Stadiums – Page 28 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Does U Need to End Thursday Games?

Posted on August 26, 2016August 26, 2016 by David Shama

The opinion here is the Gophers need to fix their problem of opening their home football schedule on Thursday nights.

Next Thursday evening the Gophers play Oregon State at TCF Bank Stadium while less than two miles away the Vikings host the Rams in the second football game ever in the $1.1 billion U.S. Bank Stadium. While it’s only an NFL exhibition game, your average Minnesota elementary school sports fan knows the Vikings are much more popular than the Gophers.

And it’s not just the Vikings the Gophers will compete against for attention next Thursday evening. The Twins will play the White Sox downtown that night—just a long walk from U.S. Bank Stadium. The St. Paul Saints also have a home game, and Canterbury Park hosts its usual Thursday night racing. High school football teams also begin their seasons. The topper among attractions next Thursday is the eighth day of the Minnesota State Fair. Attendance for the day and evening combined might be a number approaching half the population of St. Paul.

“Nobody will be at home that night,” a friend and Gophers football season ticket holder said to me this week.

My friend will be at the Gophers game but others who might normally attend or watch on TV won’t. U athletic department officials will likely announce a crowd of 40,000 to 45,000 in 50,800 seat TCF Bank Stadium. Could it be a record low attendance in the stadium that opened in 2009? The smallest announced crowd to watch a game at the Bank is 41,062 for the Purdue game in 2012.

The last three years the Gophers have also opened their seasons at home on Thursday evenings. The last two years the Vikings played on those dates but their games were on the road—providing TV competition but not entertaining football fans a couple of miles from the U campus.

With a promising Gophers team and playing a potential national championship team, Minnesota drew a TCF Bank Stadium record crowd of 54,147 for its opener last year against TCU. This year the Gophers are down a reported 10 to 20 percent in non-student season ticket sales. There is a public wait-and-see attitude about new coach Tracy Claeys and the team. It’s a similar situation to 2013 when the Gophers were coming off a 2-6 season and drew an announced attendance of 44,217 for a game against UNLV. The Vikings played that same night in the Metrodome.

The Gophers are scheduled to play future Thursday night games at home in late August of 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Vikings will also be playing on all of those Thursday evenings.

How do we know?

The NFL mandates all teams must play their fourth games of the exhibition season on a Thursday, 10 days prior to the beginning of the regular season. Those Thursdays usually come in late August, or this year September 1. The league schedules each franchise’s first three preseason games. Teams are told who they will play and where for the first three games. The fourth game and opponent are determined by each franchise. Teams play two home preseason games and two on the road. If the Vikings have been told by the NFL that two of their first three games are on the road, they will schedule the fourth game at home—up against the Gophers.

The Vikings aren’t changing their scheduling. The Twins, with 81 home dates each year, may also be playing at Target Field on future Thursday nights. The Saints, Canterbury Park and high school football are lesser entertainment rivals for the Gophers at the box office and provide no TV competition.

The Gophers and State Fair authorities made an agreement before TCF Bank Stadium opened, which resulted in all these Thursday night games. The agreement runs through June 30, 2022, and it states that any Gophers home game prior to Labor Day will be played on a Thursday evening. A U spokesman said he isn’t aware of any discussion to change the agreement.

The reason for the agreement is that during the State Fair drivers can park their cars for free on the University’s Minneapolis campus and ride free buses to the fairgrounds in nearby Falcon Heights. The Gophers usually play their home schedule on Saturdays but because of larger fair-going crowds on the weekends, U officials agreed to switch their games to Thursday evenings to better accommodate fair customers.

The existing agreement inconveniences fewer fair-goers but it’s not a winning policy for the Gophers. Fans have to fight rush-hour traffic to attend Thursday night games. Next Thursday those who choose light-rail will likely find cars jammed to the max with everyday commuters, plus Gophers, Vikings, Twins and Saints fans. Fans at home have to make viewing choices between the Vikings and Twins games that start about 7 p.m. and the Gophers game at 8 p.m. Then, too, fans and companies with season tickets and suites for both the Vikings and Gophers face an obvious conflict with the two teams playing at the same time.

There’s no doubt the Gophers could maximize revenues from ticket sales, concessions, parking and perhaps other sources if they were playing Oregon State on Friday night or Saturday afternoon next week.

It’s highly unusual for the NCAA to allow teams to start their seasons before the primary kickoff to college football which begins on Thursdays and continues into the weekend—so the Gophers probably can’t look at Wednesdays in the years ahead. Switching to a Friday night goes up against high school football but out of scheduling necessity the Gophers did that with success at the Metrodome.

Friday night or Saturday openers for the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium in future years make sense. If U officials tell fair officials they need relief from the competition of Thursday nights it would be a smart move. Fair-goers can find their way to Falcon Heights without free parking on the U campus—even on a Saturday. It’s a safe bet the fair would survive and continue to set record annual attendance.

