U2 have added more dates to the growing U2 Tour of the states with new shows going on sale. Now on sale are tickets for the U2 concert on June 27th at the TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and the July 16th U2 concert at the Hippodrome in Montreal.

U2 may still add more concert dates to the U2 concert tour featuring the “Spaceship” as Bono likes to call the stage. The same massive sound and video screens will accompany U2 on this tour that has only played in large stadiums because of the size of the stage.

June 2010
6 – U2 Tickets@ Angel Stadium – Anaheim, CA
7 – U2 Tickets@ Angel Stadium – Anaheim, CA
12 – U2 Tickets@ Invesco Field at Mile High – Denver, CO
16 – U2 Tickets@ Oakland Coliseum – Oakland, CA
20 – U2 Tickets@ Qwest Field- Seattle, WA
23 – U2 Tickets@ Commonwealth Stadium – Edmonton, Alberta
27 – U2 Tickets@ TCF Bank Stadium – Minneapolis, MN
30 – U2 Tickets@ Spartan Stadium – East Lansing, MI

July 2010
3 – U2 Tickets@ Rogers Centre – Toronto, Ontario
6 – U2 Tickets@ Soldier Field – Chicago, IL
9 – U2 Tickets@ Land Shark Stadium – Miami, FL
12 – U2 Tickets@ Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia, PA
16 – U2 Tickets@ Hippodrome – Montreal, Quebec
19 – U2 Tickets@ New Meadowlands Stadium – East Rutherford, NJ
20 – U2 Tickets@ New Meadowlands Stadium – East Rutherford, NJ

Seantrel Henderson (second from left) along with his dad, Sean (furthest left), get a personal appeal from Goldy Gopher at the Minnesota – South Dakota State football game last Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium. The Gophers won, 16-13, but were repeated visits throughout the season by Seantrel, the Cretin-Derham Hall star offensive lineman who’s rivals.com’s No. 1 high school football prospect in the country, enough to sway him to go to Minnesota?

Getting noticed by people is something Seantrel has had to adjust to. In a recent interview with me, Seantrel admitted his amazement at how technology played a part in being recognized by the fans on his recruiting trip to Ohio State in September: “It’s funny how technology works because everybody already knew who I am and who the other recruits were. So everybody was just screaming everybody’s name… screaming my name saying, ‘Come to Ohio State’… things like that. I didn’t know that everybody knew me like that. That kind of hit me a little bit.”

Seantrel has a few more visits left. This weekend he’s scheduled to take an unofficial trip to Iowa City to see the Iowa – Minnesota contest. Official visits include trips to USC on Dec. 5 and Florida Dec. 12. Good time to enjoy nice weather, Seantrel. Oklahoma was on his in his final five (Florida, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC) plus one (Minnesota), but trip date has been set yet.

I’ve been hearing chatter through Gopher football message boards about how we need new traditions at our new stadium.  Unfortunately, all I’ve been hearing is lame attempts to manufacture some watered-down imitation that’s been done at another college football stadium.

For example, I was invited to join a Facebook group touting a “New Third Quarter Tradition.”  Their big idea was to play “Let Me Clear My Throat” by DJ Kool.  They cited Camp Randall’s “Jump Around” in their writing.  I’m now wondering about the thought process that lead to them picking this song.  I’m picturing it like this:

“Hey, they play House of Pain’s “Jump Around” at Wisconsin football games, and everybody seems to think that’s cool.  Let’s start our own tradition of playing an outdated, early 90’s rap song with lyrics we can all take literally.  How about ‘Let Me Clear My Throat?’  Maybe we can get the entire crowd to simultaneously turn their heads and cough.  That would be great!”

OK, seeing an entire stadium full of people simultaneously turn their heads and cough would be awesome, but will probably never happen.

Look, I love traditions, but they can’t just be desperately manufactured like this.  You have to let them happen on their own.  Besides, we have plenty of in-game traditions and cheers.  I’ve taken note of some of my favorites.  Some have been around forever; others have been born right before my eyes and have since grown.

Not one, not two, not even three or four;  we have five fight songs.

