Stadiums – Page 20 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Zim: Vikings Couldn’t Run ‘Worth a Lick’

Posted on November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 by David Shama

Enjoy a Monday notes column:

The Vikings had the offensive linemen available they wanted for last night’s game against the Bears in Chicago where first place in the NFC North was on the line. Health has been an issue this fall but last night the Vikings started tackles Riley Reiff and Brian O’Neill, guards Tom Compton and Mike Remmers, and center Pat Elflein.

The result? Not so good.

“We couldn’t run the ball worth a lick,” Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said on KFXN-FM after the game.

Minnesota had 22 net yards rushing in the 25-20 loss that sent the Vikings 1.5 games behind Chicago in the division race. The team’s leading rusher was Dalvin Cook with 12 yards.

The offensive line, scrutinized and criticized for years, had minimal push in trying to move a Chicago defensive line and linebackers that are among the best in the NFL. Those defenders also created pressure on Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins when he tried to pass, which was most of the time.

Give the Vikings credit for making adjustments that gave them a chance after trailing 14-0 at halftime. The Vikings were able to contain scrambling quarterback Mitch Trubisky in the second half after he did a reasonable impression of Minnesota legend Fran Tarkenton during the first two quarters. The Vikings went to a no huddle offense that slowed the Bears pass rush in the second half and was a major factor in Minnesota scoring 22 points.

The Vikings’ defense did enough, including causing turnovers, to turn the game’s outcome in Minnesota’s favor. The offense certainly did not and was unable to respond to opportunities. Among the most glaring failures were Cousins missing a wide open Stefon Diggs for a first quarter touchdown, and throwing a second half interception returned for a touchdown.

The Vikings, 5-4-1, haven’t defeated a team with a winning record this season including Chicago at 7-3. There are six games remaining on Minnesota’s schedule including two against teams with winning records—the 7-3 Patriots next month and a season ending rematch with the Bears. The other opponents are at .500 or near that mark.

Gophers senior linebacker Blake Cashman was named the Big Ten’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week this morning. His 20 tackles in Saturday’s loss to Northwestern was not only a TCF Bank Stadium record but the most in a Big Ten regular season game since 2013.

Before Saturday’s Minnesota-Northwestern game at TCF Bank Stadium a street vendor was hoping to sell tickets at $15 each on face value tickets about four times that amount. He was thinking about asking $5 each for the 11 a.m. game where the temperature was 23 degrees at kickoff—the fifth lowest in the stadium’s history.

The announced attendance of 32,134 was the second lowest since the facility opened in 2009. Minnesota announced a crowd of 31,068 for the Purdue game on November 10. Two Sports Headliners sources reported actual attendance was 14,000 to 15,000. If so, it’s certain the actual attendance for last Saturday’s game was similar.

There’s no question cold and rain have made Minnesota home attendance less in recent seasons than if the Gophers played indoors like they did for more than 25 years in the Metrodome. I asked athletic director Mark Coyle last week if he might consider scheduling the last game of the home schedule at U.S. Bank Stadium in future years.

Coyle said he and his colleagues hadn’t discussed the possibility. Then he offered, “…Never say never.”

Jax Café, the Northeast restaurant operating since 1933, was not running buses to the last two Gophers games because of too few customers, according to a sportswriter who has used the service.

For several months Gophers fans were excited to have Jason Bargy as the program’s only four-star recruit in coach P.J. Fleck’s 2019 recruiting class. Bargy, though, quit his high school team this fall and has academic issues that could have prevented him from qualifying for entrance to Minnesota, according to recruiting authority Ryan Burns. News reports also have Bargy involved with a domestic battery charge.

Bargy won’t be coming to Minnesota. With football National Signing Day next month, the Gophers are under pressure to find another quality defensive lineman like Bargy, who has been listed among the best players in Illinois. Burns, publisher of Gopherillustrated, told Sports Headliners the Gophers are talking to potential replacements including Darius Robinson from Michigan and Rashad Cheney from Georgia.

Cheney is a four-star recruit who has turned down Alabama and Georgia. Among interested schools Minnesota will have to beat, Burns believes, are Mississippi and Penn State. “I think Minnesota has a legitimate shot,” Burns said.

