Golden Gophers – Page 255 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Hot Ticket Demand for Vikings Opener

Posted on September 15, 2016September 15, 2016 by David Shama

Demand for tickets to attend Sunday night’s Vikings-Packers game at the new U.S. Bank Stadium is intense. Vikings executive Lester Bagley told Sports Headliners demand is greater than at any time in “the last 20 years including playoffs.”

Vikings fans consider the neighboring team from Wisconsin public enemy No. 1, with the Packers rivalry dating back to 1961. There is much anticipation about Sunday’s game because the two teams are the 2016 favorites to win the NFC North. There is also a frenzy to obtain tickets because Sunday will be the first-ever regular season NFL game in the $1.1 billion U.S. Bank Stadium. The curiosity to see the facility helps fuel public interest to perhaps an all-time high for a Vikings game.

The secondary ticket market substantiates the demand for tickets. Multiple media reports this week have reported the average resale cost of a ticket at $424 or more. StubHub, for instance, has listed tickets for sale at $10,000. Pricing started at $203. The Vikings even sent out a news release earlier this week warning the public about counterfeit tickets.

Stadium capacity for football at U.S. Bank Stadium is 66,200. Knowledgeable sources agree the Vikings could sell 20,000 more tickets if they had availability—perhaps 30,000. Many additional tickets would be purchased by Packers fans from Wisconsin. The majority of attendees for Sunday’s game will be Vikings fans who are season ticket holders but if the stadium capacity were closer to 90,000 more Packers fans would be in the building.

By the way, the cost for a Vikings-Packers ticket at Met Stadium in 1975 was $9.50.

Gophers Ticket Sales, Other Notes

As of Tuesday, the Gophers had sold 22,807 football season tickets, according to an email from an athletic department spokesman. Those are season tickets that don’t include student sales and the figure represents a significant decline in season sales from last year’s total of 27,885.

Student season sales have also declined from 8,495 last year to 6,467 in 2016. Both the student and non-student totals could increase slightly with a small number of additional buyers, but the Gophers are already two games into their seven-game home schedule.

The declines were expected because of at least three key factors. Many seats at TCF Bank Stadium have increased in cost because of built-in donation fees attached to ticket prices (also labeled and reported as “scholarship seating fees”). Then, too, the Gophers had a disappointing 6-7 record last year (2-6 in the Big Ten), and last October head coach Jerry Kill—the face of the program and athletic department—resigned because of health issues.

The spokesman also reported that mens’ basketball non-student season tickets are down from 7,221 last year to 6,244 currently, while men’s hockey is at 6,043 after totaling 7,080 for the 2015-2016 season. Neither the basketball nor hockey 2016-2017 seasons have started, so the campaigns to sell additional tickets are ongoing.

The Vikings pay annual rent at U.S. Bank Stadium of $8.5 million, plus $1.5 million for capital improvements. Those amounts have an inflationary increase of three percent annually.

Forbes this week valued the Vikings franchise at $2.2 billion, an increase of 38 percent from just last year. An ownership group led by the Wilf family bought the team in 2005 for a reported $600 million. Forbes reports the average NFL valuation now is $2.34 billion.

The stadium’s five massive pivoting doors were closed for the first preseason game but open for the second. The glass doors—the tallest is 95 feet—help bring light into the facility and when open provide air and an outdoor feel for fans. The Vikings have authority up until 90 minutes prior to kickoff to decide about opening the doors. Vikings football decision makers, including head coach Mike Zimmer, determine the status of the doors.

Ultimately the storyline of the doors is likely to be similar to retractable roofs in stadiums like Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis. A U.S. Bank Stadium source said the stadium in Indy has opened the roof for games less than a dozen times since the facility opened in 2008. Houston’s NRG Stadium has a similar story. Football teams prefer a climate controlled environment most of the time.

A U.S. Bank Stadium source refers to the building as an “event center” that has the Vikings as the primary tenant. Over 675 events have already been booked with more coming in daily. The Vikings annually play eight regular season games, two preseason games and potential playoff games in the building. The facility, which features a transparent roof on the south side, will host the 2017 X Games, 2018 Super Bowl and 2019 Final Four, and it has already been used for varied events ranging from business meetings (including an indoor picnic) to a wedding earlier this month. A youth football game was played on the synthetic turf last Sunday. Public rollerblading will be offered in the upper concourse of the stadium and more than 175 amateur baseball games are scheduled in 2017.

