Lynx – Page 18 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

U Football Revenue Tops Last Year

Posted on October 5, 2017October 5, 2017 by David Shama

The Gophers have already surpassed last year’s total for football ticket revenue, according to numbers provided Sports Headliners by the University of Minnesota Athletic Department.

A department spokesman reported via email “about $10.75 million in football ticket revenue” has been generated, approximately $3,000 more than the total for the entire seven-game home schedule in 2016. The $10.75 million figure was provided late last month after Minnesota’s first two home games this season. The total includes public and student season ticket revenues and single game sales for all seven home games in 2017.

It’s anticipated that no additional 2017 public season tickets will be sold because three home games have already been played. However, the student season ticket sales campaign started much later than the public sale this year and, according to athletic department spokesman Jake Ricker, more student sales are likely. Also, many more individual game tickets and resulting revenue will be generated in the days and weeks ahead.

None of the Gophers remaining games are sellouts, but capacity crowds are a possibility for the November 11 and 25 games with Nebraska and Wisconsin. Those rivalries are considered premium priced games and they attract thousands of Cornhuskers and Badgers ticket buyers. For the Nebraska game, prices start at $90 and go up to $235, while the range for Wisconsin is $80 to $210.

“We anticipate hundreds of thousands of additional dollars in football ticket revenue …over (last) year by the time this season concludes,” Ricker wrote in an email.

The Gophers had only one premium game (Iowa) last season. While the Nebraska and Wisconsin tickets are pricey, the Gophers did some price reduction from 2016 on early season home games this year, according to Ricker. He also said the cost for season tickets remained the same in 2017 as last year, with the athletic department nixing a long-planned increase in scholarship seating donations.

Although it’s apparent there is curiosity and interest among ticket buyers in new coach P.J. Fleck, the Gophers have been several thousand tickets short of selling out any of their first three games in TCF Bank Stadium.

The athletic department sold 21,985 public season tickets in 2017, 566 fewer than last year. Ricker said a larger base of season tickets partially carried over from 2015 into 2016 than was in place this year. However, the U sold 1,713 new public season tickets this year, compared with 776 in 2016. The total of new accounts is 688 versus 285 in 2016.

Student ticket sales for this year are at 5,964, down about 1,000 from 2016, but a few hundred more tickets could be sold.

Worth Noting

If the Twins dismiss Paul Molitor as manager—or ask him to make changes with his staff—Brad Mills might be a name to watch in Minnesota. The 60-year-old former Astros manager coaches for the Indians where he is highly regarded. He presumably is friends with Derek Falvey, the Twins baseball boss who was with the Cleveland organization until last fall.

After Tuesday night’s wild card loss to the Yankees, the Twins finished 0-4 in games this year at Yankee Stadium. For the season the Twins were 2-5 against New York and Minnesota also had losing records against other superior teams including the Astros, Indians and Red Sox.

Despite having four of five starters in their 30s, the Lynx brought the energy to win last night’s Game Five against the Sparks, earning the Minnesota franchise its fourth WNBA title in seven years. The 12-woman roster has five players with 11 years or more of professional experience. The titles are rewarding for a core group of players who have been together for years, and owner Glen Taylor whose other pro team, the Timberwolves, haven’t made the playoffs since 2004.

The NBA general managers’ survey was announced yesterday on NBA.com. The Timberwolves and Karl-Anthony Towns did well but a year ago the same experts predicted Minnesota’s Kris Dunn would be the league’s Rookie of the Year. This year 69 percent of the votes forecast the Wolves to be the NBA’s most improved team, while Towns was voted the player GMs most want if starting a franchise. He was also voted the league’s best center and most likely to have a breakout season.

Twelve former players from the WCHA are on NHL opening night rosters this fall including Minnesota State Mankato alums and forwards David Backes and Tyler Pitlick, who are with the Bruins and Stars respectively.

The Wild open tonight against the Red Wings in their new home, Little Caesars Arena, where Stubhub.com was listing tickets last night for over $990 each.

Case Keenum said this morning he doesn’t know if he or Sam Bradford will start at quarterback for the Vikings in Monday night’s game against the Bears.

Purdue has been promoting tickets starting at $10 for Saturday’s home game with the Gophers.

Gophers quarterback Conor Rhoda has rushed only nine times in four games for his 3-1 team. He mostly hands the ball to a running back on option plays and that’s with the approval of Fleck who is concerned that Rhoda stay healthy, playing a position where Minnesota has no one in reserve who has starting experience. Fleck said the mission is to “keep him (Rhoda) healthy, continue to get him to distribute the ball and continue to develop the other quarterbacks behind him.”