If you are a Gopher fan, than surely you know the Minnesota Rouser.  However, you’ve probably heard a number of other fight songs played at Gopher sporting events that you may not know as well.  These are other fight songs dedicated to our dear old U.

Minnesota March is probably the second most popular tune you’ll hear the band play.  It was actually written by the march king himself, John Phillip Sousa.  I’m really surprised at how well the people around me in the stadium know this song.  As a band member, we were required to know all the words by memory, but there are lots of students and alums near my section who are belting it out alongside us former band nerds.

The other three tunes (Go Gopher Victory, Our Minnesota, and Minnesota Fight) are just simple fight songs.  They are quick like the Rouser and have fun lyrics, like “hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em low,” “make them sorry that they came,” and “for maroon & gold be warriors bold.”  Feel free to look these all up and sing along next time.

The First Down Cheer

This actually was born during my time at the U and in the marching band.  It has since evolved into a pretty fun routine.

After a first down, the announcer would say “X yards gained on the play, and that’s another…”  The crowd would then chime in with, “FIRST DOWN!”  In the old days, (circa 2001-2002) it would just end at that.  Some people would clap and/or cheer, while others would simply stand there with an empty feeling; like there was something more they should be doing.

That’s when the band decided to take action.  They gave us a simple 2 measure lick to play after everybody shouted “1st Down!”  It was nice, but it still sounded a little empty, so they added a 4 measure drum cadence to the end of it.  Now things were ready to take off.

The cheerleaders decided to add their creative energy to this project.  The last measure of the cadence ends with three counts of rest, leaving a perfect space to yell the three-syllable phrase, “Go Gophers!”  They could end the first down cheer with that, and I’d be happy.  But the cheerleaders continued to build on it.  After the drum line lays their sticks down, the cheerleaders keep clapping along to the same tempo for another 16 beats while chanting: “Min…ne…so…ta, Min-ne-so-ta…let’s go!”  On the first “Minnesota,” each syllable falls on every other beat.  On the second “Minnesota,” they fall on each consecutive beat.  There’s then one beat of rest before ending with a resounding, “Let’s Go!”  I realize this description may sound complicated, but it’s quite simple once you hear it.

What really has made this all the more fun is the student participation in it.  With a section of 10,000 over-excited fans, it’s hard to keep everybody in unison.  Some parts of the section follow the lead of the band and the cheerleaders, while others begin to accelerate the pace of the cheer.  This leads to an awesome echo effect as people shout their “Let’s Go!” at different times.  It’s even lead to students near my section to continue yelling “Let’s Go” back and forth at each other after the cheer is over.

The other element the students have added can best be described as “spirit fingers.”  During the announcer’s set-up, the band’s drum major raises his arms and wiggles his fingers.  The raised arms are meant to ready the band, while the wiggling fingers cue the drum roll.  The entire student section now mimics the drum major by raising their arms and wiggling their fingers, too.

Unfortunately, one thing that was lost in the move to TCF Bank Stadium from the Metrodome was the jumping that went along with this cheer.  In the Metrodome, a good portion of the student section was located on the retractable seats that were folded up for Twins games.  This made for a flexible surface that really moved when a few thousand students were jumping in unison.  You could try standing perfectly still, but the structure would almost force you to bounce.  Now that everybody is on solid concrete, they don’t jump along with this cheer as much anymore.

So what started as a simple, generic call-and-response cheer lead by the stadium PA, has now evolved into an awesome, traditional routine with help from the band, cheerleaders, and student section.  Next step would be getting the rest of the sections to join in.

Goldy’s Superman

Just about every college mascot does push-ups after touchdowns; it’s nothing new or special.  But another element was added while I was in college that has stuck throughout the years.  Before Goldy does his push-ups, the band plays the fanfare from the Superman movie.  This fanfare is now played when he first steps on the field, and he has since gotten himself a cape to wear when entering.

Ski-U-Mah

This is one of the oldest cheers in Minnesota history.  The “Ski” has been described as an old Sioux war cry, while others say it was Sioux equivalent of saying something like “hell yes!”  The “U-Mah” is short for University of Minnesota or U-M.  Lately, the cheer team has been waving giant flags with these words and getting the entire stadium to cheer along.  I absolutely love it: it’s simple, it’s steeped in tradition, and it’s baffling gibberish to non-Gophers.  I’m glad they are bringing it back.

