Shama: Gophers, Bison in Box Office Matchup

BleedGopher

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per Shama:

The Gophers won’t be the only Division I football team hosting a game in Minneapolis this week. The North Dakota State Bison will become the first Division I school ever to play at Target Field on Saturday, two days following the University of Minnesota home opener at TCF Bank Stadium.

Minnesota and the Bison, who have played against each other nine times over the years, won’t be matched up to determine a winner on the scoreboard but it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in attendance. Look for the Gophers, who are the only Division I team based in the state of Minnesota, to announce a larger crowd at their Thursday night game against South Dakota State than Target Field will announce for the NDSU-Butler game. But the Bison may well have more fans actually in attendance than the Gophers do—with a higher percentage of ticket buyers showing up at Target Field than at the Bank.

Expect the U to announce a crowd of more than 40,000 for the game at its 50,805 seat stadium. The Gophers have been in the 22,000 public season tickets range in recent seasons and while the total for 2019 hasn’t been announced it’s likely to be similar. Minnesota marketers, needing to boost interest in the South Dakota State opener, promoted a 24-hour flash sale to the public several days ago resulting in 7,127 $10 tickets being sold. Also, an athletic department official texted on Friday that about 9,000 tickets will be distributed to students for the game. A year ago the announced crowd for the home opener was 41,291. That was the third consecutive year the announced attendance for the opener trended down.

It’s common for announced attendance in college football to be higher than the number of tickets scanned at the game or customers going through the turnstiles. A Wall Street Journal article last August said actual number of attendees at games was typically about 30 percent less than announced. In recent seasons at Minnesota not only are there sections and sections of seats empty, but many of the best seats go unoccupied even though they have been sold.

Per a Star Tribune article last November, the turnstile counts of 15,434 and 15,160 for late season Minnesota home games against Purdue and Northwestern contrasted sharply with the announced attendances of 35,774 and 32,134. What will the numbers look like Thursday night? Well, if the Gophers distribute 45,000 tickets and 30 percent are no-shows, that means about 31,500 customers in the stadium.

The Minnesota Twins are promoting the Target Field game, and club president Dave St. Peter is confident there will be minimal unused tickets next Saturday. He already has experience with the first college football game played in the downtown baseball park, and that, too, was a hot ticket. In 2017 St. Thomas and Saint John’s renewed their rivalry before a Division III record crowd of 37,355.

“That was not a manufactured number,” St. Peter told Sports Headliners. “That was the real number. I think that number would have been higher, if it had not been so hot that day (late September).”

The football capacity at Target Field is about 35,000 but the 2017 game exceeded that figure because obstructed view and standing room only tickets were sold. St. Peter is predicting a turnstile count of 33,000 to 35,000 paid admissions for Saturday’s game. As of late last week the ticket total was about 32,000, with St. Peter saying “any of the good seats are going for significant dollars on the secondary market.”

Bison Nation travels in large numbers to watch its teams that have won seven of the last eight Division I FCS national championships, a remarkable achievement. St. Peter estimates 99 percent of the tickets sold are to NDSU fans, with perhaps 80 percent of customers living outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

That means economic impact on the local hospitality industry including for bars and restaurants near the stadium. “I expect downtown Minneapolis is going to be humming both Friday and Saturday evenings with North Dakota State fans,” St. Peter said. “There is no doubt about it.”

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/gophers-bison-in-box-office-matchup/

Go Gophers!!
 

I think Thursday will be close to a sell out, I imagine the Rabbits will bring alot of fans out, much more than a typical week one team. Plus the student section is pretty juiced week one

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The game at Target Field is so dumb. The field is going to get torn up and the Twins are in a playoff race. So ridiculous for a game that does not matter.
 

Look for the Gophers, who are the only Division I team based in the state of Minnesota, to announce a larger crowd at their Thursday night game against South Dakota State than Target Field will announce for the NDSU-Butler game. But the Bison may well have more fans actually in attendance than the Gophers do

No, there won't be more people at Target Field than TCF Bank Stadium. There simply won't. Shama grasping at a non-existent storyline here.
 



The game at Target Field is so dumb. The field is going to get torn up and the Twins are in a playoff race. So ridiculous for a game that does not matter.

Agree, doesn't make sense at all. Also any games at the Loon's stadium doesn't make sense as they are complaining over there as well.
 

The game at Target Field is so dumb. The field is going to get torn up and the Twins are in a playoff race. So ridiculous for a game that does not matter.

The game at Target Field matters as much as any other week 1 college football game, not sure why you would suggest that it doesn’t matter. It will actually be a nice financial move by the Twins for both tickets and concessions. It’s a noon gate, with a Jordan Davis concert at 12:30, then a 3pm kick. Should generate some revenue over 6 hours. It’s been scheduled for over a year, so the Twins will be ready for any field work required. As for the attendance question, Thu night should easily exceed 40k.
 
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It is ridiculous for a local pro team to bring in an out of state, lower level, college team to play a game at their stadium. These non-local schools are trying to capitalize on the largest metro area in the region just to add revenue and generate publicity. How would the Twins like it if the U hosted Brewer games, or non-Twin's farm team games? Or if the U hosted a Winnipeg Bomber game? The Twins could be burning some bridges by ignoring the local teams standing in the area. Of course, all of the teams compete for the "sporting dollars", but in general they try to show support/respect for all of the other local teams. Hosting a non-local team is being disrespectful for the local teams turf.
 

It is ridiculous for a local pro team to bring in an out of state, lower level, college team to play a game at their stadium. These non-local schools are trying to capitalize on the largest metro area in the region just to add revenue and generate publicity. How would the Twins like it if the U hosted Brewer games, or non-Twin's farm team games? Or if the U hosted a Winnipeg Bomber game? The Twins could be burning some bridges by ignoring the local teams standing in the area. Of course, all of the teams compete for the "sporting dollars", but in general they try to show support/respect for all of the other local teams. Hosting a non-local team is being disrespectful for the local teams turf.

