82SiouxGuy

I may have misunderstood the timeframe. We talked about a lot of buildings on the tour. But it seemed like it was a pretty recent development. And they did mention tearing down old dorms that weren't needed because of the new one. But I am sure that they were talking about regular housing for enlisted people. The conversation was about how they wanted to make being in the military more appealing to the age group that would be in college. That's why they were making those dorms more like the newer college dorms. They also mentioned having more transient housing for people passing through or on temporary duty. The discussion on combining the 2 schools has been put on hold. They believe that the school population has come pretty close to bottoming out. They expect it to start climbing either next year or more probably the following year. As I said earlier, this is all on the schedule that was set up when it was decided that the tankers were leaving. This base may never have 10,000 people working on base again, but it should be a significant part of the region for many years to come. They have put in a lot of time and a great deal of money improving and modernizing the base. Many people think it has some of the best facilities in the Air Force. That being said, nothing is guaranteed, especially with the political and economic climate in the country today. The base could get a new tanker mission and also become a major UAV base. Or it could go away totally. Only time will tell.

Being in a conference with an AQ will make UND more appealing to athletes. Better athletes often leads to better teams. Better teams give a better performance. So there is at least an outside chance that just the fact that UND is joining the Big Sky will create a better product on the court/field. Most of those Big Sky schools that have poor attendance and weak athletic programs are less well-funded and in even less desireable places than UND and Grand Forks. The Big Sky isn't a guarantee that performance or attendance will improve, but it provides a great opportunity for both. And like Shawn said, there's even a chance that NDSU can make the playoffs.

Minot is 3 hours. Bismarck is 4 hours. The majority of the population of North Dakota is within 4 hours of Grand Forks. Minneapolis-St. Paul is less than 6 hours, even to the extreme SE corner. A lot of UND alums live in the Minneapolis area. There may be more than 4,000,000 people living within a 6 hour radius. There are plenty of people to fill the arenas if they get a product they want to see. Did you get enough attention as a child? You seem to be on this board quite a bit looking for attention.

People drive 4 to 6 hours to fill up a local hockey arena many times each year. And I'm pretty sure that a lot of people drive 4 to 6 hours to the Fargodome for games.

I'm pretty sure that Dish doesn't carry Fox College Sports. FSSN is only carried on cable systems, mainly Midcontinent, in the Dakotas and Minnesota. So the answer is no. But UND games are sometimes available on other stations.

Conventions bring in more money than football. There is a lot more to the Alerus Center than the arena part of the building. Football has a higher profit margin (they probably make more money for a single day). But it is only 5 or 6 games per year, plus some practice days if the weather is bad. They do more than 5 or 6 days of trade shows in a year. Conventions and other events bring in a lot more money throughout the year. And we already discussed moving back to Memorial, it is a bad idea that has no chance of happening. The only way UND moves out of the Alerus Center in the next couple of decades is if a new stadium ever gets built.

The Ralph was built to house UND hockey and other sports. It's main purpose is to support UND Athletics. That's why it is dominated by UND symbols and signs. The Alerus Center is owned by the city. It is used more than 300 days a year with hundreds of events taking place within the building. 5 or 6 of those are UND football games, plus UND uses it for some other events throughout the year. It will never be dominated by UND signage like the Ralph. They did add signage inside and outside. They have all of the banners hanging over the field. They have done a lot to make it more of a home field. But it is ridiculous to expect them to make the Alerus Center anything like the Ralph.

We got a tour of their facility while we were on base also. It seemed like a good location and a nice operation.

The tour was for a group from the community and was being given by the base commander and the person in charge of facilities, so I kind of think that they would know something. I'm pretty sure that the information I gave above is what they told us. They pointed at the building as we drove by and I remember the conversation about making the living style more like college so that it is more appealing than it had been. They also told us that they were replacing, or had recently replaced, some of the family housing on base. The reason was to modernize the facility. We didn't go up to see it but they pointed it out on a map during a presentation.

Playing in a real conference, with something to play for, will attract fans. If NDSU can get people to show up for a conference game against Indiana State or Western Illinois, why can't UND get fans to show up for Big Sky schools?

Now U of Mary is jumping to Division I and getting into a better conference than NDSU? That would cause a bit of a stir in the Southern Valley.

Forbert has played well so far, but he has a total of 6 games of experience so saying he is usually some of our best dmen might be stretching things just a little.

I was out there this summer for a tour and they pointed out a new residence building. It isn't exactly like the old dorms, they are going to living quarters more like newer dorms on college campuses. It sounded almost like suites with shared bathrooms instead of the rooms with a bunch of guys sleeping in them. They said that it replaced a couple of dorms that were torn down. They are making the base more like a college campus and less like an old fashioned military base. We were on a bus so I'm not sure exactly where the building is on base, but I believe it is north and west of the fitness center.