M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A

The Minnesota spell-out is truly awesome to me.  Again, we’re not the only college to make a cheer out of spelling the home state in which the campus is located.  But while I enjoy hearing the spell-out cheers that Iowa and Ohio State do, it’s hard to whip the crowd into a frenzy with only four letters chanted at slow, drawn out tempo.  When I hear the rapid cadence of  M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, it takes me to a whole other dimension.

I picture myself as a contestant at the National Spelling Bee.  Instead of being a soft-spoken nerd, I’m more like the Dennis Rodman of the spelling bee circuit.  I belt out every letter of this fine state into the microphone, and when I’m done, I shout “MINNESOTA!” twice for dramatic effect.  I turn to walk away from the microphone stand, and just when the stunned audience thinks it’s over, I quickly turn around and scream “YEAH GOPHERS!” and kick the microphone stand over.  It squeals with awful feedback as the audience, judges, and contestants cover their ears and gasp.  I slowly walk back to my seat, and that’s when one contestant dares to make eye contact with me.  I quickly give him a hard flinch with my shoulder and bellow “RAH!” right into his chubby little face.

Yes, the Minnesota spell-out is that intense for me.  And it should be for you, too.

*****

There’s just a few traditions to appreciate and love.  Some will stay, some will pass, and we’ll see new ones emerge.  So relax and let it happen.  Quit trying to force early 90’s hip-hop onto the PA system.

This is a short multimedia piece I did on the experience at the University of Minnesota’s new football stadium, TCF Bank Stadium, aka, The Bank. I combined audio (which supplies the narrative) with video and still pictures.

Last weekend the Golden Gophers christened the new TCF Bank Stadium in their home opener against Air Force and we were there to witness it in all its glory.  From the moment we stepped off the campus bus, you could feel the electricity of excited fans teaming through Stadium Village (“now with stadium” as one t-shirt noted).  Sure, campus buzzes a bit before and after games at Mariucci and Williams Arena, but it’s the dead of winter and being outside isn’t fun.  September 12th was a different story.  It was nearly 80 degrees  and campus was drenched in a sea of maroon and gold.  It was like nothing I’d ever seen before on the U of M capmus.   Literally, tens of thousands of fans strolling about campus drinking beer, tailgating and reveling in the joy that is Big Ten football on a Saturday afternoon.  Of course, this is a regular occurrence in every other Big Ten college town, but for nearly 30 years Gopher fans were relegated to the sterile and unispired confines of the Metrodome, replete with conditioned air and flourescent lighting.  We weren’t at all sad to say goodbye to the Metrodome and hello to fresh air and sunshine.

Gopher fans making their way into TCF Bank Stadium

Veteran's tribute near the entrance

Shot from the endzone

Our third row seats. Nice!

"Gambling is illegal at Bushwood sir, and I never slice"

M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A

The student section was packed and rockin'

Last Saturday, September 12th, I experienced the happiest moment of my life so far.  I got watch my beloved Gophers play on the campus of the University of Minnesota in an outdoor football stadium.  It was everything I had hoped it would be and more.  I’ve been so overrun with emotion and glee that I haven’t been able to write a coherent post about the experience yet.  I hope to do so after I have a second helping of TCF Bank Stadium awesomeness tomorrow when the Gophers take on #8 ranked Cal.

In the meantime, I figured I would share some links to others’ first TCF Bank Stadium experience.  Enjoy:

Inaugural Agoraphobia at TCF Bank Stadium – This was written by Buck Bravo over at the Daily Gopher.  He states that the opening of this stadium will breed a whole new era of Golden Gopher fans.

Jon Marthaler on the First Game at TCF Bank Stadium – I’m pretty sure I met this guy while in college.  I believe he also had a bro named Ryan.  One I met while working in the Office of Admissions and the other I met in a class at the Carlson School of Management; but I can’t remember who is who.  Either way, I dig his stuff.  That’s why I link ot his blog (see the blog-roll on the side).  This was absolutely the greatest post I’ve ever read.  I was almost in tears by the end of it.  It has had me second guessing my own written thoughts about the experience all week.  It sums up almost everything I feel about the return of Gopher football on campus.

