Have you seen enough of forward Kevin Fiala to be convinced he is a star already?

He certainly is a difference maker. When he’s got the puck on his stick, the other team is playing hard. They know he is a special player. We’re real excited about Kevin Fiala on our team. We’re hopeful that we can surround him with players that can get him the puck in the right spot and he can bury it.

Do you plan to be any more involved this offseason than in past ones?

No, I absolutely do not. I spent a lot of time with Bill Guerin in the last few months. I can’t be more happy with that decision (to hire Guerin last year). He is the right guy. Highly motivated, incredibly competent. He knows what to do. I am excited about Billy, and I am excited about Dean (new coach Dean Evason). I think those two guys are going to work really well together. It’s their decisions, it’s not mine. I’ll keep my hands off. I’ll give them advice (but) they all know the advice I give them is the advice of a fan, not an owner.

What did you see in Dean that you like?

When we’re watching all the players practicing on the ice, somebody asked me who is the hardest working guy out there. My answer is Dean Evason. My God, he is a hard, hard working coach. He is on the ice directing all the plays, all the practices, the scrimmages. You’d see him on the bus and on the airplane. He’s constantly looking at video and talking to the assistants. I am very happy with what I see out of Dean.

Mikko Koivu is 37 years old. Will he return for next season?

I have no idea. There will be time for that discussion. That will be Mikko’s decision and Bill’s decision.

How long is it financially sustainable for the Wild to play without fans in stands?

We’re fine for next year. It’s hard, it’s expensive and obviously we lose a lot of money. You can’t have fans, that’s your No. 1 source of revenue. Next year we already have it figured out (a budgeted loss). If we don’t have fans (at some point during the season), we don’t. We’re going to have to find other ways to generate revenue if we can. We have to find a way to survive and we’ll do that.

What’s your reaction to speculation that because the season was cut short, the franchise lost millions of dollars and sustained the biggest deficit since you bought the club in 2008?

Yeah, I would confirm that.

What are your thoughts about the upcoming NHL Draft?

We have the ninth pick and that’s not a bad pick. It’s a great draft. It’s a deep draft so we think our ninth pick is going to be a really, really good player.

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Tommies Hoops: Big Time Potential

Posted on August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 by David Shama

Transitioning from Division III, the University of St. Thomas takes its 22-sports program into Division I competition in a year. Tommies men’s basketball has the long-term potential to become the first money-making program in the athletic department, and perhaps one day emerge as a high profile national team.

School athletics director Phil Esten was asked about the program eventually earning that kind of success. Maybe in 10 years? “I certainly think that we’re going to make progress toward that,” Esten told Sports Headliners.

Right now the Tommies are at the starting line. For the first five years, men’s basketball and the other UST sports aren’t eligible to participate in NCAA Tournaments. Men’s basketball and most of the other UST sports will compete in the Summit League. The initial goal is for the basketball team to soon hold its own in a mid-major conference that includes four schools from the Dakotas. “I think we can be a very competitive basketball team (in the future),” said Esten, who has been a high level athletics administrator at Minnesota, California and Penn State.

In men’s basketball the Tommies can target the quality recruiting base in the Twin Cities area. “There’s a lot of very deep and rich talent in the state of Minnesota,” Esten acknowledged.

The Gophers have been the state’s only Division I program in the past but Minnesotans will now have a second choice to compete at the NCAA’s top level while staying close to home. “There’s plenty of talent I think for St. Thomas to be able to recruit a couple (standouts) every single year,” said Esten who believes preps in Wisconsin and Illinois could also be prime targets.

Former University of Minnesota Big Ten championship coach Jim Dutcher has been impressed with the quality talent within the state. “…Some of the players that Minnesota may hesitate on, they (the Tommies) may be able to get in the door,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.

St. Thomas will make the transition to Division I led by coach John Tauer. The Tommies have been a national power in Division III under Tauer, and won the 2016 NCAA championship. A Tommie alum, he has a passion for the school, and has built a strong relationship with Minnesota high school coaches. He will be expanding his staff to better compete at the Division I level, according to Esten.

Esten said already “we’ve had some pretty interesting conversations” from prominent men’s and women’s basketball schools about scheduling St. Thomas teams in the near future. While some schools may look at the initial Tommies teams as easy opponents and want St. Thomas only for their home games, Esten said a couple of programs have expressed interest in coming to the Twin Cities for games, too.

