Shooter: Minnesota, conceptually, has considered either renovating Williams Arena or building a new arena in the parking lots north of arena

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Zeppelin Gopher said:
And/or Mariucci. If we ever need to spend a season away from the Barn for renovation purposes, I'd hope for a split between Target Center and Mariucci.
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I've seen one photo of Mariucci with a basketball court. It looked super weird, but it might be better now with the smaller floor. That said, it might not be feasible to remove the ice that regularly.
 

disco said:
No we don't.

Why would Bob Dylan or Jam and Lewis do that?
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They are from Minnesota. I'd have to do some research to give you the why....but I'm not in charge at this point. Who are they friends with? What are they passionate about? What's important to them? I'm sure there is a hook....all that is necessary is to hire Chris Voss to be the pitch man... and the deals are done.

These guys and others like them all have money...giving back is important to them. Gratitude and legacy. We need to be able to present to them our need, our why as to why this is important to the state of Minnesota and future students.
 


disco said:
In one of the threads about this last year I talked about Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler, which is probably the closest arena to the Barn. It was seriously renovated in 2014 and the U could take some pointers.

My thought would be that they should look at doing the following:
Building a large food court lounge area with modern amenities, food areas/bars and new restrooms on the south side of the building. Possible some kind of atrium entrance like Xcel has.

Eliminate all the bench seats except the student section. Put in modern seating - nobody wants to sit on a wooden bench.

Eliminate piss troughs in the old mens rooms.

Convert the upper deck on the ends to some kind of either suites or party decks.

See if there's a way to get some natural light in at the top of the building.

And finally, PUT BACK THE DAMN FINAL FOUR AND BIG TEN CHAMP BANNERS.

This is Hinkle today:
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Agree totally. Oh and screw the Big Ten and NCAA if they object to re&anging those banners!
 

DarthGopher said:
Mountain Dew is my vice. And I'm not ashamed to say it.
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35 years later, I still remember my go-to dinner while studying in the CE building: a microwave burger from the vending machine and a fountain Dew from the other vending machine. Then they went ahead and changed to Coke and never went back.
 


60's Guy said:
They are from Minnesota. I'd have to do some research to give you the why....but I'm not in charge at this point. Who are they friends with? What are they passionate about? What's important to them? I'm sure there is a hook....all that is necessary is to hire Chris Voss to be the pitch man... and the deals are done.

These guys and others like them all have money...giving back is important to them. Gratitude and legacy. We need to be able to present to them our need, our why as to why this is important to the state of Minnesota and future students.
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Just because they are from Minnesota doesn't mean they care about Gopher sports at all. Especially Dylan who probably hasn't cared about the school since he left it in the 60s. Jimmy Jam moved to LA in 2005...

(and Terry Lewis is not from Minnesota FWIW)
 
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Dave H said:
Just because they are from Minnesota doesn't mean they care about Gopher sports at all. Especially Dylan who probably hasn't cared about the school since he left it in the 60s. Jimmy Jam moved to LA in 2005...

(and Terry Lewis is not from Minnesota FWIW)
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Yeah, it's typical provincial thinking that anyone who might have been born here or lived here should automatically want to have some sort of financial ties to the area. Pretty sure that Harris and Dylan both have legacies that will go on long after they're gone.

And if you think Dylan could headline a show at Huntington Bank stadium, you're really out of touch. He hasn't been good live in years, and he's basically unintelligible these days.
 

Bad Gopher said:
35 years later, I still remember my go-to dinner while studying in the CE building: a microwave burger from the vending machine and a fountain Dew from the other vending machine. Then they went ahead and changed to Coke and never went back.
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We had a machine by the ASCE student office where we stocked Dew. This was after the Coke changeover. It was off the radar so to speak because we used it for fundraising and supplied it ourselves. Students came from far and wide to the CivEng building to get their fix. Made some decent coin buying cases at Sam's Club to stock it. 😁
 



disco said:
I've seen one photo of Mariucci with a basketball court. It looked super weird, but it might be better now with the smaller floor. That said, it might not be feasible to remove the ice that regularly.
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Don’t think you actually remove the ice. You put rubber panels on top and then whatever on top of those. Chilled water flowing under ice keeps it frozen, regardless.

If you just put a bball floor on rubber panels on top of the ice and take the board down, it does look really bad. Particularly behind baskets. Godawful sight lines near the floor.

That’s why pro arenas that host both have these special extendable seats that get installed on top of the permanent hockey seating and extend out geometrically to fill up that space for basketball seating. Check it out next time you go to a Twolves game. The lower bowl the pitch of the seating suddenly becomes less steep, where that bball seating starts.


I don’t think the reno took the width all the way down to NHL size, so they’d probably have to be custom made and who knows if they could be sold after. Or maybe you keep them around for use occasionally and just store them.
 

DarthGopher said:
We had a machine by the ASCE student office where we stocked Dew. This was after the Coke changeover. It was off the radar so to speak because we used it for fundraising and supplied it ourselves. Students came from far and wide to the CivEng building to get their fix. Made some decent coin buying cases at Sam's Club to stock it. 😁
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Well, criminy; what years were those?
 

Bad Gopher said:
Well, criminy; what years were those?
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The main years were '95 - '97. I arrived in '93 but wasn't much involved in ASCE until my later years.

I wasn't the procurement specialist for the Dew, so I *think* it was Sam's (or maybe when Cub had a sale), but I helped load that puppy from time to time. It wasn't an official campus machine, so I believe that is how we stayed off radar from the Coke Enforcement Squad. It might have even been a Coca Cola-skinned machine with a slot for the enemy beverage. :)
 

MplsGopher said:
Don’t think you actually remove the ice. You put rubber panels on top and then whatever on top of those. Chilled water flowing under ice keeps it frozen, regardless.