Photo Album of First Game at TCF Bank Stadium – This album was posted on a message board, and it contains some absolutely amazing pictures.  This guy’s seats are actually close to where I’m sitting, so you get a good perspective of what I’m seeing during the game.

Everybody’s Doing It, So…My Rant on TCF Bank Stadium – You probably can’t access this link because it goes to the premium member board at GopherIllustrated.com, so I’m going to post the member’s “rant” right here.  Next to Jon Marthaler’s article that I posted above, this would have to be the second best post I’ve ever read.  Here you go:

As I drove down University Ave at 2pm and saw the frat houses erupting with college kids, I realized something…this was going to be the greatest sports day of my lifetime. I have been to NBA playoff games, World Cup soccer qualifiers, MLB playoff games, MNF games, USC games at the Colosieum, etc…, but Saturday has no comparison. I drank in the Maroon lot next to my Ugly Yellow Ford Focus rental car with Nebraska plates and when I ran out of beer with my group of 4, the guys next to us gave us theirs. We then went to the Victory Walk and didn’t see crap…because their were so many f’ing people. I told my buddy it was the best one I’d been to and he said “why? You can’t see anything. There’s too many people.” I said, “that’s why!”. We went to Stub and Herb’s and got 50 tickets worth of drinks down in ten minutes and then headed in. As I walked aimlessly through the DQ Lounge, just trying to soak it all in, I realized, this is gonna be my home 7 days a year for the rest of my life and hopefully when its time to start a family, a place my son or daughter or even grandkids will get to experience unforgettable moments with their dad and/or grandpa. Its a place that will be the topic of many discussions around the dinner table and the place of many memories as I grow old. I could care less if the cashier uses a calculator or register. I could care less if traffic is a nightmare before or after the game. I don’t care if I can’t see other teams scores on the jumbotron or if the jumbotron because I only care about the Gophers. I don’t care if I have to order a hot dog because the hamburgers are sold out. Don’t get me wrong, I want it to be perfect like everyone else, but when Triplett picked up that fumble and ran down the sideline for the go ahead score and the crowd did the M…I…N…N…(etc) cheer after and it was deafening, well that was just perfect for me. Nothing can ever take away that moment and as sports memories go, that 60 seconds as I looked around and saw a sold out stadium celebrating, the lit up skyline in the background and the home team ahead on the scoreboard..well I gotta say one thing that feels so nice to say “thank you TCF for giving me my newest favorite memory”

I promise I’ll post some of my original thoughts on this experience soon, but please read through the links above, as they are simply amazing.

As big a sports fan as I am, I’ve only ever been to a few football games. I used to go with my friends to my high school’s football games, both home and away. But most of those stadiums are, well, high school stadiums: built only to accommodate a few thousand people at most. And some, including the home stadium for my high school’s team, were in really bad shape. I remember that the members of the marching band could only sit in special spots of the band grandstand, because if they sat anywhere else, the entire grandstand would collapse (not making this up).

And even when we went, our focus wasn’t on the game as much as it was about interacting with the other kids in the student section. Fights, Silly String, make-out sessions, people proudly displaying posters of mostly nude men, accidents with slushies–the whole gamut of human interaction played out in a rickety old grandstand.

I’ve also been to Stambaugh Stadium (Youngstown State) and Dix Stadium (Kent State), but neither of those is a colossal structure (and in the case of Dix Stadium, is just really depressing). I also vaguely remember going to Cleveland to see a football game when I was really young, though I can’t remember the circumstances (and that’s probably for the best).

In other words, my trip yesterday to see the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers break in their new digs at TCF Bank Stadium was my first time in a huge football stadium watching a pretty momentous game.

People were especially excited for the game against Air Force; not only was it the Golden Gophers’ first home game in the new stadium, it was also their first real home game in almost 30 years. In 1981, the Gophers decided to move across town and play in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, a multi-purpose domed stadium that also housed the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. It seemed like a good idea, until the 1990s, when everyone collectively realized the future probably wasn’t going to involve living and playing in large white domes. It also, you know, took them away from their support base of 50,000 students, most of whom weren’t willing to make the trek to see a sub-par team play in a crappy stadium.