Motivation to travel here includes exposure to the state’s recruiting talent, but Esten said there is also a willingness to help UST successfully start its men’s or women’s programs. While Esten wants most basketball games played on campus in the school’s 2,000 seat arena, he is willing to consider an attractive matchup in a much larger venue in either Minneapolis or St. Paul.

No doubt such a game would attract a portion of UST’s 110,000 alumni, a large percentage of who live in the Twin Cities. Those Tommies alums are expected to support St. Thomas in greater numbers than in the past for various sports. The spectator turnout for UST home games will also benefit from the approximately 40,000 people in the Twin Cities who are alums of various Summit League schools.

The Tommies wouldn’t schedule a showcase basketball game at a Target Center or Xcel Energy Center without believing it would be a money-maker. The men’s and women’s programs could eventually become competitive enough to spark conversation about building an on-campus arena, perhaps seating 8,000 to 10,000 spectators. Esten is a proponent of playing in on-campus facilities. In the meantime, the Tommies men’s basketball program may soon receive six-figure paydays by agreeing to play at the home arenas of Division I powers from conferences like the Big Ten and ACC.

The school leadership compares UST with other well-known urban Catholic universities. With factors such as geographic location, endowments, curricula, graduation rates, and job placements, administrators say St. Thomas is similar to schools like Creighton, Dayton, Marquette, Villanova and others. Those schools, of course, have great basketball legacies including national titles. Three of the four (Dayton not included) are members of the prominent Big East Conference where a former St. Thomas insider told Sports Headliners he thinks the Tommies could land 10 years or more down the road.

Because of the pandemic the total St. Thomas sports program has one more uncertain year of competition in the MIAC before it exits to Division I. The COVID-19 virus already has caused MIAC decision makers to move the football season to spring. The UST football schedule had included a November 7 date at U.S. Bank Stadium against St. John’s to be hosted by the Johnnies.

Esten believes in normal times the game might attract at least a near capacity crowd at the Vikings’ home stadium. Tommies-Johnnies is a legacy rivalry that a few years ago set an all-time record for attendance at a D-III game, with an announced crowd of 37,355 at Target Field. That record has since been broken, but with U.S. Bank Stadium’s football capacity of nearly 69,000, a UST-St. John’s game would have the potential to set a Division III record (perhaps never to be broken).

Whether there is a game in 2021 or not, the end appears near for the nationally publicized football rivalry. UST will be a FCS Division I program competing in the Pioneer Football League in the fall of 2021. Esten couldn’t think of a game matching a Division I program against a Division III team, referring to it as “very rare.”

By transitioning to Division I the Tommies are expected to grow their subsidized athletics budget by three or four times. The initial budgets perhaps will be $21 million to $25 million. The school, though, is firmly behind the transition, citing multiple benefits ranging from competing in sports at the Division I level to extending the UST brand across the region and country.

In retrospect did the MIAC do the Tommies a favor by unexpectedly asking UST to leave the conference because of the school’s dominance in athletics? Esten said no, referring to the disappointment of the surprising news and the ending of 100 years of association with the conference. “It was really sad,” he said.

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Incentives Likely in New Cook Deal

Posted on August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column leading off with Minnesota Vikings developments.

Vikings general manager Rick Spielman said his organization is “working extremely hard” to finalize a new contract with starting running back Dalvin Cook who becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2021.

Whether it’s coincidence or not, the Vikings media schedule in coming days includes making Cook available to reporters a week from Friday. Cook, about to begin his fourth season with Minnesota, is in training camp but Spielman offered no timeline when a new deal might be completed for one of the NFL’s top running backs who reportedly will earn $1.3 million in base salary this season based on his rookie contract from 2017.

Cook’s 1,135 rushing yards during the regular season last year was 10^th best in the NFL. His 53 receptions with a 9.8 yards per reception is impressive, too, but a source close to the team told Sports Headliners management is “very concerned” about Cook’s injury history, and that will impact the next contract.

The explosive Cook played in only four regular season games in 2017, 11 in 2018 and 14 (of 16) last year. The source believes the Vikings could offer a two or three-year deal at about $10 million per season, with perhaps only one-third of the money guaranteed. Such a contract could offer incentives, with Cook awarded bonuses for playing in 12 games and 16 games. In addition to durability incentives, bonus structure could include performance compensation such as leading the NFL in rushing.