Those quarterbacks on the depth chart include true freshman Tanner Morgan who enrolled at Minnesota after the first of the year. A finalist for the prep Mr. Football Award in Kentucky as a senior last year, he passed for over 10,000 career yards in high school. “I think he’s getting a lot better,” Fleck said about the young quarterback who he wants to redshirt this season.

Rhoda has also been impressed with Morgan. “I’ve been around a lot of guys who have come in here as 17 year olds, leaving high school early and (I) know how difficult that can be. He’s grown so much just as a person since he got here, but so much as a player as well.

“I really think the sky’s the limit for him. He’s an incredibly intelligent person off the field and on the field. As long as he keeps working the way he’s working, who knows what he’s going to be able to do.”

The Gophers were among the national leaders in targeting penalties last fall, but not in 2017. Through four games Minnesota is the least overall penalized team in the Big Ten with 16 infractions. “I think we’re a very disciplined football team,” Fleck said.

The Gophers are about 14 months out from the basketball game they committed to playing in U.S. Bank Stadium in December of 2018. An announcement about their opponent has been anticipated for awhile and that could be indicative of not being able to secure a high profile team.

Free advice to the Gophers: schedule an annual nonconference game with either Iowa State or Northern Iowa. The Cyclones likely would have to be home-and-home but perhaps the Panthers would be willing to play at Williams Arena two out of every three years.

The 1982 Minnesota State University Moorhead cross country team, led by All-Americans Randy Goblirsch of Redwood Falls and Keith Haverland from Farmington, will be inducted into the school’s sports Hall of Fame on Friday. The Dragons won conference and district titles, before going on to finish 7th at the national meet. Gophers senior associate athletics director Marc Ryan was also a member of the team but missed the 1982 season because of mononucleosis.

Ryan was saddened this week over the death of music legend Tom Petty, who he saw perform at 25 concerts, in 12 different venues across six states. Most recently Ryan watched Petty in late June at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Comments Welcome

Twins Need Dominant Santana in NY

Posted on September 26, 2017September 26, 2017 by David Shama

To most of the baseball world, the Twins look like a “just happy to be here” team going into next Tuesday’s anticipated playoff game against the Yankees in New York. The Twins have lost four of six to the Yankees this season, have an inferior overall record (82-74 versus 87-69), and a roster of key players who are young and inexperienced.

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

In a one-game playoff young Twins hitters Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Eddie Rosario could nervously be chasing pitches they shouldn’t be offering at. Add Miguel Sano, if healthy enough to play, to that list. None of those players have ever been in a Major League postseason game and their inexperience might lead to mistakes in the field and on the bases, too.

It appears all but certain the Twins and Yankees will be the American League’s two wild card entrants. For Minnesota to reverse the disaster of postseason failures against the Yankees in 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010, the Twins will almost certainly need a special performance from their expected starting pitcher, 34-year-old Ervin Santana.

Santana’s anticipated schedule has him starting Thursday against the Indians, then resting and preparing for the Yankees. His experience and skills give the Twins a chance in their playoff game. A win this Thursday will be his 17th of the season and set a career high. He goes into the game with a career-best 3.36 ERA.

Santana, who is among the American League leaders in wins, is paid to have big seasons like 2017 when he was honored with a place on the AL All-Star roster. He has postseason experience and earns $13.5 million annually, according to Cot’s baseball contracts.

The club’s best paid player, $23 million a year Joe Mauer, is also a veteran presence and has played in nine playoff games. He is hitting over .300 for the first time since 2013 and has committed only two errors at first base.

Royals’ first baseman Eric Hosmer hasthree errors, and has started 37 more games than Mauer. Hosmer is the favorite to win the AL Gold Glove award for first basemen.

Worth Noting

After the Vikings’ 34-17 win over the Bucs Sunday, Profootballfocus.com gave its five highest grades among Minnesota players to quarterback Case Keenum, wide receiver Adam Thielen, offensive tackle Mike Remmers, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, and cornerback Trae Waynes. The website said Keenum, substituting for the injured Sam Bradford, “had the game of his life as he torched the Bucs secondary up and down the field.”

Sam Bradford (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

With Bradford sidelined with a knee injury, the 2-1 Vikings only have three offensive starters who were regulars on last season’s team—Diggs, Thielen and tight end Kyle Rudolph. Yet the Vikings rank second in the NFL in total offense at 400.3 yards per game, trailing the Patriots at 440.7.