And there was good reason to be excited: the stadium is excellent. For one, it’s the newest football stadium in the Big Ten Conference by a good 60 years. A state-of-the-art facility should hopefully be a draw in recruiting for a team that has to play in the same conference as Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin. For another, TCF Bank Stadium isn’t more than a 5-minute walk from campus (and a short walk from most college housing). It’s built to be a gathering place, and its location fits the bill.

Like I said, I’m not used to huge football stadiums, enthusiastic crowds, or even lines to get in. But, as you would expect, the game was sold out, and the several thousand student season-ticket holders had to enter through Gate C. The student section takes up the entire goalpost area on the opposite the field as the giant scoreboard (3rd largest in college football). Immediately on entering Gate C, the fan is faced with an egregiously long and steep flight of stairs leading up to the main concourse. Think of it as something out of MC Esther’s nightmares. Now picture 5,000 students–all wearing bright yellow shirts–making an energetically crazed dash for the top, as though they were running from aliens, or a huge tidal wave, or an M. Night Shyamalan movie or something.

The concourse contains a few generic souvenir shops and food stands, and the sight lines of the field from within the concourse aren’t good. What struck me the most about TCF Bank Stadium, however, was how intimate it felt. The stadium holds 50,805 spectators, and from the outside the place looks to be a labyrinth. But it feels more intimate and accommodating than Dix Stadium, and that doesn’t even have half the capacity as TCF Bank. I stood a few rows from the very top, and even from there, I could see the field perfectly and felt pretty close to the action.

(By the way, we have to come up with a cool nickname for TCF Bank Stadium, even though I think the name is impervious to any nickname upgrade. At least other crappy sponsor stadium names can be shortened into something better. Lincoln Financial Field is the “Linc,” Gillette Stadium is the “Razor,” and Xcel Energy Center is the “X.” What can be done with TCF Bank Stadium? You can’t even shorten it to “TCF” because that makes no sense. I can imagine a bunch of head guys at TCF trying to figure out the least nickname-able name imaginable, so everyone is forced to say the name of their business properly.)

The game went on, complete with all the enthusiasm accorded to the first home game in a beautiful new stadium. Minnesota beat Air Force, 20-13, and the game was great throughout. And what’s more, I had a chance to observe Minnesota students and their unique ways of rooting on the Gophers. Two ways in particular stuck with me. First, there’s a pretty common chant of the university name. Students begin by spelling out M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, then quickly yell “Minnesota!” twice, and then…well, that’s it. The rhythm set the chant up for an impressive finish, but nothing came after the second “Minnesota!” I don’t know if this happens all the time, and in fact, some students seemed to be confused by the chant, following the second “Minnesota!” yelp with verbal perplexity, like a long, drawn-out “Uhhh…” It’s like someone passed out sheets of paper before the game with instructions for this chant on it, but the photocopier cut off the last line.

The second show of support happened after Minnesota kicked a field goal in the first quarter to take a 3-0 lead. The Minnesota kicker was about to kick the ball to the returning Air Force team, when a girl sitting somewhere in the student section yelled out “Keys!” One by one, every student took out his or her keys and started dangling them. I think the end goal was to make noise to distract the opposing team, but most people weren’t even focused on making noise: they just were dangling their keys gently, as if they were all taunting invisible people looking at, and desperately wanting, some keys. Again, I don’t understand this. I think it would have been more effective if this had been done when Air Force was kicking to Minnesota, rather than the other way around; I would guess it takes more concentration to kick the ball than to run up the field with it. I also think it would have been more effective had our opponents been cats. But it’s just another thing I’ve learned about Minnesota and its people.

Ahh, Minneapolis. Go Gophers!

–ModestAutomatic

On this morning before I witness history at the Gophers home opener in TCF Bank Stadium, I thought I would reflect on one more point.