A multi-year contract extension was announced for Spielman on Monday. No specifics on duration were offered, or compensation, but the deal might be for three years at $2 million or more annually. Head coach Mike Zimmer, under a new contract through 2023 that was announced last week, was scheduled to make $5 million in 2020 per Forbes last May, but his new deal could be for $7 million as early as this year.

Dating back to when Spielman started as general manager in January of 2012, the Vikings rank ninth in the NFL with a .570 winning percentage (72-54-2)—fourth best in the NFC over that eight-season period. And Spielman has more draft picks (93) than any other general manager in the National Football League. Of those selections, 56 are the result of trades and 13 have been first-round selections.

Spielman is respected in the Viking organization and doesn’t flaunt an ego like some front office heads in professional sports. He tries to put others first and began a news conference yesterday praising a long list of individuals who help him with his job. He stresses communications and honesty as the football department’s leader. “There’s no BS going on,” he said.

Spielman hired Zimmer in 2014. Both are sons of football coaches and love the process of building a team. Zimmer described himself and his boss as “hard headed,” yet said both agree on things about 99 percent of the time. “I understand his bad jokes probably better than anybody,” Zimmer kidded.

Spielman and Zimmer are seeing some sense of normalcy in these pandemic times with players finally on the field after virtual instruction had to be used in prior months. There is a level of confidence about the anti-virus measures at the team’s practice facility, but, of course, no certainty. “I feel like I am the COVID police,” Spielman said.

Zimmer reminds players to be cautious when they leave the facility. NFL labor policy does not allow keeping players in a hotel during training camp, so instead they can go home and to other parts of the community. The COVID issue reminds Zimmer a bit of what his friend and legendary former coach Bill Parcells told him years ago: “Five things will cross your desk every day you’re not prepared for.”

The Wilf family, owners of the Vikings since 2005, has been rumored as potential buyers of the Minnesota Timberwolves whose asking price might be $1.2 billion. The Wilfs could leverage the Vikings or their other business holdings for a sizeable bank loan, but they may not be interested because of the unsettled real estate market in New York and New Jersey where the group has many holdings.

If Gophers fans wonder whether any other players will join wide receiver Rashod Bateman in leaving the team to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft, the answer is almost certainly no. Quarterback Tanner Morgan could be an early round draft selection next year, but he can raise his draft stock by playing this fall (if there is a season).

The Twins conclude their first home-stand of the year this afternoon, with eight games played before zero fans. It appears the Twins and other MLB teams will play their entire shortened season in front of empty seats—with the COVID-19 pandemic being a particularly ill-timed development for a Minnesota franchise that might have attracted 3 million customers this year.

Coming off 101 wins last season and a MLB record 307 home runs, there was a lot of preseason buzz about the Twins. Now it looks like optimism about Minnesota being one of baseball’s best teams is on target. Minnesota is off to a 8-2 start with continued power hitting and superb pitching out of the bullpen. The Twins have drawn 3 million customers three times in franchise history, including the first two seasons at Target Field, 2010 and 2011.

With so many MLB games already cancelled, there is speculation the season could be shut down as early as this week.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said on WCCO Radio last night he expects Jake Odorizzi, who has been sidelined this season with back issues, to pitch this weekend against the Kansas City Royals.

Former Twins manager and Hall of Fame player Paul Molitor will tape an interview Friday for the Twin Cities cable TV program “Behind the Game.” Co-hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson will ask Molitor about his career and the current status of baseball.

Prominent Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick, a former sports editor of the Minnesota Daily, wrote a detailed story last month for the Minnesota Lawyer about the “eclectic litigation” the Twins have experienced in 60 seasons here. The preeminent litigation came about 20 years ago when financially challenged Major League Baseball sought to contract franchises including the Twins under the ownership of Carl Pohlad. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, owners and operators of the Metrodome, took to the courts and successfully blocked the contraction. The litigation preserved the franchise for Minnesota, allowing enough time to win public approval for Target Field.

Deepest condolences to family and friends of Jim Presthus following his unexpected death Friday. The younger brother of former Gopher basketball captain Paul Presthus, the 67-year-old doctor and Edina resident died peacefully in his sleep.

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