Marcus Sherels, the former Gopher and Rochester, Minnesota native, turns 30 on Saturday. He has developed an impressive career with the Vikings as a punt returner and reserve cornerback. Sherels, acquired by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2010, holds the team career record for most touchdowns returning punts (five).

The Cowboys were the only NFL team worth $2 billion five years ago but now all but five franchises are at that level and more, according to a September 18 Forbes.com article. Forbes released its annual valuations of the league’s 32 teams including the Cowboys valued at $4.8 billion. The league average is $2.5 billion and the Vikings are valued at $2.4 billion.

Ticket prices range from $35 to $140 for Saturday’s Gophers-Maryland game at TCF Bank Stadium. For the Nebraska game November 11, prices start at $90 and go up to $235, while the range for Wisconsin two weeks later is $80 to $210.

Former Gophers Nick Rallis and Adam Weber are working in the football programs at Wake Forest and UCLA respectively.

Former Minnesota Mr. Football J.D. Spielman, now a redshirt freshman and wide receiver at Nebraska, had his first college touchdown reception last Saturday in a win over Rutgers. Spielman also has a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown this season.

Saint John’s and St. Thomas resume their football rivalry in Collegeville next year on October 13. The Tommies will host the Johnnies October 19, 2019, presumably at O’Shaughnessy Stadium in St. Paul but don’t be surprised if talks surface regarding another site after Saint John’s and St. Thomas drew a Division III record crowd at Target Field of 37,355 last Saturday.

Will the Johnnies consider hosting the game at a large neutral site stadium like St. Thomas did this year? “I can guarantee we’ll always play at (our) Clemens Stadium,” Saint John’s athletic director Bob Alpers told Sports Headliners.

Alpers is also the Johnnies golf coach and his team was playing in the Twin Cities Classic on Saturday so he missed the historic football game.

The Division III game last Saturday had a larger attendance than 28 FBS games including home crowds for Maryland and top 20 ranked Washington State. A St. Thomas spokesman also said there were “17,000 hits” on the school website’s streaming the game. A typical Tommies game might have 1,000 to 1,500 hits, while the previous all-time high in hits for a St. Thomas football game was 9,000 last year in a playoff game against UW-Oshkosh.

The WNBA Finals involving Glen Taylor’s Lynx will cause him to miss the Timberwolves team flight to China. Taylor told Sports Headliners he and wife Becky will fly to China after the finals that continue tonight with Game Two at Williams Arena against the Sparks and could go through October 4. The Wolves, who Taylor also owns, will play exhibition games in China starting October 5.

Taylor will participate in an NBA meeting while in China. He owns printing and software businesses in the country.

Taylor said the installation of temporary air conditioning at Williams Arena for the finals will cost about $1 million, and because the expenditure wasn’t budgeted for the Lynx franchise might not make a profit this year. “It won’t help, that’s for sure,” said Taylor who approved the expenditure for the benefit of players and fans.

Taylor remains friends with former Timberwolves head coach Rick Adelman who is retired and spending time with family. Adelman’s son, David Adelman, who used to work for the Wolves, is an assistant with the Nuggets.

Comments Welcome

How about 10-6 Record for Vikings?

Posted on September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 by David Shama

News about the Vikings, Gophers, Lynx and Twins in today’s notes-focused column.

Vikings rookies Dalvin Cook and center Pat Elflein impressed in Monday night’s opening game win over the Saints. Cook broke Adrian Peterson’s opening game rushing record for a Vikings rookie with his 127 yards and Elflein became the franchise’s first rookie starter at center since Mick Tingelhoff in 1962.

Dalvin Cook (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

Cook was the best running back in Monday night’s game that included the return of Peterson in a Saints uniform. The No. 2 draft choice showed speed, power and moves. Former Viking Bob Lurtsema said the elusive Cook can even make a 90 degree change in direction without slowing down.

Elflein, who looks like a draft day steal after being chosen in the third round, kept pass rushers away from quarterback Sam Bradford and showed his mobility on run plays. “He is the real deal,” Lurtsema raved. “He played so well. His awareness and peripheral vision is spectacular.”

Lurtsema is known for his accurate predictions about Vikings regular season records for wins and losses. He is forecasting 10-6 for this year’s team and a spot in the playoffs after the regular season ends on December 31. He believes Minnesota will either win or tie for the NFC North title.