Concert seating capacity is about 50,000, with both Metallica and Luke Bryan having already done shows in the building. According to stadium sources, Metallica concert goers were 49 percent from outside Minnesota—an indication of the economic impact the venue can have on the city and region.

St. Thomas is ranked No. 4 nationally in the D3football.com poll, while Saint John’s is No. 8. The two teams play September 24 in Collegeville.

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Maturi Attending Greatest Game Reunion

Posted on September 13, 2016September 13, 2016 by David Shama

Former Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi and his wife Lois leave for South Bend, Indiana tomorrow and Notre Dame’s 50th reunion of the 1966 “Game of the Century.”

It will be a half century in November that the Fighting Irish and Michigan State played one of the most famous college football games of all-time in East Lansing. Maturi, a graduate of Chisholm High School on Minnesota’s Iron Range, was a student trainer on the 1966 team.

A series of reunion events starts Friday and continues Saturday night at the game between the 2016 Fighting Irish and Spartans at Notre Dame Stadium. At halftime the Notre Dame alums from the 1966 team will be honored with a ceremony.

Attendees are also using the reunion to raise money for the helping others foundations of former Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian and Alan Page who was an All-American tackle for the Irish in 1966 and later an All-Pro for the Minnesota Vikings. Parseghian, 93, was the Notre Dame coach for 11 seasons starting in 1964 and is expected to attend the reunion.

Maturi is bringing a large number of family members to celebrate the weekend including his three-month-old granddaughter. He spent over $1,000 on game tickets but said no to Notre Dame’s policy that everyone—including infants—must have a ticket. Balking at buying a ticket for granddaughter Lucille, Maturi contacted a school official who agreed to “smuggling” the infant into Notre Dame Stadium Saturday night.

Maturi remembers many details about the famous game between the two undefeated teams with star players galore, including Irish quarterback Terry Hanratty and 6-foot-7 Spartan defensive lineman Bubba Smith. Hanratty got hurt in the game and Irish All-American running back Nick Eddy didn’t even play because of a bad shoulder. “We had lots of injuries,” Maturi remembered.

The night before Irish games Maturi visited the hotel rooms of players to provide medications. He remembered a disgruntled player greeted the knock on his door like this: “Maturi, you’re the only guy who wakes somebody…to give him sleeping pills to go to sleep.”

Maturi talked about gamesmanship even before kickoff in East Lansing on that famous November 19 day. “I remember some of the Michigan State guys standing outside greeting the bus as we were entering (the stadium). Kind of trying to intimidate, I would say, in some ways. …”

The game ended in a 10-10 tie when Parseghian decided to run out the clock rather than try to position his team down field for a possible winning field goal. Irish quarterback Coley O’Brien had taken over for Hanratty but wasn’t physically strong, Maturi said. O’Brien had diabetes and was physically run-down. Maturi believes that may have been a reason Parseghian was conservative at game’s end.

After the 10-10 tie the Irish made a statement in the next game, a season-ending 51-0 win over USC. Back in 1966 national champions were determined by polls—not playoffs—and most polls selected Notre Dame as No. 1, although some honored Michigan State.

Worth Noting

Dick Jonckowski, public address voice of Gophers basketball and baseball since the 1980s, will be presented with an Honorary M at the M Club Hall of Fame event October 20 at TCF Bank Stadium. Jonckowski starts his 31st season of Gophers basketball this fall and last spring finished his 29th season of baseball.

Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi, formerly the defensive coordinator at Michigan State and now in his second season at Pitt, will be a featured speaker at the Minnesota Football Clinic next spring. The Minnesota Football Coaches Association’s website also reports other clinic “headliners” will be North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman and former Gophers interim coach Jeff Horton now an assistant at San Diego State.

J.D. Spielman, the 2015 Mr. Football Award winner from Eden Prairie, has yet to catch a pass or make a run in two games as a wide receiver for Nebraska. The 5-9, 180-pound freshman was one of the most explosive runners and kick returners in state history.

With a 21-6 record in nonconference games after two weeks play, and featuring five teams in the top 15 of the Associated Press college football rankings, the Big Ten Conference can do a little strutting. High scoring games have been common with five teams totaling over 50 points last weekend, including the Gophers’ 58-28 win over Indiana State. It’s the first time the Big Ten has had five teams top 50 points since September 13, 1997.