As I have recently documented, I traveled to Ames, Iowa, last week to watch a game between the NDSU Bison and the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium.  JTS has roughly the same capacity as TCF Bank Stadium (50,000 seats), but that’s where the similarities end.  It does not have all the bells and whistles that you’ll see or read about at TCF Bank Stadium, such as: the largest locker room out of all football stadiums (NFL and college), the 3rd largest scoreboard (in high-def!) amongst college football stadiums, the recruiting lounge with big LCD TVs, the luxury suites and loge boxes, the wide-open concourse, the marching band headquarters, the beautiful brick arches, etc.

But while I was in Ames, I was amazed by the simplicity of it all.  When you fill the place up with 50K screaming fans, nothing else matters.  We could have built a facility similar to Jack Trice Stadium here for a fraction (1/3 or even 1/4) of the $288 million cost of TCF Bank Stadium.  Either way, I (and many other Gopher football fans) would be just as happy with a plain and simple stadium.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m very happy they chose to spend the money they did and build the crown jewel that is TCF Bank Stadium.  It will pay huge dividends down the road, as the rest of the Big Ten schools play catch up in the college football arms race.  We got it all done in one swoop, so our coach won’t have to complain about renovating the locker rooms or other stadium facilities just a few years after it is built.

But while all those features are great for coaches and their recruiting efforts, it really doesn’t matter for us Gopher fans.  Here are the three most important factors I see in the new stadium:

1. It’s on campus. This is a huge plus.  It’s what separates the college football experience from the NFL game day experience.  You get to return to your alma mater and relive your glory days.  You get to walk around and visit the old classroom buildings, bars, and restaurants you remember as a student, while also taking in all of the new buildings and businesses that have emerged since you graduated.  It’s amazing how fun this is, even for somebody like me who still lives in the Twin Cities.  I rarely get a chance to visit the dear old U, despite living nearby.  This will make for a much better atmosphere than the parking lots and condos that surround the Metrodome.
2. It’s outdoors. This is the way football is meant to be played.  There were some articles in the Strib last week that seemed to perpetuate the myth that Minnesota is a harsh, frozen wasteland 365 days of the year.  But they also posted the temperatures at kick-off for all the games last year.  It boils do to this:
   - In September, wear a t-shirt.
   - In October, wear a sweater.
   - In November, wear a jacket.
   Sure, we’re going to run into a game someday that’s going to be absurdly cold or snowy, but it’s not going to be every game, or even every season.  We’re going to see a lot more good weather games than bad weather games.  The benefits of having all the games played outdoors under the autumn sun vastly outweigh the costs of having to endure a snowstorm game once every few years.
3. It’s ours. There was a quote in the paper from All-Big Ten wide receiver Eric Decker, but I can’t seem to find it now.  It basically said that TCF Bank Stadium feels like home.  It’s now our house.  Fans, coaches, and players now seem to feel that sense of pride that a homeowner would have and a renter would never understand.  No longer will Gopher games be rescheduled for awkward kick-off times because the Twins made the playoffs.  We’ll no longer see dirty maroon & gold banners hanging to honor our past players and teams; now we’ll see permanent fixtures mounted around the stadium.  And from a business standpoint, we’ll no longer have to share all the revenues from tickets, parking, and concessions with the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission.  This is our house, and I expect it to be there for the next century.

I’ll end this post by saying today will be the greatest day of my life.  Go Gophers! Ski-u-mah!

It’s been quite the weekend for football, and now that it has drawn to a close, I figure I would share my experience from the game last Thursday (it seems so long ago).

We got to the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, IA, around 4:30 PM.  This left us with a good couple of hours to tailgate before kickoff.  We made our way through a small sea of parking lots to the area with green and gold NDSU flags flying high.

Everybody I talked to from North Dakota State was completely blown away by the size of the tailgating scene down there.  They kept saying how they wished it was that big up in Fargo.  This leaves me somewhat baffled, as the Fargodome is completely surrounded by not only vast parking lots, but also large plots of undeveloped land.  They have more than enough room for tailgating up there if they need it.  I now think they were referring to the amount of people there, as Jack Trice Stadium holds about 50,000 people (the Fargodome holds roughly 20,000).

