Attention - all Gopher Fans attending the Big Ten Tournament

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GopherLady

GopherLady

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Gopher Basketball is putting on a 'Sota Social on Thursday night in Indianapolis for all the fans! Here are the details:

SotaSocialFlyer.jpg
 

Thanks GL. I hope like heck:

(1) The Gophers haven't played that day & it's a nice relaxing mini pep rally for Friday's quarterfinals; and

(2) Attending it doesn't become moot because the Gophers have already been eliminated and the team is already on its flight home.
 


One more thing...

I just consulted with Natedawg, and we're not going to be able to make the trip to Indy this year (we both sooooo wish it was still in Chicago!). Anyways, I had made a hotel reservation a few months ago, knowing that hotels downtown Indy are pretty hard to find. I have it for Thursday to Sunday night, it's $135/night. I just checked, and it looks like the only other hotel DT available is going for $299/night (that's the advantage of booking in September).

Anyways, if someone is interested in going, I can see if I can transfer my reservation onto your name, if you want a great location for a good price. This is the hotel:

Courtyard Indianapolis at the Capitol 320 North Senate Avenue,
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 USA Phone: 1-317-684-7733 Fax: 1-317-684-7734
 

Point #2 is that it really wouldn't be much of a social if the team's already eliminated & on its way back to Minneapolis. The idea for these things would be that your team is still playing in the tournament.
 


B10 Tourney

Thanks for the info GL and I totally understand your point SS. I was at one of the socials in Chgo during the Monson regime when we lost our first round game - I believe to NW. The team had either already left or was packing to leave, very few people showed, none of the players. Coach Monson said a few words - thanked us for coming & apologized for their effort, turned it over to the Alumni Assn, and was gone. It was the shortest and poorest attended social I have ever been to. On a positive side, however, my wife won the team autographed ball and we proceeded to close the bar down or until they asked us to leave.
 

I see your edit now!! makes sense and I totally agree... Wish I could go to Indy, won't be able to unfortunately.
 

Sadly, I will not be able to attend this year because of impossible schedule conflicts. I have already made arrangements to be at next year's tournament, though.

I actually prefer Indy because most things are closer together than Chicago, although the United Center beats the pants off Conseco as a venue (if you are in the lower bowl).
 

We'll miss having you there Holy Man. My folks just asked me the other day if you were going to be there. They enjoy your visits, as do I.

My folks are still mumbling under their breath about the officiating during the Badger-Spartan semifinal game last year. Telling them to turn the page hasn't helped. Never again mention Ed Hightower in their presence.
 



Does the athletic department do any season ticket holder package deals? Or is it every man for himself? (or woman and herself) :)
 

My wife and I are coming up from lexington on saturday morning if the gophers are playing, to anyone who knows, what will hotel and ticket availability be like on saturday?
 

Greet your parents for me, Hodger

I will miss visiting with them, as well, and the little community of devoted Gopher and other Big Ten followers that make the trek every year with little hope of victory. It really is a great time. Unfortunately for me, a transfer this summer did not get me the time to plan being away for the tournament in March. Whenever I see Hightower or Sanzere, I know something both wierd and bad will happen.

The upside here, though, is that with my absence the Gophers' opportunity for success increases exponentially, especially this year. If I pay close attention, bad things happen. If I am busy, good things have happened. The only exception is that I was at the Illinois game.
 

Holy Man said:
Sadly, I will not be able to attend this year because of impossible schedule conflicts. I have already made arrangements to be at next year's tournament, though.

I actually prefer Indy because most things are closer together than Chicago, although the United Center beats the pants off Conseco as a venue (if you are in the lower bowl).
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I prefer Chicago since I live here (obviously) and can use public transportation to get around. Indy, ya gotta drive but that's tolerable. Much better food (quality and choices) here in Chicago.

I'll probably just do a day trip on Friday (March 13) like I did last year. Long day but fun to see Gophers beat IU.
 



Tickets will be readily available Sat morning - 7 teams will have already lost. Many fans leave or loose interest after their team looses. Purdue/IN/IL tend to draw fans in very well because of close proximity, but many of the other fans sell their tickets. We will be selling some tickets after the Gophers loose - it makes the trip a bit more affordable. We have only stayed for Sunday's game once and that was in Chgo. We drive, so the drive back is a little easier if we leave after checkng out of our hotel on Sun. Now if the Gophers are playing Sunday - we will be there.
 

I prefer the Indy location. If you stay downtown then you can walk to everything, mingle with the fans from other teams, the entire downtown knows it is BTT time and prepares and hosts it that way, etc. And, for a city of its size, downtown Indy has great food choices and things to do. It is a great weekend.

At Chicago, you get lost in the shuffle, rarely do others in your hotel even know there's a basketball tourney in town, you take a $55 cab ride out to the United Center in the middle of a terrible neighborhood, and take a $55 cab ride back to the hotel. In fairness, I've only been to one BTT in Chicago years ago and we were one-and-done, so I didn't like the experience at all.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to go to Indy this year.
 

tjgopher said:
I prefer the Indy location. If you stay downtown then you can walk to everything, mingle with the fans from other teams, the entire downtown knows it is BTT time and prepares and hosts it that way, etc. And, for a city of its size, downtown Indy has great food choices and things to do. It is a great weekend.