Most everyone sees the Vikings and Packers at the top of the division but Lurtsema labeled the Lions a potential surprise team. “They know they got something cooking there,” he said about the Lions who signed quarterback Matthew Stafford to a contract extension making him the highest paid player in the NFL.

Bradford was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week this morning after his career record 143.0 passer rating performance against the Saints. He completed 27 of 32 passes and threw three touchdown passes.

For those who like to speculate about coaching changes, it seems probable Saints boss Sean Payton has to do better than a fourth consecutive 7-9 record. His team was unimpressive in Monday night’s 29-19 loss, and Peterson had what appeared to be an emotional exchange with the head coach on the sidelines.

Jim Carter sent text messages to a half dozen football Gophers earlier this week about Jerry Kill, their former head coach. Carter, a close friend of Kill and wife Rebecca, wanted to assure the players Kill was okay after minor seizures on Sunday.

Carter, captain of the 1969 Gophers, said the players were grateful for the communication and relieved to receive an update about Kill. “I heard back from everyone,” Carter said.

Kill has been seizure free in recent years but Carter said the now Rutgers offensive coordinator had a “couple of quick seizures” on Sunday and was hospitalized that night. Carter spoke with Rebecca on Monday and learned the coach was back at work.

Kill was coaching on the sidelines when hit by a player last Saturday. The blow may have contributed to the seizures on Sunday. “I and others have urged him to go to the press box because it’s safer,” Carter said.

Kill, though, prefers the sidelines where he can be close to his quarterbacks. He is in his first season at Rutgers and coaching for the first time since resigning as Minnesota coach during the 2015 season because of health issues. He is expected to coach in Rutgers’ home game Saturday against Morgan State. The Scarlet Knights are 0-2 following losses to Washington and Eastern Michigan.

Andrew Harte, the former Gophers kicker under Kill, transferred to Rutgers where he has made two of three field goal attempts this season. Harte, 22, is from Downers Grove, Illinois and joined the Gophers program in 2013.

Jeff Jones, who was on Kill’s staff at Minnesota, is assistant director of player development at Rutgers.

Gopher redshirt senior linebacker Cody Poock, who had 14 career starts under Kill and Tracy Claeys, is now a reserve behind sophomore Thomas Barber.

Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Gentry, who was a much anticipated recruit from Cincinnati in 2014, left the Gophers program last month after having two career catches for 36 yards.

M Club director George Adzick said more than 40 members of the 1967 Minnesota Big Ten championship team have committed to attending a 50-year celebration in Minneapolis later this month. Players will be honored during the Minnesota-Maryland game at TCF Bank Stadium on September 30.

Credit Lynx owner Glen Taylor with approving the temporary installation of air conditioning for his team’s WNBA playoff games at Williams Arena. “Glen was driven by two distinct motives, and none were financial,” said Lynx president Chris Wright. “No. 1 was the safety of players. No. 2 was the comfort of fans.”

The Lynx won its opening playoff game in nearly 90-year-old Williams Arena last night against the Mystics. Without a temporary air conditioning system that could cost nearly $1 million before the WNBA playoffs end in a few weeks, the temperature in the building would have been about 85 degrees.

But with air conditioning temps will be in the 61 to 71 degree range for all playoff games. The Aggreko company based in Houston has contracted with the Lynx to cool Williams Arena. The company has provided forced air for Olympic and PGA events in the past.

Wright said WNBA bylaws require that playoff games be scheduled in facilities with air conditioning. With Target Center’s renovation not completed, and Xcel Energy Center unavailable, the Lynx considered various options for home playoff games including locations outside Minneapolis-St. Paul. Taylor, though, didn’t want the team playing away from its home market.

The Lynx expect crowds of 8,000 to 10,000 for early playoff games but if the team qualifies for the WNBA Finals capacity crowds of 14,625 at Williams Arena are possible. Single game ticket prices for first round home games start at $6 for a college student.

Starting pitcher Kyle Gibson, 10-10, will be a key to whether the Twins qualify for the playoffs. He has a 4-0 record with a 1.38 ERA in his last five starts. Last night he pitched six innings, giving up four hits and no walks in Minnesota’s 16-0 win over the Padres.

The Twins won’t have to worry about cold weather postponing two of their Target Field games next April. The club will be the host team in two games in Puerto Rico against the Indians on April 17 and 18, with off days before and after the series. The Twins will play 79 home games instead of the usual 81.

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