Not sure what it says about Les Miles who won a national title at LSU but needed almost two years to land another head job. I am told he aggressively pursued the Gophers’ football coaching job after Tracy Claeys was fired in late December of 2016 and now he is the new head coach at football-pitiful Kansas.

Give Gophers coach Richard Pitino credit for switching to a second half zone defense to help his team win last night’s late game against Texas A&M, 69-64. The Aggies were too easily driving to the basket for scores before Minnesota went to the zone, a defense seldom used by Pitino.

Matthew Hurt, the class of 2018 five-star Rochester basketball recruit, reportedly will wait until next year to choose his college destination but a source I respect believes Kansas is the front-runner.

The Twins may have made MLB history in hiring a coach directly from a college position, with no previous big league experience. The hiring of new pitching coach Wes Johnson from Arkansas is a Twins’ franchise first.

With front office bosses Derek Falvey and Thad Levine around, it’s a good guess that ex-manager Paul Molitor didn’t have full authority over who he hired as coaches. Maybe new manager Rocco Baldelli is in that spot, too.

If Joe Mauer had decided to play one more season, he could have provided a 2019 Twins marketing theme for selling tickets. A farewell season for the Minnesota native would have appealed to season and single game ticket buyers.

Interested in a Christmas gift suggestion? Twin Cities-based freelance writer Patrick Borzi, with bylines that include the New York Times, offers a fun read in his new book, Minnesota Made Me—a sports anthology with bios of 38 Minnesota athletes (32 are still alive). The theme: How growing up or living in Minnesota shaped them as athletes and people.

Borzi, who is married to Star Tribune sportswriter Rachel Blount, interviewed all the subjects in his book including Minnesota natives like Matt Birk, Tyus Jones, Adam Thielen and Lindsay Whalen, and other fan favorites such as Lou Nanne and Tony Oliva who flourished in the state after coming here.

There are recurring values written about in the book including strong Minnesota character. You read about Thielen using his initial pro football earnings to pay off his student loans, or Whalen’s work ethic including rising before 6 a.m. in her hometown of Hutchinson.

The foreword of the 296-page paperback is written by Sid Hartman, the soon to be 99-year-old Star Tribune columnist who probably would tell you he is “close personal friends” with most of those profiled by Borzi. “Growing up here toughened me up and helped me survive all these years in a very tough business,” Hartman wrote.

More, including order information, at pressboxbooks.com/titles/minnesota-made-me/

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My Journey to See Uga & SEC Football

Posted on November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 by David Shama

While the Gophers were surprisingly beating up on Purdue and the Vikings had their bye date, I was in Southeast Conference football country watching the No. 5 ranked Georgia Bulldogs and No. 24 Auburn Tigers in Athens, Georgia. It was my first SEC game ever, and kind of a bucket list thing.

Being in Uga land a few days before the Saturday night game got me ready for the Bulldogs and Tigers. Athens makes many a short list of America’s best college towns, and among its proud citizens is Uga, the University of Georgia’s popular bulldog mascot. While the real Uga watches each home game from the sidelines, there are replicas of the famous dog around town including one creation that wears glasses and is positioned outside an eye doctor’s office.

Word is you don’t want to mess with the real Uga. I am told that years ago an Auburn player was showing off after a touchdown. He spun the ball on the ground near Uga, who then lunged toward the player showing disapproval. Presumably the charged-up Georgia players took their cue from Uga and won the game!

While Sanford Stadium is a scene of pom-pom waving, madly cheering Georgia fans on game night, there are a few detractors. Near the stadium I encountered a proselytizing Baptist minister who preaches the game of football is a false idol that besmirches the Lord. The minister seemed to be a lone voice in the wilderness as game time approached and throngs of fans marched toward the stadium gates, completely ignoring the preacher.

No, the minister didn’t have many converts. This is not to say religion isn’t important in the South. It certainly is, but college football is—to put it mildly—about as important as life or death. College football Saturdays down in Dixie can be labeled High Holy Days.

Southern college football authority Paul Finebaum wrote a story for Time magazine last August headlined the “The Holy Game.” Finebaum said: “If college football is America’s lay religion, the South is its ecumenically evangelical center. Nowhere is the passion more intense than on the campuses of the 14 colleges of the Southeastern Conference and among their fans.”