It should be documented, too, that Gophers fans park free at the State Fair and ride free buses to U football games after Labor Day. That’s been beneficial for fans and the U athletic department.

Worth Noting

When entering TCF Bank Stadium next Thursday fans will be screened with a hand-held metal detector. This is a new security procedure for Gophers games and a best practice at other venues drawing large crowds. The hand-held device was used for Vikings games at TCF Bank Stadium the past two seasons.

Fans can ask new athletic director Mark Coyle about scheduling and other topics at the State Fair. He will be at the fair’s University of Minnesota Building at 3:30 p.m. next Tuesday. The building is located at the corner of Dan Patch and Underwood.

The Lynx, with the WNBA’s second-best record at 21-4, resume play tonight after the long Olympics break. The Lynx had four players on the gold medal winning U.S. team, and those additional minutes of travel, practices and games in Brazil are a concern. Lynx owner Glen Taylor said coach Cheryl Reeve has monitored WNBA game minutes for Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles, Maya Moore, and Lindsay Whalen.

Time management for the Lynx’s four Olympians this season has been a priority. “She (Reeve) has come down like eight minutes a game (per player),” Taylor said.

Taylor, who also owns the Timberwolves, has spoken this summer to 40-year-old future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett. Will Garnett retire or return for another season with the Wolves? “I have no new news,” Taylor said. “He hasn’t indicated to me if he’s made a decision or not.”

Comments Welcome

U Must Live with Stadium Decision

Posted on August 1, 2016August 1, 2016 by David Shama

While champagne corks pop all over town toasting the opening of U.S. Bank Stadium, there is one group that ought to be biting their collective fingernails.

The new stadium will ensure sellout crowds at gaudy ticket prices for Vikings games this season—inflating both the revenue streams and value of this town’s NFL franchise. The facility will also be used for all kinds of events in the coming months—from small parties to marquee concerts, from college baseball to rollerblading—and adds to the ballyhoo of this being “the people’s stadium.” A near capacity crowd could be present Wednesday night when the stadium hosts its first sports event, the soccer match between Chelsea FC and AC Milan.

The stadium’s design and features are so impressive the public is willing to buy tickets for tours of the building, while setting calendars months in advance for dates that aren’t first choices. Heck, U.S. Bank Stadium is such a success the Star Tribune reported last Friday the arena’s completion is contributing to a construction slowdown in Minneapolis.

There are a lot of winners gathering under the U.S. Bank Stadium big top, but one major loser is the Gophers. The University of Minnesota’s football program has mostly played second fiddle to the Vikings in this market for more than 50 years. The opening of U.S. Bank Stadium only widens the gap between the two entities that compete for the love and financial support of this state’s football fans.

The opinion here is the Gophers are always best positioned to market their product when playing their home games in the same facility as used by the Vikings. The Gophers broke their co-occupancy of the Metrodome with the Vikings awhile ago with the decision to build TCF Bank Stadium. At one time there had been discussion of the Gophers and Vikings sharing a stadium on the University’s Minneapolis campus, but U leaders didn’t want the mega-size required of an NFL facility and the busy traffic brought to campus.

TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009. It’s a nice stadium, and the facility certainly trumps most of the dinosaur-aged football homes on other college campuses. But the facility is also problematic for the Gophers. Let’s count the ways.

U.S. Bank Stadium is going to be praised for some time as one of the most luxurious and fan-friendly stadiums in the world. TCF Bank Stadium can’t compete with that reality and image. Too bad because word is Gophers’ ticket sales are lagging after last year’s 6-7 season (2-6 in Big Ten games), and the loss of head coach Jerry Kill—the face of the program to Minnesota football fans.

There’s such a buzz about the new stadium it’s likely the Gophers could sell out multiple games this season if playing in that building. It’s probably fair to say every game on the schedule would attract more paying customers downtown than will show up at TCF Bank Stadium.

But it’s not just this fall and the next couple seasons where the Gophers and their fans will lose out for not signing on with the Vikings in a shared stadium. That facility has about 13,000 more seats for football than TCF Bank Stadium. Every game the Gophers play in the future that has high ticket demand will be a reminder of how many more fans could have been accommodated and U Athletic Department revenues generated by making U.S. Bank Stadium home.

Another problem is TCF Bank Stadium is an open-air facility, while U.S. Bank Stadium has a roof. Watching games outdoors is appealing to most fans in September, a little less so in October and then problematic for many ticket buyers and holders in November and beyond. The cold and snow didn’t keep Vikings fans away for late season games when the NFL team played at the Bank while their new palace was being built, but the Gophers don’t command that kind of passion and loyalty.