After two weeks following the 14 Big Ten teams, impressions are more solid than in August. With that introduction, here are my initial power rankings of Big Ten teams.

1. Ohio State. Urban Meyer is 52-4 as Buckeyes coach. That’s code for the talent is good and deep in Columbus where OSU is ranked No. 3 nationally.

2. Michigan. Coach Khaki has the No. 4 ranked Wolverines headed for a national championship. We just don’t know how soon.

3. Michigan State. The No. 12 ranked Spartans are defending Big Ten champions and will find out how good they are Saturday at Notre Dame. Nobody scowls better than Spartans coach Mark Dantonio.

4. Wisconsin. The No. 9 ranked Badgers defeated SEC bully and preseason national title contender LSU in their season opener. Maybe the Badgers should play all their games at Lambeau.

5. Iowa. The No. 13 Hawkeyes have got a bunch of exceptional players and a great one in cornerback Desmond King who won the 2015 Jim Thorpe award. Among Iowa’s best are senior quarterback C.J. Beathard and freshman defensive end Anthony Nelson who at 6-7 reminds some folks of the legendary Ted Hendricks.

6. Nebraska. The Huskers are 2-0 but have a lot of damage control work to do after last season’s 6-7 Mike Riley coaching debut. Probably time to start believing if Huskers, averaging 47.5 points per game and giving up 13.5, defeat No. 22 Oregon Saturday in Lincoln.

7. Minnesota. Is this too high a spot for the Gophers? They are an iffy team but we’ll know what to make of Year One in the Tracy Claeys era after Minnesota’s opening Big Ten game at Penn State on October 1. Not good that two cornerbacks are suspended and potential all-Big Ten tight end Brandon Lingen is injured again and out for an indefinite period.

The remaining power rankings look like this: 8. Penn State, 9. Indiana, 10. Northwestern, 11. Maryland, 12. Illinois, 13. Rutgers and 14.Purdue.

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What Vikings Fans Need to Know & Do

Posted on September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 by David Shama

With the Vikings’ season starting in a couple days, there is a new book to help fans celebrate their franchise. Star Tribune sportswriter Mark Craig educates and entertains fans with 100 Things Vikings Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (Triumph Books).

Craig has been a regular on the Vikings beat for years and is known for his comprehensive coverage. Craig’s thoroughness shows up in his paperback book that includes the prominent names from the franchise’s start in 1961 up through 2015. There is plenty of good storytelling in 100 short chapters, with surprises mixed in including the song Prince wrote for his favorite team.

Mark Craig book Vikings fans will learn how the franchise got its name and why the first game was played in South Dakota. Howard Webb Field in Sioux Falls is where the Vikings got their start in August of 1961 before 4,954 fans. Craig suggests Vikings fans visit the field as one of the things that true Purple Heads will enjoy. Other recommended destinations include Kezar Stadium in San Francisco where Jim Marshall made his infamous wrong-way run for a touchdown.

Craig interviewed many sources for the book including former Vikings owner Red McCombs who talked about his trade of star receiver Randy Moss in 2005. McCombs dispatched Moss to the Raiders shortly before selling the team. Craig writes that McCombs didn’t make the trade out of revenge for not being able to secure funding for a new stadium. Moss, moody and unpredictable, had just worn out his welcome with McCombs and a lot of other people.

In the chapter about Moss’ trade to the Raiders, Craig recalls details about the closing seconds of the 2004 season finale against the Redskins when Moss left the field, and later in the locker room where he was confronted by livid teammate Matt Birk. That wouldn’t be the end, though, to Moss’ erratic behavior in the NFL.

Moss is a recurring figure in Craig’s book. Chapters include “Randy and Red Resurrect a Franchise,” “Visit Lambeau Field, the Site of Moss’ Moonshot,” and “Eat at Tinucci’s—Where Randy Moss Wouldn’t Take His Dog.”

Moss had a brief but second hook up with the Vikings, joining the team in 2010 after the season began and lasting less than a month. Craig writes that in a move that didn’t follow franchise protocol, Vikings coach Brad Childress unilaterally released Moss after the wide receiver had been “wildly insubordinate” the day before in a game against the Patriots. Within weeks team ownership fired Childress.

