Stadiums – Page 36 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Arena Wars to Impact H.S. League

Posted on June 11, 2012June 11, 2012 by David Shama

It’s Minneapolis versus St. Paul starting in 2014. That’s the year Target Center will host the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference Tournament the same March weekend the Xcel Energy Center will be the site of the initial Big Ten Hockey Tournament.

Minneapolis officials will hold a news conference today announcing a five-year commitment to hold the NCHC tournament at Target Center, the 22-year-old facility scheduled soon for remodeling. Xcel Energy Center will host the Big Ten Tournament in 2014 and 2016. The two buildings go up against each other for the first time with their hockey tournaments on Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22, 2014.

The Minnesota State High School League plays its boys and girls state basketball tournaments at Target Center. Dave Stead, executive director, said the league has contracts only through 2013 and that means a conflict involving dates (March 19-22) for the 2014 boys tournament. With neither Xcel nor Target Center available, Stead will have to consider other sites. The University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena likely won’t be an option because of commitments to post-season college basketball.

Meanwhile the competition to see if either Target Center or Xcel Energy Center, or both, can play to capacity crowds will be interesting. The NCHC is a new league with membership consisting of North Dakota, Colorado College, Denver, Miami, Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska Omaha, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan. The Big Ten hockey playing members will be Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin. Both leagues start play in 2013-14.

The Big Ten Tournament will count on the hometown Gophers to lead the ticket sales parade. Wisconsin fans will help, too. The Big Ten will have a three-day event, starting on Thursday, March 20 and will involve all six conference teams.

The NCHC Tournament involves only four teams, with two games to be played on Friday, March 21 and the championship and third place games on Saturday, March 22. Tournament officials have to be hoping North Dakota qualifies for the four-team field each year.

North Dakota fans have proven for years they will follow their team in greater numbers to Minneapolis-St. Paul than any other hockey program in the country. A hockey marketing source said counting North Dakota alums in the metro area and fans coming in from the state of North Dakota, 5,000 to 8,000 UND rooters likely will show up at Target Center.

The competition between arenas and cities is obvious starting in 2014, and so too is the intention of the upstart NCHC which has chosen to take on the Big Ten not only on the same dates but in the backyard of Gophers hockey.

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Worth Noting

Posted on June 11, 2012June 11, 2012 by David Shama

Craig Brischke won the men’s Tapemark Charity Pro-Am yesterday at Southview Country Club in West St. Paul. Martha Nause won the women’s championship. This was the 41^st year of Tapemark charity golf raising funds for local charities benefitting the developmentally and learning disabled.

Former Timberwolves and Gophers coach Bill Musselman might have had two of his protégés coaching in the NBA Finals this year. Scott Brooks, who played for Musselman’s expansion Wolves, is head coach of the Oklahoma City team that plays in the finals starting tomorrow night against Miami. The Heat might not have won the Eastern Conference playoffs if Chicago point guard Derrick Rose, perhaps the NBA’s most valuable player, had not been injured in late April and unable to play since then. The Bulls head coach is Tom Thibodeaux, a former Musselman assistant on the first Wolves team.

Other Musselman “alumni” who are or have been NBA head coaches include ex-Wolves players Tyrone Corbin (current Utah coach), Sidney Lowe (former Wolves coach) and Sam Mitchell (former Toronto coach). Musselman’s son Eric Musselman has been head coach for Golden State and Sacramento, while Flip Saunders, who played for the elder Musselman with the Gophers, had NBA head coaching jobs with the Wolves, Detroit and Washington.

Don’t forget Roy Terwilliger when congratulating public figures who helped make state legislative approval of the Vikings stadium bill a reality. Terwilliger was chairman of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission from 2002-2010. Before that he was a state senator representing Edina and Eden Prairie who was involved with stadium support for the Vikings, Twins and Gophers.

His stadium support dating back to the 1990s made an important contribution to all three teams. When Terwilliger left the senate in 2002 he didn’t know that his stadium expertise would lead to an appointment as MSFC chair by then-governor Tim Pawlenty. “I had a four-foot high stack of (stadium) stuff that I threw out, and then had to replace,” Terwilliger told Sports Headliners.

Terwilliger didn’t predict whether the new downtown Vikings stadium will have a retractable roof. He said opening up the facility to the elements changes the required design of various stadium components including concession areas. A retractable roof would have cost at least an additional $25 million back in 2010, he said.

Happy birthday to former Gophers two-time All-American tackle Bobby Bell who turns 72 on Sunday.

Vikings cornerback Chris Cook has changed his uniform number from 31 to 20.