I unfortunately didn’t go to any cool college bars while in Ames.  There were none in sight while circling the entire stadium.  While the tailgating was great, I’m not a big fan of having stadiums surrounded by huge parking lots.  I’d like to seem them more integrated with the campus and neighborhood.  Sure, it would take away some of the parking spots for tailgating, but you’d be a lot closer to restaurants, bars, and other venues for pregame activity.  There was hardly any room for tailgating when I saw the Gophers play Cal at Berkeley, but the businesses on Telegraph avenue and the rest of the campus was buzzing with all sorts of fans before the game.  Luckily with TCF Bank Stadium, we’ll get the best of both worlds with ample tailgating space and close proximity to both Dinkytown and Stadium Village.

We made our way into the stadium with about a half hour before kickoff.  I got to see the ISU marching band make its way into the stadium.  I picked up a ticket on the hillside right at the gate.

If you don’t know about the hillside, I’ll try to explain it the best I can:

The stadium is set up with main seating structures on both the sidelines.  They also have bleachers set up by the south end zone and an athletics administration building bordering the north end zone.  While there is a concourse and walkway surrounding the entire place, these four structures are not connected.  Between all four of them are grassy hillsides.  The tickets in these sections are general admission and are standing room only (or you can bring a blanket and sit on the grass).  Hillside tickets are half the price of regular seats, and they also offer discounted hillside tickets for children.

The friends I arrived to the game with already had reserved seats, but I met some other guys while tailgating who said they would be on the hill.  At the very bottom of the hill, everybody is standing and are densely packed.  I unfortunately could not find my aforementioned tailgate buddies, so I found some good space at the top of the hill to watch the game.

If I could do it all over again, I would have bought a reserved seat or made a better effort to find my friends at in the tightly packed crowd at the bottom of the hill.  The reason is that the top of the hills are largely occupied by families with children aged 2-18.  This made for an atmosphere that felt like a high school football game.  There were just too many kids running around and parents trying to keep track of them; hardly anybody up there was watching the game.  It took me back to my old grade school days when I used to go to every high school football game and not watch much more than the opening kickoff.  This wasn’t what I wanted for my first NCAA football game of the year.

I bit my lip and tried to focus on other things.  One of those things was the incredibly active marching band and student section.  They were on their feet the entire game and had all sorts of organized cheers that sounded great.  Everybody in that section knew the words and the choreography that went along with these cheers; all the band had to do was play a tune and the students knew what to do.

They also seemed to be pretty dedicated to the game, too.  There were a few empty seats at the top of the second level at the very end of the game, but the rest of their section was packed and rowdy until the end.  My guess that the empty seats up top were from students who sneaked down to the lower level and upgraded their seats.  I really hope the students at Minnesota show this kind of dedication and coordination in their new stadium.

And the band sounded pretty amazing, too.  They played the typical selection of college pep band songs, but I was mostly blown away by how audible they were from the opposite side.  The marching band at the Metrodome used microphones and you still couldn’t hear them beyond a few sections over.  The sound was lost in the giant echo chamber of the dome.  I really can’t wait to hear the full U of M marching band at TCF Bank Stadium next week.

If there was one point that really irritated me about the game day experience at Jack Trice Stadium, it was the guy in the sound booth.  He would constantly play music in the middle of a marching band song or a band/student section cheer.  On top of all that, their sound system was absolutely dreadful.  College football is all about the students and the band.  Save the canned intros to “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Hells Bells,” and “Enter Sandman” for the NFL stadiums.

Despite the Bison falling short of a victory, this was a great trip.  My friend Jay and I even discussed how fun it would be to come back for a Big 12 game later in the fall.  I might be busy following the Gophers, but if they were out of town, I might consider it.  Here’s to school, team, and fans at Iowa State University for putting together such a great atmosphere.

The Gopher’s home opener at TCF Bank Stadium is a mere 9 days away, but I just can’t wait any longer.  I’ll be making a Thursday night road trip down to Ames, IA, for the ISU Cyclones home opener against my home-state NDSU Bison.