At Chicago, you get lost in the shuffle, rarely do others in your hotel even know there's a basketball tourney in town, you take a $55 cab ride out to the United Center in the middle of a terrible neighborhood, and take a $55 cab ride back to the hotel. In fairness, I've only been to one BTT in Chicago years ago and we were one-and-done, so I didn't like the experience at all.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to go to Indy this year.
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There is no such thing as $55 cab ride from hotel to United Center. The ride from O'Hare to the UC is only $30. CTA buses take you anywhere in the city for $2 each way.
 

Yeah, a cab ride from the Loop or the Mag Mile is going to be $8-$15 to the United Center. The problem is catching a cab after the game.

I'm still surprised they haven't built a rail stop for the United Center. Then again, the CTA can't even figure out how to get the doors closed on a cold morning.
 

Why is the BTT in Indy 5 years in a row?

It feels like we got sold a used car special or something. "Buy today, and we'll throw in four more consecutive years of metropolitan mediocrity!!"

Indiana as a state generally sucks. The food choices are slightly better than rural England. The public transportation is worse than Mexico. And Peyton Manning is everywhere you look. Suicide anyone?

The tourney needs to go back to a rotating site. Preferably one where more than two cities host. But at the very least just returning to the back and forth with Chicago would make this much more enjoyable.
 

I am going and i am really pumped up to go. I have never been to the BTT .
 

B10 Tourneys

A couple comments about the B10 tourney in Chgo. They provided free bus service to & from games on the 1/2 hour I believe from several downtown hotels. Sometimes we drove ourselves and paid the $15 or $20 for parking. It wasn't that bad.

About the 5 y deal at Indy. My guess it was all about money. It was set out to bid and Indy gave the B10 more than Chgo. Think about it though, the B10 tourney is a lot bigger deal to Indy than it is to Chgo. Also Indy is really set up for basketball tournaments - it is very convenient if you stay downtown. Last year we checked into our hotel, parked the car and didn't use our car until we checked out. Everything was within walking distance.

Having said all of that, I still liked Chgo. It is a lot easier drive and I'm a lot more familiar - we lived there 4 y.
 

Damn, I won't be getting into Indy until Friday morning.
 

Friend Of Tubby said:
There is no such thing as $55 cab ride from hotel to United Center.
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Yes, I meant $15 cab ride. Amazingly, I typed it wrong TWICE! lol.

Point for me is I didn't have to get a cab at all at Indy and all of the "action" was right there within a 10-12 block radius and everyone was there for the same reason - Big Ten basketball. It was great seeing fans from other schools, etc., around town. My experience in Chicago had none of that. Again, others may have had better experiences in Chicago and my trip involved a Gopher one-and-done, so I didn't enjoy that much. And, I'm a big fan of visiting Chicago, just didn't enjoy my BTT trip years ago.
 

tjgopher said:
I prefer the Indy location. If you stay downtown then you can walk to everything, mingle with the fans from other teams, the entire downtown knows it is BTT time and prepares and hosts it that way, etc. And, for a city of its size, downtown Indy has great food choices and things to do. It is a great weekend.

At Chicago, you get lost in the shuffle, rarely do others in your hotel even know there's a basketball tourney in town, you take a $55 cab ride out to the United Center in the middle of a terrible neighborhood, and take a $55 cab ride back to the hotel. In fairness, I've only been to one BTT in Chicago years ago and we were one-and-done, so I didn't like the experience at all.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to go to Indy this year.
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I know we've debated this many times but, I HATE Indy as a location. I like Conseco better than the United Center, but that's where it ends. Chicago is a better venue for a number of reasons:

1. Because I don't like to take vacation days to drive, Chicago is a 6-7 hour drive, Indy is much further.
2. I just had a tracker pop up for $95 roundtrip flights to Chicago, I've never seen anything close for Indy
3. Hotels DT Indy are a boatload of money, unless you book 6 months ahead like I did. As I mentioned the one hotel DT I saw was $299/night (P.S. My hotel has been taken by a poster, so it's off the market)
4. The city just isn't big enough. I'm sure it's fine for the BTT, but for the Final Four, every restaurant was booked, plus it's full of chains, which I hate.
5. So, when you have to stay in Southport to get the only hotels under $150 night, your cab fare actually is $30-40...making the trip, flight, car rental, hotel, etc...way too expensive for the BTT.
6. I'd guess 99/100 people know someone that lives in Chicago, if you don't, you should really make more friends. I have a choice of a number of places to stay, for free, for the weekend.

It's cheaper, closer, better food, easier, and just a better location. I would probably go just about every year if it was in Chicago. Did I mention what a better location Chicago is rather than Indy?
 