If you just put a bball floor on rubber panels on top of the ice and take the board down, it does look really bad. Particularly behind baskets. Godawful sight lines near the floor.

That’s why pro arenas that host both have these special extendable seats that get installed on top of the permanent hockey seating and extend out geometrically to fill up that space for basketball seating. Check it out next time you go to a Twolves game. The lower bowl the pitch of the seating suddenly becomes less steep, where that bball seating starts.


I don’t think the reno took the width all the way down to NHL size, so they’d probably have to be custom made and who knows if they could be sold after. Or maybe you keep them around for use occasionally and just store them.
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DarthGopher said:
The main years were '95 - '97. I arrived in '93 but wasn't much involved in ASCE until my later years.

I wasn't the procurement specialist for the Dew, so I *think* it was Sam's (or maybe when Cub had a sale), but I helped load that puppy from time to time. It wasn't an official campus machine, so I believe that is how we stayed off radar from the Coke Enforcement Squad. It might have even been a Coca Cola-skinned machine with a slot for the enemy beverage. :)
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OK, I graduated in '89, and I don't think there was any such operation when I was there. I don't remember exactly, but I'd guess the Coke takeover was in '88 or '89.
 

DarthGopher said:
The main years were '95 - '97. I arrived in '93 but wasn't much involved in ASCE until my later years.

I wasn't the procurement specialist for the Dew, so I *think* it was Sam's (or maybe when Cub had a sale), but I helped load that puppy from time to time. It wasn't an official campus machine, so I believe that is how we stayed off radar from the Coke Enforcement Squad. It might have even been a Coca Cola-skinned machine with a slot for the enemy beverage. :)
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It's no wonder Jan Gangelhoff slipped through the cracks...
 

disco said:
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I assume this is more an attempt to refute that ice doesn’t need to be removed? I know it does not, at other venues that host both. Maybe it does for some special reason at Mariucci, but don’t see why. That they did it here in this one anecdote doesn’t mean they need to.
 



MplsGopher said:
I assume this is more an attempt to refute that ice doesn’t need to be removed? I know it does not, at other venues that host both. Maybe it does for some special reason at Mariucci, but don’t see why. That they did it here in this one anecdote doesn’t mean they need to.
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Not at all. It was just to show how silly a basketball court looked at Mariucci (pre renovation of course)
 


disco said:
And if you think Dylan could headline a show at Huntington Bank stadium, you're really out of touch. He hasn't been good live in years, and he's basically unintelligible these days.
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LOL.
Dylan toured this fall and the entire tour sold out within hours. He actually added shows due to demand.
Reviews were universally great.

A Dylan concert at Huntington Bank would be huge. It would absolutely make money.
 
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disco said:
Yeah, it's typical provincial thinking that anyone who might have been born here or lived here should automatically want to have some sort of financial ties to the area. Pretty sure that Harris and Dylan both have legacies that will go on long after they're gone.

And if you think Dylan could headline a show at Huntington Bank stadium, you're really out of touch. He hasn't been good live in years, and he's basically unintelligible these days.
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Well, Dylan did 30 concerts in October and November of 2023....so somebody must disagree.
You are right....you have ALL the reasons something will never work. Obviously, you would never even endorse doing the research to figure out why they would say yes. And more obviously you'd never even attempt to ask. So, you are right as always....they ain't coming.
If you got all huffy and did ask and they said yes....you'd talk them out of it because it wouldn't work....in your negative mindset.
 

disco said:
Not at all. It was just to show how silly a basketball court looked at Mariucci (pre renovation of course)
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I went to the a high school tournament hoops game at Mariucci in....2006 I want to say? Remember the floor looking terrible with that setup at that time too.

Can't recall why Mariucci was hosting basketball that year though...
 

Could have used a new stadium the last few years...especially one built with recliners so when the game got boring, which was quite often, one could sit back, relax, and maybe take a nap.
 


USAF said:
LOL.
Dylan toured this fall and the entire tour sold out with hours. He actually added shows.
Reviews were universally great.

A Dylan concert at Huntington Bank would be huge.
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I've seen him here in town three times. State Fair, Xcel, and Midway.
Each time, he was beyond awful, and I'm a fan.

What I've heard from people who have seen multiple shows on a tour, is that he will often play better in other markets than he will here in Minnesota for whatever reason. I don't know if this is true.
 


Dave H said:
The best way to get your fanbase younger is to beg for a concert from Bob Dylan.
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Well, 60's guy seems to think that Harvey Mackay and Sid will be glad-handing CEO's to get an arena built as if this is 1965 or something.

I'm 51. Dylan was literally my late father's generation of music.
 

disco said:
Not at all. It was just to show how silly a basketball court looked at Mariucci (pre renovation of course)
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With the renovation, Mariucci is now 200 x 100 and the Kohl Center is 200 x 97 (they're now renovating that to shorten it). Somehow, the Badgers make it work.

Since the Kohl Center is used for both hockey and basketball permanently, it's entirely possible the stands and other equipment needed to make it work well are different than what the U might use for one or two seasons -- or a four-day state tournament. But this can be done.
 

Hates Monikers said:
With the renovation, Mariucci is now 200 x 100 and the Kohl Center is 200 x 97 (they're now renovating that to shorten it). Somehow, the Badgers make it work.

Since the Kohl Center is used for both hockey and basketball permanently, it's entirely possible the stands and other equipment needed to make it work well are different than what the U might use for one or two seasons -- or a four-day state tournament. But this can be done.
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Mariucci was 200 x 100 it is now 200 x 93.
 

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