Aside from satisfying that itch for watching live college football outdoors, here are a few other things I’ll be looking forward to:

• Jack Trice Stadium – I’ve always thought this was an underrated college football venue.  My favorite part is the hillside seating (or lack of seating) in the corners.  You can get cheaper tickets and bring a blanket or just stand the entire game.

  The history behind the name of the stadium is also intriguing.  Jack Trice was the first black athlete at ISU in the 1920’s, and he died from injuries sustained in a game against the Gophers.  You can read a good write-up about him here.  Even though this was over 80 years ago and there are mixed accounts about what happened on the play, it makes me feel ashamed for my beloved Gophers.

• Partying with Bison – Growing up in the SE corner of North Dakota, I was in the heart of NDSU territory.  There were kids who wore “Souix Suck” t-shirts to my school.  If I had a chance to live another life in a parallel universe, I would have gone to NDSU in that one.  But in the real world, the lure of the big city, big school, and Big Ten at the University of Minnesota was impossible to resist.  Division II athletics (at the time) and the city of Fargo simply could not compete with that.

  I have no regrets, but it still would have been cool to go to NDSU, mostly because of the people.  I ended up becoming good friends with a whole lot of NDSU grads via four good high school friends who went there.  They are all proud of their school and state, and they all seem to feel a strong sense of unity between fellow North Dakotans, whether they went to school there or not.  It will be great to have a good tailgate, share some brews, and watch some football together.

• The enemy of my enemy… – As the old saying goes, the ISU Cyclones should be my friends because of our mutual dislike for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.  I suppose it works in this scenario, but this formula tends to create paradoxes when you apply it to the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Iowa triangle of hate.
• Can’t wait any longer – This Thursday is the official kick-off to the college football season, but the Gophers open up on the road.  I’m not complaining about the opportunity to plant my ass on the couch and watch every nationally broadcast game on our new TV (in HD no less).  However, I have to attend a wedding this weekend and will not be able to watch much football (it works out perfectly for us to watch the Gophers-Syracuse game on Saturday right before the ceremony, though).  This ISU-NDSU game will satisfy my urge and prevent any serious injury.

I can’t wait to check out the scene in Ames, as I’ve only really drove by it on I-35 and have never seen the campus.  I hope to have some pictures posted sometime at the end of the weekend.

Here’s to football!

Thanks to Gophers Coach Brewster for allowing the sports marketing folks at the University of Minnesota to turn his team’s locker room into a bar/reception area Monday evening. Coach Brew was even kind enough to stop by to speak with corporate season ticket holders who came to see the new stadium — and his team’s spacious locker room at The Bank.

The Gophers locker room was quite impressive. I think it’s probably the size of a small ice hockey rink. (I’m not kidding.) And the photography that adorns the walls is superb. Actually, the University of Minnesota has always had good sports photography as long as I can remember. If you can’t get inside the Gopher’s locker room, check out the photos in the lobby at the Radisson University on the University’s East Bank or the Applebee’s inside and you’ll see what I mean.

Combined with Williams Arena, Mariucci Arena, the University Acquatic Center and the new TCF Bank Stadium, the University of Minnesota probably has some of the best sports facilities in the country. Of course, the sporting public expects you to win. That’s all!

After 28 years, Minnesota finally corrects a mistake — Golden Gopher football is back on campus! And back on campus in style. I never made it to a game at old Memorial Stadium; I was too young to go growing up in Austin, Minn. Even then, I never understood why it was a good idea to move it off campus to a place so antiseptic as the HHH Metrodome. If a grade-schooler could figure it out 28 years ago, what were grown adults thinking? Chances are they were people who didn’t understand sports — and who didn’t want to spend money to keep up Memorial Stadium. Big Mistake.

After years of traveling around the country, TCF Bank Stadium is, for my money, one of the best college football facilities in the country. While it will take years to accumulate the tradition of the Big House in Ann Arbor, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, or The Swamp in Gainesville, “The Bank” should be the place to be on football Saturdays in Minnesota, selling out and helping the University of Minnesota much like the Xcel Energy Center helped facilitate the early success of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. The “X” is just the place to be in the winter; The Bank will be the place to in the Fall.

The Bank -- 2007

The Bank -- 2009

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