The seating capacity has been explained several times. The 12,283 number is the number of seats in the grandstand part of the building. It is listed on fightingsioux.com because that is the number of seats available to sell for football games. Those are the numbers that UND has available to sell to season ticket holders or the general public. The 13,500 number includes the suites. The number is more of an estimate because the number of tickets available in the suites is somewhat flexible. The suites aren't included in the available seating because the basic number of tickets for the suites are presold as part of the suite package. But as I said, exact numbers in the suites is flexible. Also, suite holders are the only ones able to purchase additional tickets in the suites. All suite tickets have to go through the Alerus Center since they control the suites. Standing room is not counted in the capacity numbers. Attendance numbers include all tickets issued for the game.

The process is exactly on schedule. Things like this don't happen overnight. The base has just about reached the projected low point. There are 4 tankers still on base, they will be gone by the first week of December. There are a little over 2,000 active duty airmen on base right now. The next mission will start moving in during February or March. The first actual UAV's should arrive this coming summer. Hangers are being renovated. Several of the buildings that have been torn down in recent years were because they needed to be replaced, and they have been replaced. For instance, they have a new residence building to replace the 2 dorms that were torn down. Millions of dollars have been spent upgrading the base. A brand new fire department building is currently being built, a new traffic control tower just opened in the past year or so. All of this could still be changed, But right now the prospects for the GFAFB are pretty good.

Very few of the students have shown up for the last couple of games. They will probably show up in pretty good numbers for Potato Bowl and Homecoming most years. Other games will be up and down depending on the year. I agree that they bring energy and excitement to the games and I wish they would show up more often.

I disagree to some extent. Winning is a much bigger factor. Win and they shall come. Loyalty is another large factor. I will keep my season tickets for the long term, no matter how they do on the field. I don't care how many other people show up. But there is a segment of the population that feel as you do. Many of those are bandwagon or front runner types. Some of them are just there to be seen (a complaint often heard about the Ralph). But you're right, some people will stop going if they don't think it is "the place to be".

Your comments about the students are basically what I've said several times when this topic has come up. And almost all attendance numbers for all athletic events reflect the number of tickets sold instead of bodies in the building. Tickets sold is the important number because it reflects revenue for the program.

They do give the money to charity, I just don't remember which one or how that's decided.

I would guess that a significant portion of that drop is from students. For several years the student section would be rather full at the beginning of just about every game. A lot of them wouldn't return after halftime, especially if the game wasn't going to be close. The last 2 years the student section has been almost empty for multiple games. The last 2 weeks there has probably been less than 100 students in the student section (not counting the band). So approximately 1/2 of that drop may be attributed to students.

Kelley has pretty much said that UND would just use North Dakota for at least 1 year. I haven't seen or heard whether he has made any commitment on anything past that. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get a new name in place for the first year of Big Sky competition, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they waited another year after that.

5 minute majors are supposed to be catastrophic. They don't want players doing those things. That's why they don't end if someone scores, you have to play a man down the whole 5 minutes. And even if you keep the other team off the scoreboard you continue to pay the rest of the game. It wears out your penalty killers. And it ruins your rotation, both because the penalty killers are tired and because you lose a player for the rest of the game. There are 2 simple rules to follow to prevent getting these 5 minute majors. If you can read the number on the back of the sweater, DON'T HIT HIM! And NEVER HIT SOMEONE IN THE HEAD! Even the NFL now has rules about hitting people in the head. UND isn't the only team getting these 5 minute majors, but people only notice when it happens to their team. The players just have to learn not to do those things and the number of penalties will decrease dramatically.

President Kelley has not formed the committe for the new name yet. Therefore they have not decided on the process that will be used. Kelley is concentrating his efforts on the process that will honorably retire the name. We don't know if a vote of some kind will be held or not, because that decision has not been made.

The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education, on behalf of the University of North Dakota, made a legal settlement with the NCAA that said UND would retire the Fighting Sioux nickname unless both the Stand Rock and Spirit Lake reservations agreed to let UND keep the name. The deadline of the settlement is November 30, 2010, meaning that the agreements with the tribes have to be done by that date. Actually, they would have to be done before that because the SBOHE would need to approve the agreements with the tribes. Standing Rock has not shown any indication that they will approve the use of the name. They have 23 days (actually less). The Summit offered an opinion, nothing more. Getting in the Big Sky Conference isn't going to change anything.

In the 4 games against Maine and Denver the opponents averaged over 30 shots on goal. That would be 2 shutouts. Duluth had 28 on Saturday night. There are 28 games left, including the exhibition against the Under 18 team. Eidsness will probably play about half of them if he starts playing better and that is plenty of time to improve his stats. And as long as he wins games, I don't really care if his save percentage is 90% or not.