Look, for example, what happened in November of 2014 when eventual national champion Ohio State came to the Bank. It was a bitterly cold day on November 15, and despite the Ohio State brand name and the Gophers still being in the hunt for the Big Ten’s West Division championship, attendance was 45,778—about 7,000 under stadium capacity. The weather kept a lot of customers away, but in a covered facility the game likely would have attracted 55,000 to 60,000 fans.

Returning football to campus was promoted as a move to boost interest in the program. The results have been mixed. The Gophers didn’t sell out a single game in 2014, but last year—with the promise of Kill having his best team and playing a glitzy home schedule—Minnesota sold out multiple games and averaged a TCF Bank Stadium season-best ever 52,354 fans.

In the Gophers’ last seven seasons in the Metrodome they averaged 47,926 fans per game. During the first seven seasons since returning to campus—supposedly boosted by the honeymoon impact of a new home—the average is 48,980. Of course team success has a major impact on attendance, but during the last seven years in the dome and the first seven on campus Minnesota’s Big Ten records are nearly identical, 21-35 and 20-36. The conclusion is the Gophers didn’t gain much box office sales from being in their new facility.

More than 35 years ago the Gophers were struggling to draw fans when playing outdoors in Memorial Stadium but attendance jumped playing indoors at the Metrodome, their shared home with the Vikings. The first six seasons at the dome saw the Gophers averaging 54,898 fans. In the six prior years at Memorial Stadium the average was 40,872.

It’s all but certain the Gophers could earn a big growth in attendance in the immediate seasons ahead if their home was downtown, only a few miles from campus. Public season ticket sales for 2016, likely to finish behind last year, no doubt would be a higher number in U.S. Bank Stadium. Student season ticket sales have been a disappointment at TCF Bank Stadium, despite the hype that an on-campus stadium would bring more undergraduates to games from nearby dorms, fraternities and sororities. Truth is the Gophers drew as many or more students to games at the beer-friendly Metrodome.

The Athletic Department is reportedly still working on paying down the debt of the $288.5 million cost of TCF Bank Stadium. At the dome the Gophers paid no rent and you can be sure the U would have been given a sweetheart deal to play in the $1.1 billion people’s stadium that includes large subsidies from the state of Minnesota and city of Minneapolis.

I didn’t favor a return to campus for outdoor football. I thought the U could put $288 million to better use while trying to build an elite Big Ten football program. Like how? Oh, maybe for a $190 million Athletes Village that the U is struggling to finance now. Or, paying $6 million or more annually to the best head football coach money could buy—plus dramatically expanding the budget for assistant coaches. The right coaches have far more to do with attracting the best players and building winning teams than bricks and mortar for stadiums, or practice facilities.

The long-term benefits of an on-campus, small capacity open-air stadium were over sold as a benefit to Gophers football. Yes, the Gophers have their own home and can retain all the revenues, but they receive all the expenses too. Yes, it’s nice to walk across campus to see a game but how many folks buy tickets to soak up that part of the college atmosphere? Yes, the Bank is used to host events like banquets, commencements, concerts and soccer but the stadium also sits on valuable land that the ever expanding Minneapolis campus could put to full-time academic use.

This season the Gophers have home games against (in order) Oregon State, Indiana State, Colorado State, Iowa, Rutgers, Purdue and Northwestern. Iowa fans are riding high after last year’s Big Ten West Division title and trip to the Rose Bowl. Our friends from the south will make sure the Bank has at least one sellout next fall.

Too bad because it didn’t have to be that way. U.S. Bank Stadium has the image, the amenities and the roof, plus one mega tenant in the Vikings. The Gophers, trying to compete against pro sports with a fragile product and small fanbase, can see the new building from campus but they’re on the outside looking in.

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65 Years & Mays Memories Live on

Posted on May 18, 2016May 18, 2016 by David Shama

It will be 65 years next Tuesday that 20-year-old Willie Mays got the news he was leaving the Minneapolis Millers for the big leagues.

The citizenry here went into mourning after hearing about Mays’ promotion to the New York Giants. Even way back then some fans probably intuited that after 35 games with the Millers the shy young man from Alabama would one day be on the short list of baseball’s greatest players ever. But no matter the baseball intellect of a Millers fan, all who watched Mays knew they were looking at one hell of a player.

Playing for the Triple-A Millers in the American Association, Mays was already showing the five-tool skills that some baseball historians argue make him the best all-round player ever. Mays hit for average and power, could run down balls in the outfield like few before him or since, had a powerful arm to throw out base runners, and used his speed to steal bases, and turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples.

The “Say Hey Kid” had more than extraordinary skills, though. He played the game with flair, making basket catches with his glove, losing his cap while dashing around the bases, and sliding head first into a base or home plate.

Mays was pounding American Association pitching in his one and only spring in Minneapolis when the New York Giants, the Millers’ parent club, purchased his contract and ordered him to join their roster. Mays protested the promotion, unsure he was ready for the bigs.