Along with the fervor can also come Southern hospitality and civility. Matt Hall, my game companion on Saturday, got an unexpected offering of that after he realized he lost one of his season ticket passes. He concluded this occurred at a spot in the concourse after he had reached into his pocket to give me a ticket. Returning to the suspected site of his loss, he immediately saw a stranger holding the ticket, with intentions to turn it into fan relations. Now that’s good timing.

Georgia fans were happy Saturday night as their beloved Dawgs won another game in the oldest college football rivalry in the Deep South. The two SEC powers have been playing each other since 1896 and they have won not only league titles but national championships.

The Bulldogs, now 9-1, were pretty much on cruise control Saturday night. Georgia led 20-10 at halftime and added a second half touchdown to make the final score 27-10. Just as important the Bulldogs held fast in the chase for an invitation to the four-team playoffs.

The Bulldogs showed an aggressive defense and balanced offense. Auburn, now 6-4, couldn’t match Georgia’s productivity on the ground including D’Andre Swift’s 186-yard rushing performance.

My guy Matt is a professor at Georgia so he’s on board with the Dawgs. Georgia is just behind No. 4 Michigan in the four-team playoff race. Matt grew up in Ann Arbor so he’s all in on the possibility of the Wolverines getting a shot at the national title. Either Dawgs, or Wolves, Matt is well positioned.

College Football’s Shrine

For many years I have wanted to visit the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Mission accomplished.

Entering the building’s lobby fans are greeted by over 700 helmets representing every level of college football including NAIA schools. While registering, each Hall of Fame guest can identify a favorite team, and then that team’s helmet lights up on a giant wall. Technology also allows highlighting of your favorite team at exhibits.

Much of my focus in touring the facility was on the Gophers. There are 22 individuals with Gopher ties in the shrine including Lou Holtz, who coached only two seasons at Minnesota.

I told fan experience senior manager Robert Bready that there are still copies of a Hollywood movie from the 1940’s about Bruce Smith, Minnesota’s 1941 Heisman Trophy winner. “Smith of Minnesota” starred the hero from Faribault, Minnesota, and was as wholesome of a production as Hollywood has ever produced.

I also shared a mythic tale about the legendary Bronko Nagurski, the Gophers’ fullback and tackle from the 1920s who made All-American at two positions in the same year. Nagurski was said to be strong as an ox, and legend has it that a Gopher coach discovered him on a farm near International Falls. Bronko was using a large plow to dig up the earth when the coach drove by and stopped to ask for directions. The mighty Bronko gave directions by lifting the plow into the air and pointing toward the road the coach should follow.

That was enough for the coach to direct Bronko to Minnesota.

Former Vikings wide receiver Terry LeCount works at the Hall of Fame. He played for the Vikings from 1979-1983, and in 1987.

More on the Hall of Fame at cfbhall.com.

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Gophers Football Ticket Sales Decline

Posted on October 10, 2018 by David Shama

Ticket sales continue to decline for Golden Gophers home football games. In response to a request from Sports Headliners, the University of Minnesota reported that both non-student and student season tickets had declined 2,572 from last year.

As of late September, 21,682 non-student season tickets had been sold compared to 22,990 in 2017. The student season tickets total of 4,730 compared with 5,994 last year.

The public isn’t rushing to buy single game home tickets either. Announced attendance for four games so far includes three totals under 42,000 in TCF Bank Stadium with a seating capacity of 50,805. The attendance of 38,280 for the Fresno State game was the second lowest in stadium history since its opening in 2009.

There is also the eyeball test at each game that shows huge patches of unsold or unused seats all over the stadium, including many that are expensive seats. Buyers are paying for tickets but not showing up or successfully giving those seats away. This was evident even at the most attractive game on the 2018 schedule, last Saturday’s rivalry game against Iowa.

Announced attendances for college football games, including those at TCF Bank Stadium, have long raised eyebrows and caused speculation about accuracy. A Wall Street Journal article last summer reported that based on actual ticket scans at FBS games last year far fewer fans actually show up in their seats than what announced attendances indicate.