Craig acknowledges that the former Vikings coach annoyed players because he was too strict. Childress won no popularity contests with the fans, either, but Craig reports how without notice the coach once stopped what he was doing in his office and accompanied offensive lineman Anthony Herrera to his U.S. citizenship ceremony in St. Paul.

It was Childress who coached the Vikings in 2009 when almost 40-year-old Brett Favre arrived as the Vikings quarterback. Craig tells about Favre’s magical debut game when in the closing seconds he brought the Vikings from behind to win a game that almost blew the top off the Metrodome. Receiver Greg Lewis caught the winning touchdown pass with two seconds remaining. Favre was under such pressure he didn’t even know who he was throwing to and six years later Adrian Peterson still called it “the most amazing” play he’s ever seen.

Peterson receives his own attention in the book including a chapter about his startling and successful comeback from knee surgery. Peterson had torn up his left knee in a game on Christmas Eve in 2011 but soon was determined to return for the next season, and he did so rushing for over 2,000 yards.

There are a lot of feel-good stories in Craig’s book including the author’s suggestion fans visit Peterson’s hometown of Palestine, Texas. In June of each year Adrian Peterson Day celebrates the future hall of famer’s achievements on the field and gifts he has made to the community.

Readers will find some chuckles as they make their way through the book. There is, for example, a chapter on “prankster” Wally Hilgenberg, and another on the “dirty jobs” that some former Vikings experienced prior to their pro football careers. For “dirty” details you will have to buy the book.

Craig told Sports Headliners it took a year to write the book. “Learned to wake up early,” he said. “Getting up at 4:30 in the morning and putting things together—talking to people.”

Craig is pleased he can pass along his Vikings knowledge and the new tales he learned in a year’s worth of research. “I get to share them (all) in a book form,” he said. “It’s a pretty neat concept, I think, being able to present 100 things that people should know or do.”

Worth Noting

Former Gophers coach Jerry Kill is in Minneapolis tomorrow and Saturday signing copies of his new book Chasing Dreams: Living My Life One Yard at a Time. Kill will be in the Dairy Queen Club at TCF Bank Stadium from 8 to 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. From 1 to 3 p.m. tomorrow he will be at the University of Minnesota Bookstore at 300 Washington Ave. S.E. Saturday Kill will be available from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Buffalo Wild Wings location at 2001 University Ave. S.E.

A friend in Las Vegas reports the Vikings’ odds to win the Super Bowl are 10 to 1. He visited a sports book yesterday and learned that with the addition of quarterback Sam Bradford, the Vikings’ odds are superior to all but five other clubs. The five with shorter odds are New England 6 to 1; Arizona 6 to 1; Green Bay 8 to 1; Seattle 8 to 1; and Pittsburgh 9 to 1.

Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen after being asked this week about Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers: “I am focused on the Tennessee Titans. I don’t know who Aaron Rodgers is right now.”

The Vikings open their regular season Sunday against the lowly-regarded Titans before facing the Packers and Rodgers in their home opener September 18. The Packers have won the last three games in Minneapolis.

Eden Prairie native and offensive tackle Carter Bykowski, who was added to the Vikings’ practice squad this week, told Sports Headliners he was going to give his pro football ambitions at least another 30 days if no NFL team had signed him. Bykowski, 26, has a business degree from Iowa State and some day could end up working for a local company.

Former Gophers quarterback Philip Nelson completed 28 of 32 passes including five touchdown passes in his debut game for East Carolina last Saturday when the Pirates routed West Carolina 52-7.

Creative Charters is offering Gophers football fans travel packages to away games including November 12 at Nebraska—with no overnight stay. A charter plane will leave Minneapolis the morning of November 12 and fly to Lincoln for the 6:30 p.m. game between the Gophers and Cornhuskers. The charter returns to Minneapolis following the game.

Creative Charters is offering transportation and more to all five away Gophers games but the Illinois and Maryland games are already sold out. For more information, visit the company website, creativecharter.com.

Pioneer Press sports columnist Charley Walters comes from a golf family. He has an 11.2 handicap and brothers Dick and Steve Walters, who work part-time at Wayzata Country Club, have handicaps under five. Charley has played a lot of courses including in Ireland but Augusta National is his favorite. “As good as it gets,” he said.

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