I was too young to see Mays in Minneapolis and witness his call-up but I remember my uncle George sometimes told me a story that went something like this:

“Leo Durocher, the Giants manager, got on the phone with the worried Mays and told him to get to New York. Willie said, ‘But Mr. Leo, I don’t know if I can hit up there.’

“Durocher asked Willie what he was hitting in Minneapolis. Willie confessed he was batting .477.

“Durocher then told Willie he needed someone to play center field and Willie was so good in the field he didn’t care what Willie hit for the Giants.”

Millers’ fans and media took the news poorly about Mays heading to the majors—protesting that he wasn’t ready to play on baseball’s biggest stage. Why rush the young man and perhaps ruin his career by shaking his confidence if things initially didn’t go well?

Fans here were mad at the Giants including owner Horace Stoneham. Local baseball authority Dave Mona recalled the emotions in his 2008 book Beyond the Sports Huddle. “Finally, Stoneham bought space in the Minneapolis papers and ran an apology for taking Willie and listed reasons in his defense,” Mona wrote.

By season’s end neither the Giants nor Mays had any regrets about snatching the future Hall of Famer away from Minneapolis. Mays shored up the Giants defense, hit .274 with 20 home runs and 68 RBI, and was named National League Rookie of the Year. More importantly, the Giants won the National League pennant, winning an unforgettable playoff game against the Dodgers on Bobby Thomson’s home run—“The Shot Heard Round the World.”

Millers’ fans watched the debut season and no doubt took pride in knowing Willie was one of their all-time heroes. And for awhile during the 1950s it was more than a dream that Willie would one day return to Minneapolis—and not just for 35 games.

Stoneham’s Giants, despite the box-office draw of Mays and having World Series teams in 1951 and 1954, weren’t successful in attracting fans. The Giants were New York’s third most popular team after the mighty Yankees and the Dodgers in Brooklyn.

Stoneham had his eye on a move to Minneapolis where his National League Giants would fill the area’s desire for big league baseball. The Giants purchased land west of downtown Minneapolis as a potential site for a new ballpark. Eventually leaders from Minneapolis, Bloomington and Richfield sold bonds to build Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, replacing ancient Nicollet Park where Mays and Millers teams had played for decades.

After Metropolitan Stadium opened, Stoneham sent his Giants here to play one or two exhibition games against the Millers. He was testing the public’s interest, and large crowds responded. Knowing and admiring many of the Millers players before they went to the big leagues, fans wanted the Giants in Minneapolis. No player received a louder roar of adulation from fans in an exhibition game at Metropolitan Stadium than Mays when he came to the plate.

Dodgers’ owner Walter O’Malley spoiled the dream, though, of the Giants coming here. O’Malley had spent years negotiating with politicos in Brooklyn over a new stadium to replace Ebbet’s Field. He wanted his Dodgers to play in Major League Baseball’s first dome. By 1957 O’Malley had enough of stalled out talks. He was in negotiations with Los Angeles officials and took his Dodgers to southern California starting with the 1958 season. Before he headed west he convinced Stoneham that San Francisco was the place for the Giants. Two teams on the West Coast made travel and costs much more efficient for all the National League teams. In California the Dodgers and Giants could also continue their historic rivalry.

The Giants to Minneapolis balloon burst! So, too, did the hopes of bringing back Mays to Minnesota. In a way it was also Willie’s loss.

Snooty San Franciscans looked at Mays and decided he was a product of New York. Fans wanted their own new hero and found him in 1958 with rookie slugger and first baseman Orlando Cepeda who had played with the Millers. Mays was often booed in his early years in San Francisco, while Cepeda was revered.

That may have hurt Mays but he likely was more bothered by the sometimes brutal cold and windy weather in the Giants’ home stadium. Candlestick Park winds blew balls back into play that right-hand sluggers like Mays hit hard enough to clear the fence.

Lord only knows how many more home runs Mays would have totaled had he played at Metropolitan Stadium with its normally clalm winds and friendly fences. Even after enduring much of his career at Candlestick, Mays ranks fifth in all-time major league home runs with 660.

The Mays total was also held back by missing almost two full seasons of baseball. In 1952 and 1953 Mays served in the Army. In the 1940s and 1950s it was common for players to have their big league careers interrupted by military service. The immortal Ted Williams, who played for the Millers in 1938, missed three seasons with the Red Sox during World War II and two more during the Korean Conflict.

Mays hit 41 home runs in 1954 after returning from the service. The next season he totaled 51, the second highest number of his career. In 1965, the year Mays played in the All-Star Game at Metropolitan Stadium, he had a career high 52 homes runs.

Mays turned 85 on May 6. Here’s an idea, Willie. Why don’t you hang around at least 10 more years. Then come to Minneapolis in May of 2026 and celebrate the 75th anniversary of your promotion from the Minneapple to the Big Apple.

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