The Journal reported in its August 30 article that the Gophers announced total attendance in 2017 of 310,506 for seven home games contrasted with a tickets scanned total of 210,909. That resonates with last Saturday’s Iowa-Minnesota game at TCF Bank Stadium when despite an announced attendance of 48,199, it appeared that 10,000 to 15,000 fewer fans were in the building.

College football attendance decreased for a fourth consecutive season in 2017, and there are many reasons. HD TV delivers captivating pictures for those watching college football in the comfort of their homes without paying high ticket prices and investing time travelling to and from game sites. Then, too, the college game is lengthier than its NFL rival with longer halftimes and more clock stoppages during the four quarters of “action.”

Younger fans, including college students, often aren’t as interested in their hometown team as past generations. The argument of moving Minnesota’s games back to campus at TCF Bank Stadium to draw more students has proven highly questionable.

Whether a school has a winning team, of course, also has a big impact on attendance. Often, the schools that draw the smaller crowds in their conferences (like the Gophers) don’t have successful teams and in many instances haven’t for a long while. Add it all up and many universities, including those in the Big Ten such as Minnesota, find themselves with lots of empty seats but grateful for TV revenues in the range of $50 million this school year.

Interest in Gophers football began declining with the mid-season resignation of head coach Jerry Kill in 2015. Kill had the program on the rise and was a popular personality who connected with the public. Ticket buyers didn’t respond the same way with Kill’s successor, Tracy Claeys, who had one full season as head coach in 2016.

A couple weeks prior to the start of the 2016 season the University reported about a 19 percent decline in non-student season tickets. The total in 2015 had been 27,885 but in mid-August of 2016 the Gophers had sold 22,706 non-student season tickets.

Despite a winning Big Ten record and unexpected Holiday Bowl win in 2016, Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle and University president Eric Kaler terminated Claeys in early January of 2017. “I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program,” Coyle said in a statement.

University regent Michael Hsu said the message from administrators was there would be a “Fleck bump” in ticket sales by hiring P.J. Fleck, known as an exciting young coach from Western Michigan who was coming off a 13-1 season. Fleck had drawn national press coverage because of both his record and salesmanship. Hsu told Sports Headliners he had been reluctant to approve Fleck’s contract because it was not only considerably more compensation than Claeys earned, but also the athletic department was taking on the expense of over $3 million for buyouts of Claeys and his assistants.

In fact, there hasn’t been much “Fleck bump” in ticket sales. Last year, the Gophers’ first under Fleck, attendance for seven home games averaged 44,358—slightly improved over the average of 43,814 in Claeys’ only full season as head coach. That average was the lowest in TCF Bank Stadium history. The Gophers had averaged a TCF best 52,355 fans in 2015 when the Kill-effect was still in play and the stadium had a temporary larger capacity because the Vikings were playing there.

This season might set a new attendance low at TCF with the team off to a 0-2 Big Ten start, giving up 90 points in the first two league games. The Gophers could be underdogs in all of their remaining games. The remaining home schedule has three opponents with no marquee pull—Indiana, Northwestern and Purdue. Through four home games Minnesota is averaging 42,233 fans per game in announced attendance.

The “honeymoon” effect of TCF Bank Stadium has been gone for some time. As the weather turns colder, and the possibility of precipitation is in play, having an outdoor facility in this marketplace (compare to U.S. Bank Stadium) is a liability in selling tickets, and it causes those with tickets to stay away.

In an interview last month with Sports Headliners, Kaler acknowledged the attendance problem at Minnesota and elsewhere. “We’re not alone in this situation across the country,” he said. “As you know, attendance at sporting events has dropped off nearly everywhere. Of course, I expected more people to come (to Gopher games), but nothing brings people to a stadium better than a winning team. I think as P.J. begins to put more w’s up on the board, (and) the young men continue to perform, our attendance will rebound.”

Fleck’s recruiting classes have ranked higher than what Gophers fans have known over the years. Fleck, Kaler and other leaders at the U are counting on more talent in the seasons ahead. “I am very pleased with the decision that Mark and I made to hire P.J.,” Kaler said. “He is exactly what we expected him to be. …He is setting a foundation that I think will hold up a very, very strong team as time goes forward.”

When does Kaler believe the Gophers can start filling up their stadium for every game? “Oh, I don’t have a timeframe for it, Dave. But I do think when we start routinely beating Wisconsin, we will sell out.”

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