The Sicatoka

Well, pro-Manke camp, please state your case today. Thank you. Why? Because I'm hoping for any kind of 4-quarter QB at UNO Saturday or UND is toast.

UND's press release

How do they pull off playing basketball in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse if domed football stadiums are too big? How do they pull off the "Gate City Theatre" in the Fargodome if it's too big? I'd think Taylor would love to play BB in Fargodome with the goal of 10000 fans per home game.

Who'll watch? Same kinds of folks that watch in Florence? Some locals and fans of the two contestants, right? That's the mode Florence is in now. At least in Grand Forks they won't be playing in rain and mud (whomever they are) and the visiting fans will find out about ND winter from under the Alerus Center roof: "You mean I can go to the game, stay in a hotel, send the kids to a waterpark, and go to a movie, and never have to go outside?" GF just wouldn't (hey, I'm a realist that way) win the bid to host without that total package. Even with it we're assuming GF will get the bid for 2007-2009. That's probably a big assumption in itself. (The Super Bowl has a pro-warm weather site bias; so will this game most likely.)

Belmore and Manke. Manke and Belmore. What's going to be interesting is if this conversation will be going on next year, for the #2 job, after this year's redshirt freshman Dan Freund comes out of fall camp as the #1 quarterback. Now I've gone and done it.

UND's average attendance for six home playoff games in The Al is 28% higher than the average of the attendance for the two national championship games they played in. (Note that the championship average is skewed up by the "back-to-back" following in 2003 from GVSU fans.) Also, UND's worst playoff gate at The Al is better than the two-game average. The numbers: Six playoff games at The Al: 6700 vs Winona State, 8222 vs Pittsburg State, 11696 vs UC-Davis 7160 vs Pittsburg State, 7944 vs Winona State, 9652 vs North Alabama Two title games (in Florence): 2001: 6113 2003: 7236 All that aside, I'd think the NCAA would want to change the venue every few years just to keep it fresh and new (and to try to get better bids). PS - What's been the attendance for playoff games in Fargodome?

From here: $75 MM project, $35 MM privately, so $40 MM publicly. Gee, $40 MM publicly financed for an 8000 seat arena in Fargo for hockey, er, basketball, I mean hockey, downtown, no, near campus, no, downtown. Is there a echo back to April of 2000? My prediction of what is next: - "We can't tear down those historic buildings." - "Maybe we have to put it closer to Fargodome (aka NDSU campus)." Takers?

Which branch of their Thought Police defines offensive words? That branch must have different standards than the branch that allows images that may offend some (i.e. pornography). Start hammering them with email asking them how much money they're willing to lose in this venture when people start going to other auction sites. (Remind them of the change in stance Barnes and Noble took when they saw how much they were going to lose.) And ask them if they are aware of this:

Shame on REA. Nobody ever raises prices.

(insert last line of PCM's signature here)

Hence why I had to Google it. A quick look at that film's credits shows this is what "Lenny Briscoe" did before he went to work for the NYPD on "Law and Order".

I just Googled that. You quoted a chick-flick! All your street-cred is gone.

I'm pretty sure that in the language of college athletics "game management" is what the rest of us would call "paying guarantees" to visiting teams to come and play. (Note: Those numbers were for UND's Athletic Department. The note was at the top of that page of the PDF.)

Tuition quadrupled? No. But how about back-to-back 16.5% increases? If scholarships cost $1 MM two years ago they cost $1.357 MM today. That's an extra $357k they have to generate every year from now on, and that assumes no further tuition increases. Mortgage? No. But they do have the bonds to build The Betty to pay off. Maybe that is a mortgage, sort of. The UND Athletics budget broke even in 2003-2004 (I found it in IAC notes.) Things didn't get cheaper, right? As far as REA, as part of the ownership restructuring last December (from the GF Herald):

NDSU saying they'd still play in the BSA or at the Fargodome and the Fargo mayor taking this position don't seem to initially bode well for the plan. Also, this doesn't have a good track record for arenas in Fargo lately (April 2000 vote: 63% against). It says they'd have to take down the current downtown fire station. Do they include the cost of building a new fire station in the $75 MM to do the project or would Fargo taxpayers have to pick that up in addition to the sales tax? But hey, Fargo really could use a good rink and retire that nightmare (Fargo Coliseum) where the FM Jets play. But why mention the USHL when they have an NAHL team now? Lots of questions.

Section 311 is reserved for General Admission. First shot at those seats is given to the visiting team's fans. Any unsold go out to the general public. Next, student tickets not picked up by students (Sections 307-310) each week are sold as General Admissions to the public on Thursday before the games. I ran through season ticket costs by FSC level a while back in a different discussion (link).

The 2001 loss was conference (UNO). Two in 2002 were conference games (SCSU, MSU-Mankato); the other 2002 loss was to Central Washington. Last home loss was to MSU-Mankato.

Yup.

In all seriousness, I do wish Bowenkamp would be kept busier in that role.

UND and the Alerus Center are thinking about bidding on hosting the DII football championship games in 2007, 2008, and 2009. http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/9963120.htm Interesting. A lot of "what ifs" could easily be put here.

Isn't that like being in a rock band and playing the cowbell?

2001: 9-1 at home (includes 3-0 playoffs). 2002: 3-3 at home. Last home game was win vs. USD. 2003: 9-0 at home (includes 3-0 playoffs). 2004: 5-0 so far (keep it up lads). Regular season at The Al: 20-4 (0.833) Playoff games at The Al: 6-0 (1.000) All games at The Al: 26-4 (0.867) More stats? Try the PDF press release in this link: http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/footba...RELEASE_ID=3227

And I'm not sure if you said it intentionally, but without the "bigs" all ESPN would care about would be the title games (not the tournaments).