Is it disrespectful to TCU when Alabama and so many other teams play in Cowboy Stadium every year? Should they only host the Cotton bowl when TCU is invited? Should Georgia Tech be the only team invited to play at at the Falcons new stadium? No other big non conference neutral site games? I don't see how this is any different.
 



The game at Target Field matters as much as any other week 1 college football game, not sure why you would suggest that it doesn’t matter. It will actually be a nice financial move by the Twins for both tickets and concessions. It’s a noon gate, with a Jordan Davis concert at 12:30, then a 3pm kick. Should generate some revenue over 6 hours. It’s been scheduled for over a year, so the Twins will be ready for any field work required. As for the attendance question, Thu night should easily exceed 40k.

Nope.
 

It is ridiculous for a local pro team to bring in an out of state, lower level, college team to play a game at their stadium. These non-local schools are trying to capitalize on the largest metro area in the region just to add revenue and generate publicity. How would the Twins like it if the U hosted Brewer games, or non-Twin's farm team games? Or if the U hosted a Winnipeg Bomber game? The Twins could be burning some bridges by ignoring the local teams standing in the area. Of course, all of the teams compete for the "sporting dollars", but in general they try to show support/respect for all of the other local teams. Hosting a non-local team is being disrespectful for the local teams turf.

The Twins have expressed the desire to host games like this on a regular basis. Dave SP said in an interview that he and Coyle are friends and had discussed in advance, and Coyle did not oppose these types of games At Target Field.

The only MN teams with a potential to draw for a Target Field game would be StT vs StJ, and that’s been done (will likely happen again). StC vs MinnSt would be the best DII, but I doubt they would fill it up. NDSU in the region is a guaranteed sellout for the Twins, so it’s not surprising it’s game on. NDSU would likely only attempt an off site home game during a year where 12 games are allowed by DI FCS teams in a season, and where they could add a 7th pseudo home game. Look for NDSU to book another Target Field game in 2024, hopefully with a good opponent next time.
 
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I don't read Shama's articles outside of what is shared on this forum, but it sure seems that he is obsessed with ticket sales and attendance. Is that his beat? Does he write about actual sports?



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The game at Target Field matters as much as any other week 1 college football game, not sure why you would suggest that it doesn’t matter.

Because it is minor league college football.


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The game at Target Field matters as much as any other week 1 college football game, not sure why you would suggest that it doesn’t matter. It will actually be a nice financial move by the Twins for both tickets and concessions. It’s a noon gate, with a Jordan Davis concert at 12:30, then a 3pm kick. Should generate some revenue over 6 hours. It’s been scheduled for over a year, so the Twins will be ready for any field work required. As for the attendance question, Thu night should easily exceed 40k.

I think he was referring to this being lower division football, not that week one games mean less. It of course means a lot to the teams that get to play there, just like St. Thomas and St. Johns a couple years ago. That was a big deal for them. I do agree with you that it should draw a big crowd - probably similar to that Tommie Johnnie matchup. Enjoy the game.
 

35,000 NDSU fans, lots of bandwagon fans. QB Trey Lance to WR Pheonix Sproles TD passes are ridiculous.. no idea why gophers didnt go harder after those 2.
Bars were packed, downtown mpls loved the millions of dollars spent
Gopher TE Brevyn Ford was there watching his teammate... i had a nice chat with him in the hallway and numerous NDSU fans walked up to him and told him we are Dual NDSU/Gopher fans.. so that was cool to see.

this video shows it all <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNdsuBisonFootballFans%2Fvideos%2F2889698661046269%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>
 

35,000 NDSU fans, lots of bandwagon fans. QB Trey Lance to WR Pheonix Sproles TD passes are ridiculous.. no idea why gophers didnt go harder after those 2.
Bars were packed, downtown mpls loved the millions of dollars spent
Gopher TE Brevyn Ford was there watching his teammate... i had a nice chat with him in the hallway and numerous NDSU fans walked up to him and told him we are Dual NDSU/Gopher fans.. so that was cool to see.

this video shows it all <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNdsuBisonFootballFans%2Fvideos%2F2889698661046269%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>


Trey Lance could be a miss, not to worried about Sproles as a miss. MN is occasionally going to miss on a player or 2 here in MN. But I'll need more than a game vs a team without scholarship players before I declare them next big things
 


Looks like the gophers missed out on Trey Lance. He will be the third NDSU QB in a row to make the NFL
 

Unlike others, I have no problem with Target Field (or Allianz for that matter) being used to showcase smaller divisions of football. The more college football the better. Turn this area into a college football mecca. The college game is so much better than the NFL for me. Some of those games in FCS, D2 and D3 between high level teams are awesome...as are my Gophers.
 


Unlike others, I have no problem with Target Field (or Allianz for that matter) being used to showcase smaller divisions of football. The more college football the better. Turn this area into a college football mecca. The college game is so much better than the NFL for me. Some of those games in FCS, D2 and D3 between high level teams are awesome...as are my Gophers.
As a twins fan I don't like it. The field looks like garbage now. Was at Friday nights game.

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As a twins fan I don't like it. The field looks like garbage now. Was at Friday nights game.

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This Twins don’t own the stadium. Owners should have paid for it if they didn’t want concerts and football games and craft fairs and beer fests
 

This Twins don’t own the stadium. Owners should have paid for it if they didn’t want concerts and football games and craft fairs and beer fests
Is it the ballpark authority running those or the twins? I think it's the twins.

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