The Twins chose 43 players in last week’s First-Year Player draft and only seven of them list cold weather communities for hometowns. Those figures are another example of where the best baseball players come from, and provide insight as to why northern college teams like the Gophers aren’t the national powers they once were. Minnesota won national championships in 1956, 1960 and 1964.

The Twins chose 24 pitchers and 19 position players—six catchers, five infielders and eight outfielders. No Minnesotans were among the 43 players drafted but the Twins did choose two Wisconsin natives, right fielder Adam Walker from Milwaukee and Brad Schreiber of Menasha.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Gophers baseball stadium will be held at 1:30 p.m. today. Speakers are expected to include former Gophers and Twins star Paul Molitor.

The Twins, who won two of three games against the Cubs Friday through yesterday, have been winners in seven of their last nine games versus that National League franchise. The Twins are 73-41 in Interleague play since 2006.

Twins pitcher Scott Diamond, who won on Saturday, is 3-0 in four starts this season at Target Field with a 1.03 ERA. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in 13 consecutive innings. His season record is 5-1 with a 1.61 ERA.

Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe is batting .387 with three doubles, four home runs, seven runs scored and nine RBI in eight games this month.

The Minnesota Minute Men, in cooperation with the Twins Community Fund, will announce the 2012 high school Play Ball! Mr. Baseball and Ms. Softball Award winners at a banquet next Sunday at Jax Café in Minneapolis. Baseball coach Richard Seltz (Austin) and softball coach Neil Johnson (Shakopee) will be honored with Lifetime Achievement awards for dedication to their sports and time served helping youth athletes achieve goals. www.minnesotaminutemen.com

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Vikings & Other Notes

Posted on June 4, 2012June 4, 2012 by David Shama

Joe Webb told Sports Headliners the coaches have told him he is the Vikings No. 2 quarterback. The third-year quarterback is behind Christian Ponder, a rookie last season, but Webb’s attitude was upbeat at the team’s Organized Team Activities at Winter Park. “I am fired up,” Webb said last week.

Often wearing a smile, he has a passion for football and life. He grew up in a family where religion was emphasized and so too was a positive outlook. “It’s just a blessing to be on the field,” he said. “One percent of players make it in the NFL.”

Webb has started three games in his NFL career. He plans to be ready if the opportunity to start comes again. With experience, he’s learned the playbook better, sees the field of play better and has learned to work on his mechanics.

Webb, whose contract expires after next season, also feels comfortable now being a leader. “I speak up to guys a lot more,” he said.

A sixth round draft choice in 2010, he played not only quarterback but wide receiver and even safety at UAB. His athleticism has created speculation the 6-4, 230-pound athlete might become a wide receiver with the Vikings. “My heart is in being a quarterback but I want to help the team anyway I can,” he said.

Coach Leslie Frazier said if Adrian Peterson isn’t recovered from his knee injury in time for the opening game the plan is to start Toby Gerhart and not use multiple running backs. He described Gerhart as a “solid” alternative. “…We’re not afraid of Toby having to start,” Frazier said.

Lester Bagley expects ground to be broken next spring on the new Vikings stadium downtown. He doesn’t anticipate any developments to delay that schedule. Bagley, who has been the club’s lead executive for years on the stadium project before gaining state and city approval this spring, believes it’s likely owner Zygi Wilf will be involved with commercial development near the stadium site.

Ian Thomsen, writing in the June 4 issue of Sports Illustrated about the Celtics aging big three that includes Kevin Garnett, said in 2007 Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor gave in on “his demand” that point guard Rajon Rondo had to be included among the players Boston would send to Minneapolis in exchange for Garnett. Rondo, 26, now ranks with the NBA’s best point guards and in a playoff loss to the Heat had 44 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

Minneapolis-born Zach Parise earns praise in the May 29-June 4 issue of The Fleisher Report. The report quotes Kings goalie Jonathan Quick as saying Parise’s “speed and competitiveness” are special. Quick observed that how Parise plays “usually” determines how the Devils fare.

In the same issue ex-Minnesota Wild defenseman Willie Mitchell, back with the Kings, credits that organization with giving him an opportunity while only an eighth grader.

KARE 11 news and sports personality Eric Perkins will travel to London to report on the summer Olympics.

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien emailed that boys basketball coach Reggie Perkins is leaving Washburn to coach at Bloomington Kennedy. Perkins coached Washburn in the Class 3-A championship loss to DeLaSalle in March.

Friends of Corky Taylor are saddened by the former Gophers basketball player’s battle with lung cancer.

Canterbury Park will hold a memorial service in the paddock open to the public starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday for Dark Star who passed away last week. Star’s second home was the Shakopee racetrack.

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