GopherLady said:
I know we've debated this many times but, I HATE Indy as a location. I like Conseco better than the United Center, but that's where it ends. Chicago is a better venue for a number of reasons:

1. Because I don't like to take vacation days to drive, Chicago is a 6-7 hour drive, Indy is much further.
2. I just had a tracker pop up for $95 roundtrip flights to Chicago, I've never seen anything close for Indy
3. Hotels DT Indy are a boatload of money, unless you book 6 months ahead like I did. As I mentioned the one hotel DT I saw was $299/night (P.S. My hotel has been taken by a poster, so it's off the market)
4. The city just isn't big enough. I'm sure it's fine for the BTT, but for the Final Four, every restaurant was booked, plus it's full of chains, which I hate.
5. So, when you have to stay in Southport to get the only hotels under $150 night, your cab fare actually is $30-40...making the trip, flight, car rental, hotel, etc...way too expensive for the BTT.
6. I'd guess 99/100 people know someone that lives in Chicago, if you don't, you should really make more friends. I have a choice of a number of places to stay, for free, for the weekend.

It's cheaper, closer, better food, easier, and just a better location. I would probably go just about every year if it was in Chicago. Did I mention what a better location Chicago is rather than Indy?
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Just curious, have you been to the BTT in Indy?

I understand the financial part of it and for that I can't argue about which is better. But, all things being equal (taking costs out of it) - Indy is a far better host city, IMO. The BTT takes over the town, which is great. I'm all about the hoops and hospitality and atmosphere. In Chicago - none of that (in my experience). Heck, the year I went in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune hardly even covered it (literally 4 sentences about the Gopher loss). Last year, the tourney was front page of the front page of the Indy paper with a 4-5 page spread in between.

I think food in Indy is underrated. Sure, there are some chain restaurants, but they aren't the usual chains. Off the top of my head I can recall one of the best steak houses I've ever eaten at - St. Elmo (I think that was the name), there was a great sports bar called Coaches, a Spaghetti Factory, Buca Italian, Weber Steakhouse, PF Changs, Champs Sports Bar, and if you're on a budget there was a food court at the mall and a Steak and Shake. All of this within 3-4 blocks of the hotel we stayed in, which was about 8 blocks from Conseco Fieldhouse.

Again, I sympathize with the financial aspect, but the actual "tourney experience" was better in Indy for me. I stayed downtown and that was definitely the key. I think our room was about $150/night, but we had three guys splitting it.

Interesting that it appears I'm in the strong minority here, but our "Chicago mafia" groupies are killing Indy:)
 

GopherLady and I have been to the Final Four in Indy. I have also been to the Big Ten Tournament in Indy.

Yes, the city goes all out. However, the hotel situation sucks, the cabs are non-existent (we shot hoops til 4:30 AM at the NCAA Hall of Fame until we stole a cab somebody had called into the hotel).

The restaurants suck, the bars suck.

Some of us don't need a 24/7 basketball weekend to have a good time.
 

In my opinion:

-United Center has better food than Conseco.
-I agree that Indy as a downtown provides a better weekend experience if your hotel is downtown. Walk to shops, restaurants, etc.
-Book your hotel 8 or 9 months in advance. We are paying $90/night. Flight is direct for $219 total.
-Chicago is closer. But doesn't Indy need the tourism dollars? Come on. Who travels to Indiana?
 

NateDawgUM said:
the cabs are non-existent
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Get a hotel downtown - you don't need a cab.


NateDawgUM said:
The restaurants suck, the bars suck.
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Get a hotel downtown - all kinds of great bars and restaurants. That's one thing downtown Indy has going for it even when there's no hoops.

NateDawgUM said:
Some of us don't need a 24/7 basketball weekend to have a good time.
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Well, if that's case, then why even go? No need to waste your time on basketball when you can have a good time anyway. Save your money, drink at your home bar, watch on TV, and enjoy your weekend. The beauty of that is you can do it anytime. No being tied down to a meaningless date during a basketball tournament!
 

Comparing the restaurants in Indy to the restaurants in Chicago is like comparing the shopping in New York to the shopping in Des Moines.

I like to supplement my good time with basketball games. But I don't need everybody in my hotel to be going to a basketball game as well. Regardless, I live in Chicago so it would be a very cheap weekend for me.

Plus it's usually St. Patty's Day weekend in Chicago so there's a whole lot of fun going on.

Enjoy Indy.
 

At the risk of being attacked by everyone ... why hasn't the Big Ten ever considered Minneapolis? Would the MetroDome be a good venue for such a tournament?
 

MillionMoves said:
At the risk of being attacked by everyone ... why hasn't the Big Ten ever considered Minneapolis? Would the MetroDome be a good venue for such a tournament?
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I don't know and NO!!

Target Center would be the best bet. Downtown, lots of hotels, nightlife, lots of great food options and open late unlike Chicago and Indianapolis, plus a big airport. I don't know why they wouldn't other than it isn't as centralized as Chicago and Indianapolis.
 

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