The Sicatoka

If you check the details and look back to Dr. Kupchella's February 2002 position piece, a statement from UND on the subject was requested by a member of the legislature. That's why he (and UND) wrote it. As such, it would have been public domain information (sunshine laws).

I just realized something fundamental here: The point of what UND is looking at is an indoor training facility. The key there is training, not track. Track will benefit from it, but the goal is more than just track. NDSU has a track mindset. UND has a hockey mindset. To each their own. The question originally was "... The Division I Question? New Answer?" About the only thing more silly than discussing the merits of minutial details like banked 200m ovals versus flat 300m ovals (that include 80 yards of indoor practice field which would mean a modular 200m oval could be temporarily brought in and set up) to a UND fan at this juncture, under this question, would be trying to explain the merits of NHL width versus Olympic width ice for home hockey games to NDSU (no NCAA hockey at all) fans. What should be noteworthy here is what bisonguy posted, namely: I believe some folks wanted a story in something other than the hometown college press. Well, there it is.

Use of "MM" for million is pretty common in banking.

I'm pretty sure all CSTV sent to Grand Forks last year for Boston College at North Dakota hockey as the national game of the week was on-air guys. I believe they did their own production (which shots to show when) but used the normal arena camera crews. Having the built in capabilities allows for one other item that you guys brought up, and must be important because NDSU just did this with Bohl's show: having direct control over broadcast content.

Go back and look at what you first said: "all that is need is $40k for the compressors". Sure back in 199x. But you don't pay 199x prices in 200y. The ~$250,000 for ice in the dome was a gnat in terms of "sway" compared the $42 MM price tagged arena they wanted.

Hey WYO, you may want to change your signature line. The Bears in Greeley slept pretty peacefully the night of September 4. PS - I'm not saying UND doesn't have a dog bite right now.

Not completely true. The numbers folks were tossing around back in 2000 (the failed Fargo Arena vote era) were in the $250,000.00+ range.

I've pondered aloud here if it is possible. It looks to these eyes like south endzone seating could be added. (The Aurora ballroom and kitchen spaces limits the north end.) It probably couldn't go "full bowl" but maybe "four sides" (like Fargodome), but in this case "three sides". This is the pondering of someone else: Harmeson generally isn't the type of guy that would roll that out there unless he thought it possible.

Give Matt Greene an aluminum shaft stick.

Joe Albi in Spokane holds 28646. Woodward Field holds 6000. They have plans to expand it .... to 11000, or 2500 fewer seats than The Alerus Center today.

Womens hockey is up and running: Welcome to Season III and being the newest member of the Womens WCHA. Having Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio State (WWCHA members) coming in can't hurt attendance, nor will UM-D, SCSU, or MSU-Mankato. UND is actually in pretty good shape regarding Title IX. Adding womens hockey helped the numbers. As far as BSC sports, recently Portland State got an exemption (budget woes) from the mens and womens tennis requirement.

2002 season football seating capacities: Montana 18845 Montana St. 13500 Weber St. 17500 Idaho St. 12000 Portland St. 20000 Cal St. Sacramento 21195 Northern Ariz. 15300 Eastern Wash. 6000 Those are the latest stadium capacity numbers I have. I know Montana has gone close to 24000 seats since then. I don't know about the others. As far as "15000", Montana State and UND are in the same position. Idaho and Eastern Washington are worse off. Northern Arizona really isn't much better off than Montana State or UND. Having seats is one issue; filling them is quite another.

Bulldog: Since you seem to like Massey Ratings, what do you think of this? 10/09 at North Dakota (139 4-1 ) [ 23 14.0 -24.1] ** That "23" just right of the "[" means that Massey thinks you have a 23% chance of winning the game against UND. Massey expects a 24-14 UND victory. Thoughts? ** http://www.mratings.com/rate/team.php?tm=134349

General observations: - The Big Sky will do whatever it thinks it needs to do to protect .... itself. If that's forcing the hands of some schools, to ensure the BSC doesn't lose its autobids, that's what it'll do. - I'm almost forced to agree with 'bisonfan1234' about the 15000 requirement. Every "hard and fast" NCAA rule has always later been "amended". Look at the past attendance rule for example. Plus, conferences like the MAC are going to have problems if "15k" is held to. - Roger Thomas is already talking indoor training facility (see start of thread). I'm sure any school would much rather have the FB/BB/hockey facilities in order and then only have to worry about training space and indoor track. (PS - How hard would it be to put a modular 200m track into the Alerus for a meet? Better yet, would it fit into the Olympic Ice Arena at REA?) - The BSC doesn't give a rip about hockey. However, hockey is revenue-positive for UND. Hockey at UND gave it a great BB facility along the way. The BSC, as every conference, does care about budgets and facilities. Now a question: If BSC football was 12 teams, split into two divisions like the SEC, would the BSC be able to play a "conference championship" game before the DI-AA playoffs (and sell it for some television dollars)? What are the rules on that?

Like I said:

Quite. I've wondered why it hasn't stuck yet considering .... he-done perpetrated all over Peluso!

Pure "out there" speculation, some serious "pie in the sky" by me, and nothing more. The Mid-America Conference. Why? - About half of the MAC is going to have trouble hitting the new DI-A "average 15000 per home game" attendance figure. How that affects that conference is yet to be known. Will it split along attendance lines? Will it split into two halves for football (part I-A, part I-AA) to make it work (and not give up the BB rivalries)? - MAC members Miami of Ohio, Western Michigan, and Bowling Green all play DI hockey (CCHA) and would love the chance to get UND (WCHA) in there once-in-a-while even if it is non-conference. - The MAC may be looking for members now that Marshall is bolting. - Two of UND's comparables (for funding comparisons) with the State Board of Higher Education are MAC members (Ohio University, SUNY-Buffalo), so UND does compare well to some MAC schools. - Geography-wise, the center of the MAC closer to GF than the the center of the BSC is. Travel-wise it may be easier (NWA's hub in Detroit) to get to. Yeah, yeah, "out there", "unrealistic". I know. (There have to be schools in the MAC's existing geography that'd be much better fits.) But hey, it's all crazy speculating at this point anyway. We now return you to the previous BSC discussion.

To all the folks that want every UND thought process to go out as a press release to all the world's media, here's how the Big Sky does business: Seems like the Big Sky does business like UND: Quietly until it has studied things and thought them through.

Mike "The Perp" Prpich on a wicked, laser-like wrister from about the dot to the far top corner beating the goalie glove side.

I'm not a facilities expert, nor am I building it , but I'd guess a facility that could house a 300 meter track and 80 yards of turf could easily house the modular items that you mention (200 meter track, 55 meter dash).

The Fargo Forum article: http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...&section=sports Great picture from the arena center ice camera in the story.

What else should UND Athletics spend it on? They already - play in an indoor football stadium - have a brand new basketball and volleyball facilty - have an on-campus Olympic-sized hockey practice facility - have The Ralph. What is missing is the indoor training facility (for indoor track and for training space for outdoor sports like football, soccer, baseball, and softball). PS - "Best of the best". I like it.

The City of GF owns and operates the Alerus Center: the land, the building, all of it. Shouldn't the problems NDSU/Fargo/FargoDome are having (and there at least NDSU owns the land and leases it out) about locker rooms be enough of a red flag? Are you sure you just don't want UND to have such a facility?